Intentional and Symptomatic Readings on “the Yellow Wallpaper”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, The Yellow Wallpaper, portrays the life and mind of a woman suffering from post-partum depression in the late eighteenth century. Gilman uses setting to strengthen the impact of her story by allowing the distant country mansion symbolize the loneliness of her narrator, Jane. Gilman also uses flat characters to enhance the depth of Jane’s thoughts; however, Gilman’s use of narrative technique impacts her story the most. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses interior monologue to add impact to Jane’s progression into insanity, to add insight into the relationships in the story, and to increase the depth of Jane’s connection with the yellow wallpaper it self.

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a first-person narration of madness experienced by an unnamed woman in the Victorian era. The madness is exposed through a “nervous condition” diagnosed by the writer’s husband, a physician, who believes the only cure is prohibiting all intellectual thought and to remain in solitude for a “rest-cure”. The act of confinement propels the narrator into an internal spiral of defiance against patriarchal discourse. Through characterization and symbolism, “The Yellow Wallpaper” exhibits an inventive parallel between the narrator’s mental deterioration and her internal struggle to break free from female oppression imposed on her through her husband and society.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman aptly used narrative voice to shape the meaning of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by writing a first-person narrative about a woman who slowly loses herself to madness. This voice is one of a woman who may possibly have post-partum depression or some other form of manic depression, and her unheard cries for help. She slowly draws within herself, and allows the insanity to take over. Within the first few paragraphs we learn general characteristics about the narrator: she is middle class, as indicated by the phrase “mere ordinary people” (354); we also learn that she is married, suggested a statement about John laughing at her, something she says is only expected in marriage. Though we are never given her name, these generic aspects just might be more important to the progression of the story than her actual identity or personal history.

“It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise,

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.

John’s views as a doctor forbid any type of activity, because he feels it will only worsen her fragile condition. She says, “So I take phosphates or phosphites- whichever it is- and tonics, and air and exercise, and journeys, and am absolutely for bidden to ‘work’ until I am well again” (Gilman 221). But the narrator believes she would feel better if she could write because she does not believe it to be “work”. “Personally I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (Gilman 221). The narrator believes that writing would help her get better more than the rest cure. John addresses his wife as “‘little girl,’ and chooses the nursery rather than one of the adult bedrooms for his wife” (Griffin 11). The narrator has absolute no control over her own care, “she disagrees with her husband’s orders forbidding her to work, yet her opinion goes unrecognized.” (Griffin 11). He treats her like a weak, fragile child, which for the most part is what women were described as in that time period.

The geographical, physical, and historical settings in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" were more than the primary character could handle. The geography would lead to think she could enjoy the environment, but she chose not to. The physical setting showed us the reader just how grotesque and unbearable it would be to live a room in which the wallpaper to over the narrators mind. Lastly, we looked at how historically women were not allowed to speak their minds about how they felt. Maybe now that John has seen his wife go completely insane for himself he will finally seek extra attention for

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a woman who writes about personal experience, and in her short, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we learn exactly who our author is based on the language and communication that appears throughout the story. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a captivating tale, largely because the language and communication between characters translates to a feeling of near madness for the reader. The man, the dominant character in the story, has much to say about his wife’s mental condition and practically refuses to permit her feelings. Gilman explains how this story wasn’t made to drive people insane, but rather to save people from insanity. She realizes she has the power to create a powerful effect within literature and that is the thing that

Charlotte Gilman revealed that she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper in the purpose that “it was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (Gilman). The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story written in 1899, is still questioned and analyzed to this day, over one hundred years after it was first published. Although Gilman has formally explained her meaning behind the piece, this has not hampered the countless interpretations of the text made by readers and literary critics alike. The story is one which was quite unlike the literature of the time period, as it is one which questioned social constructs which existed for women and marriages which had not been extensively addressed in society.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman perfectly portrays a narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that has to hide her ideas and creativity to satisfy her husband. Female oppression was common in the time the story was written. The role of a woman was to cook, clean and attend to the children and listen to the head of the household which was the husband. The narrator herself believes she should be a great help to John, her husband, but becomes a burden to him. Her intellectuality is taken away every time John negates her feelings about her condition. She is pushed to hiding her emotions and opinions because they are not valued because of oppression. She can’t express herself openly leading to the repression of emotions. It leads to a battle within her causing

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there are many of literary techniques that illustrates the theme to express the story. Irony, imagery and symbolism are some literary devices that is presented among the story.  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband’s lack of acceptance and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The story appears to take place during a time where women were oppressed. Women were treated as if they were under one’s thumb in society during this period which is approximately the 19th century.

There are a number of explanations for the shocking ending of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The short story is the journal of a woman in the 1800s whose physician husband is treating her for an unknown illness at their summer home. By the end of the story, the narrator has completely lost her mind. When the evidence is analyzed, the psychology of both the narrator and her husband shows what the most logical interpretation of the story is. The narrator was not mentally ill at the beginning of the summer, but was driven insane both by the treatments prescribed to her by her husband and his behavior towards her.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a woman who writes about personal experience, and in her short “The Yellow Wallpaper” we learn exactly who our author is based off of the language and communication she shows us throughout the short. The Yellow Wallpaper is very captivating short, mainly because the language and communication between characters drives you crazy. The man, the dominant character in the story, has so much to say about his wife’s mental condition and almost refuses to let her feel how she does. Gilman explains how this story wasn’t made to drive people crazy but it was made to save people from being driven crazy. She knows that she has the power to make a difference within literature and

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a detailed account of the author’s battle with depression and mental illness. Gilman’s state of mental illness and delusion is portrayed in this narrative essay. Through her account of this debilitating illness, the reader is able to relate her behavior and thoughts to that of an insane patient in an asylum. She exhibits the same type of thought processes and behaviors that are characteristic of this kind of person. In addition, she is constantly treated by those surrounding her as if she were actually in some form of mental hospital.

In this story, the author uses many different literary devices to express the ongoing theme of feminism and the oppression of women. During the Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman develops a narrator to achieve her goal who once revealed her feelings but is also recumbent to decrease her own evaluation. She also develops a not trustworthy narrator, which allows her to conduct serval different emotions as her charter mood develops. This allows Gilman to put her two theories about her main character; either one is insane or one is having discomfort from these feelings of oppression. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman perfectly use of symbolism, conflict, and setting presents her theme of feminist suppression.