'Hysteria In The Yellow Wallpaper'

"The story was wrenched out of Gilman 's own life, and is unique in the

It is difficult to discuss the meaning in this story without first examining the author’s own personal experience. “The Yellow Wallpaper” gives an account of a woman driven to madness as a result of the

The vivid descriptions in “The Yellow Wallpaper” help to bring the reader along in the narrators decent into a kind of psychosis. It starts mildly, with her describing the color of wallpaper as “repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 528). As more time passes she begins to see more things in the paper such as “a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes start at you,” and for it have “so much expression in an inanimate thing” (Gilman 592). As the pattern and descriptions get more twisted, we get visual clues of the madness that is slowly consuming the narrator. The color of the paper even begins to become a physical thing she can smell descried as, “creep[ing] all over the house...sulking...hiding...lying in wait for me…It gets into my hair” (Gilman 534). In the end we get a graphic visual representation of her full psychosis

Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely

The "Yellow Wall Paper "by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression. The setting of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the driving force in the story because it is the main factor that caused the narrator to go insane.

            “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an example of how stories and the symbolism to which they are related can influence the perspective of its readers and alternate their point of view. In the “Yellow Wall-Paper”, the unknown narrator gets so influenced by her surroundings that she starts showing signs of mental disorder, creating through many years several controversies on trying to find the real causes of her decease.

The female narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” almost immediately tells the readers that she is “sick.” Being a physician of high standing, her husband diagnosed her condition as a temporary nervous depression with a slight hysterical tendency. He was not able to consider a more severe underlying mental disease that can result to more problems and complications when left unchecked. In her journal, she stated that she does not agree with the diagnosis and has her suspicions that the medical treatment needed for this type of diagnosis will not treat her. Having the correct medical diagnosis is crucial because once formulated, it will dictate the therapeutic actions that will be taken to treat the medical condition. The Yellow Wallpaper’s narrator had post partum depression.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has

In this psychological tale we are introduced to a woman facing a mental illness in the late 1800’s writing secretly about essentially being belittled about her health by her husband, John, a doctor, who subjects her to bed rest and isolation to the real world to recover. Her words: “...John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” (page 2 of The Yellow Wall-Paper) struck with me. I understand the feeling of suddenly feeling useless, unproductive and sort of trapped in your own mind. As she loses touch with life outside of the house, she begins to obsess with the women she sees behind the yellow wallpaper of her bedroom. First, I believed the wallpaper to be a metaphor of her depression, “I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design [of the wallpaper].” (page 4 of The

Finally, “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses issues of mental illness and the medical treatment of women. While the narrator is clearly suffering from some kind of psychological distress at the beginning of the story, her mental state is worsened by her husband 's medical opinion that she confine herself to the house. The inadequacy of the patriarchial medical profession in treating women 's mental health is further indicated by the narrator 's fear of being sent to the famous Dr. Weir, proponent of the rest cure treatment.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells of the journey into insanity (brought on by postpartum depression?) of a physician’s wife. Persuaded by her husband that there is nothing wrong with her, only temporary nervous depression, a diagnosis that is confirmed by her brother( Gilman, 647). What is telling is that she suspects perhaps her husband John is the reason she does not get well faster. She and/or we are led to believe that they have rented a colonial mansion for the summer for her to get well. She is however isolated in a home three miles from the village and on an island. (Gilman, 648). She wants to stay in the downstairs room with roses and pretty things, but her husband insists on the room at the top of the house ostensibly because it has room for two beds. But the room’s description of barred windows and walls with rings and things in them (Gilman, 648) could leads the reader one to conclude that this is his own private asylum, and not “a nursery first and then a playroom and gymnasium” (Gilman, 648) as the woman believes. It is this room, and more precisely the wallpaper in the room

Most of us are familiar with the phrase, "a healthy body, a healthy mind," which communicates that a healthy body will more than surely lead to a sane mind. However, in Charlotte Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," we are presented with the idea that mental sanity is brought forth by exercising the mind; by articulating one self's thoughts and ideas without repressions or constraints, particularly when the mind is already flooded with troubles. The narrator starts off with a sane mind, yet troubled by anxiety, a product of the restraints her marriage and overall social gender norms of the time have caused. Pressured by these restraints, her imaginative and expressive nature suffer and soon begin to accumulate, overwhelming her

[Rough Draft] Critical Essay [Short Story] The yellow wallpaper [Thesis] In the following essay, Martello-Wramage argues the assumption that the narrator becomes hopelessly insane by the end of the story, the mistreatment she experienced by her husband slowly lead her into a nervous breakdown and that there are fine signs that point to narrator's behavior that indicate her mental breakdown was not insanity, but a sudden epiphany.

The selected sources have clarified the notion of an obvious distinction between the genders. These stereotypical divisions are present in societal roles, as well as in the literary world. Gilman has been segregated into a realm of a “women’s narrative” of hysteria and feminine emotion. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Herland both raise important criticisms of the collective perception of how women should behave and assimilate in a patriarchal society. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is great example of the historical context of hysteria, and it’s oppressive treatments imposed on women. Gilman’s work exposes hysteria as the result of a strict patriarchal society on women, rather than the result of their fragile and overemotional tendencies. While Herland

“The Yellow Wallpaper” provides an insight into the life of the narrator- a woman suppressed and unable to express herself because of her controlling husband- leading the reader down her fall to insanity, allowing for her inner conflict to be clearly expressed. The first person point of the view the author artfully uses and the symbolism present with the wallpaper cleverly depicts the inner conflict of the narrator, losing her own sanity due to the constraints of her current life. However, while it seems that the narrator in “ The Yellow Wallpaper” succumbed to her own insanity, the endless conflict within herself and her downward spiral to insanity is seen through a different light, as an inevitable path rather than a choice taken as the story develops.