Imprisoned by Society in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Many intellectual artists, who are widely acclaimed for their literary work, live in a world characterized by “progressive insanity” (Gilman 20). Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one such individual. A writer during the early 20th century, Gilman suffered from bouts of deep depression, due part to her dissatisfaction with the limitations of her role as wife and mother. Her writing, particularly her famous story “The Yellow Wallpaper” reflects experiences from her personal life. In doing so, “she achieved some control over both her illness and her past” (Lane 128). Many people still admire the fact that Gilman wrote her piece “to save people from being driven crazy;” however, perhaps she

He even becomes upset when she wishes to write, causing this story to be "composed" of writings she manages to do in secret.  John places her in the attic of the mansion, like a dirty secret, in what she believes to be a former nursery.  There is, however, strong evidence that the narrator is not the first mental patient to occupy the room - there are bars on the windows and gouges in the floor and walls; the bed is bolted down and has been gnawed on and the wallpaper has been torn off in patches.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.

The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about control. In the late 1800's, women were looked upon as having no effect on society other than bearing children and keeping house. It was difficult for women to express themselves in a world dominated by males. The men held the jobs, the men held the knowledge, the men held the key to the lock known as society . . . or so they thought. The narrator in "The Wallpaper" is under this kind of control from her husband, John. Although most readers believe this story is about a woman who goes insane, it is actually about a woman’s quest for control of her life.

Additionally, the bed is immovable as it has been nailed to the floor.  It is

Traditionally, men have held the power in society. Women have been treated as a second class of citizens with neither the legal rights nor the respect of their male counterparts. Culture has contributed to these gender roles by conditioning women to accept their subordinate status while encouraging young men to lead and control. Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts one women’s struggle against the traditional female role into which society attempts to force her and the societal reaction

There are many factors that can create a theme in a short story. Most of the factors are the elements of fiction, which include plot, setting, characters, symbolism, conflict, and point of view. The two stories that will be compared in this essay are “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of the Hour” by Kate Chopin. The elements that especially contribute to creating a theme for these short stories are the characters, point of view, and plot.

Immediately in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” readers are able to tell that the protagonist feels trapped in the room, in which she is being placed. The female narrator also mentions to us that her husband “John is a physician, and perhaps –– (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind –– perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Stetson 1892, 129). That is to say, this statement clearly indicates that science triumphs over the fantasy of religion. Therefore, John intellectually dominates his wife as a result of this view and his gender. Throughout the story, readers are able to observe themes from “The Yellow Wallpaper,” such as powerlessness, patriarchy, and lack of independence. As a result, Gilman 's protagonist does not have a room of her own. Despite, the struggles that the narrator faces in the room, “it makes [her] think of English places that you read about” (Stetson 1892, 130). Basically, the narrator tries to make herself feel comfortable while she is in the room and she is also able to express herself on paper, although her husband, John insists that she should not. According to Gilman’s protagonist, “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal¬––having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Stetson 1892, 129). This statement explains that the narrator expresses a need for independence by removing herself from the

but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)-- perhaps that is

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist symbolizes the effect of the oppression of women in society in the Nineteenth Century. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author reveals the narrator is torn between hate and love, but emotion is difficult to determine. The effects are produced by the use of complex themes used in the story, which assisted her oppression and reflected on her self-expression.

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a young woman’s gradual descent into insanity due to her entrapment, both mentally and physically, in the restrictive cult of domesticity. Through the narrator’s creeping spiral into madness, Gilman seeks to shed light upon the torturous and constraining societal conditions in which women are expected to live, that permeates throughout all aspects of their lives. At first glance to an average reader unfamiliar with Gilman’s history, “The Yellow Wallpaper” seems to just provide a tale about the oppressive relationship between the man and the woman in a domestic environment, however, once Gilman’s own personal life is uncovered, the story takes on a new level of depth.

Clinical psychologist and writer, Kay Redfield Jamison once said, “I think one thing is that anybody who 's had to contend with mental illness - whether it 's depression, bipolar illness or severe anxiety, whatever - actually has a fair amount of resilience in the sense that they 've had to deal with suffering already, personal suffering.” In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator has severe depression, at the very least, and knows that she can get better if she is given the right treatment. While trying to get better, she can’t help but be fixated on the yellow wallpaper in her room. The yellow wallpaper in this story is a representation of the narrator’s relationship with her disease.

There are two similar stories that describe two particular women in a psychological condition one of the stories is called “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s and the other written by William Faulkner named “A Rose for Emily”. Both authors mention how both Jane (Yellow Wall-Paper) and Miss Emily (A Rose for Emily)are being oppressed by their husbands because the typical tradition forces their wife’s to stay home while they go to work. In the early eighteen and nineteen hundreds, females were expected to become dependent on men for their livelihood, which at the times lead to depression and hysteria of being a submissive female. The male characters were seen as being inferior between the women. Therefore, women could not be superior to a man, because they were seen intelligent, and were the ones who controlled every aspect of the women, as if they were property.

“You see he does not believe I am sick!” it is evident that she feels very

On the other hand, Gilman uses a big, beautiful house as a setting. Her character is trapped inside the "haunted house" despite the fact that she suffers from a mental illness. She is stuck in a vacation home that is "well back from the road, quite three miles from the village" (Gilman 182). The house makes her feel so strange that she cries all day, but not at night for her husband is there: "[she cries] at nothing, and [cries] most of the time" (Gilman186). She does not like her room a bit at first because of "the yellow wallpaper." She wants to get out and wishes "John would take [her] away from [that room]" (187). She is trapped in that room for three months until she gets herself out.