Both Plath and Gilman chose to use their psychologically damaged protagonists as a vessel to reflect on the various struggles faced in their own personal lives, alongside the personal impact of the contextual pressures and demands of society. In the Victorian setting of The Yellow Wallpaper, a woman’s ultimate role in society was to be a wife and mother. In earlier centuries it would have been common for a woman to work alongside her husband or brothers in the family business. By living in apartments above the family ‘shop’ wives became able to assist with general shop work whilst also attending to their regular domestic duties. However as the nineteenth century progressed it became increasingly common for the husbands to acquire higher profile jobs in the city, which were unavailable …show more content…
Postpartum depression is a form of clinical depression that can affect both sexes after the birth of a child. Many women experience mild symptoms after childbirth, however postpartum depression should only be suspected if the symptoms are severe and have lasted longer than two weeks. The emotional effects of postpartum depression can include anxiety relating to caring for the child, a feeling of loss of control over life, sleep deprivation, and anxiety due to a lack of support from a romantic or sexual partner. Gilman’s protagonist clearly demonstrates several of these symptoms; When briefly discussing her child, the author uses the exclamatory sentence “Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous”, therefore exemplifying both the anxiety for taking care of the “dear
The yellow wall paper was written in the 1800’s during that time women were vastly expected to serve their husband as housewives, not given the right to vote, make decision for themselves, work and even make enough money to support themselves. The husband is a doctor, while the wife suffers from severe mental illness. This is a husband who loves his wife and taught he was doing what was right to get her in a stable condition but unfortunately he made her become crazier, due to lack of stimulation. The Yellow Wall Paper symbolizes slowly tearing the walls of freedom for women.
In the "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes her postpartum depression through the character of Jane. Jane was locked up for bed rest and was not able to go outside to help alleviate her nervous condition. Jane develops an attachment to the wallpaper and discovers a woman in the wallpaper. This shows that her physical treatment is only leading her to madness. The background of postpartum depression can be summarized by the symptoms of postpartum depression, the current treatment, and its prevention. Many people ask themselves what happens if postpartum depression gets really bad or what increases their chances. Jane's treatment can show what can happen if it is
Postpartum depression is a a form of severe depression after childbirth that interferes with daily functioning and requires treatment. In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman progressively shows the consequences of mental illness if it is not treated properly. At the beginning of the story, the narrator acknowledges her condition and has her own thoughts and opinions on how she will return to society in the future. By the middle of the story however, she begins to loss a sense of worth causing her to spend hours staring at nothing. Finally, at the end of the story she has completely lost her sense of self and her obsession with the yellow wallpaper overpowers her.
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.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the story of a woman suffering from post-partum depression, undergoing the sexist psychological treatments of mental health, that took place during the late nineteenth century. The narrator in Gilman’s story writes about being forced to do nothing, and how that she feels that is the worst possible treatment for her. In this particular scene, the narrator writes that she thinks normal work would do her some good, and that writing allows her to vent, and get across her ideas that no one seems to listen to. Gilman’s use of the rhetorical appeal pathos, first-person point of view, and forceful tone convey her message that confinement is not a good cure for mental health, and that writing,
The feeling of sadness and worthlessness occurs in the first month after childbirth. Mothers feels like that their are the only one to suffer of caring a child and no support from friends and family. Also, mothers have to rely mostly on their husband to do the work while the mother is resting with their baby. Gilman states, “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already”(66). This quote explain that the mother wants to help John, but she feels like she won’t be helpful to
The structure of the text, particularly evident in the author’s interactions with her husband, reveals the binary opposition between the façade of a middle-class woman living under the societal parameters of the Cult of Domesticity and the underlying suffering and dehumanization intrinsic to marriage and womanhood during the nineteenth century. While readers recognize the story for its troubling description of the way in which the yellow wallpaper morphs into a representation of the narrator’s insanity, the most interesting and telling component of the story lies apart from the wallpaper. “The Yellow Wallpaper” outwardly tells the story of a woman struggling with post-partum depression, but Charlotte Perkins Gilman snakes expressions of the true inequality faced within the daily lives of nineteenth century women throughout the story. Although the climax certainly surrounds the narrator’s overpowering obsession with the yellow wallpaper that covers the room to which her husband banished her for the summer, the moments that do not specifically concern the wallpaper or the narrator’s mania divulge a deeper and more powerful understanding of the torturous meaning of womanhood.
Short Stories normally address issues in society at the current time of the story which these issues sometime end up being timeless issues that still occur in the current time period. For instance, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman the story deals with the issue of postpartum depression in new mothers. While postpartum depression is still a very real and current topic in today’s society. Current society handles the issue differently than when the “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written. The difference in modern day and past society is contributed to the increasing knowledge of postpartum depression that has led to a new view for society, improved treatments, and a better approach for support from family. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Several analyses have been made of the book "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman mostly focusing on patriarchal society as the main source of narrator’s mental illness. However, less has depicted acknowledgement of legitimate biological causes of depression. Postpartum depression is often diagnosed in women especially new mothers. This is characterized by mood swings, crying spells, anxiety and difficulty in sleeping. Some women can experience long-lasting depression that can lead to postpartum psychosis. Symptoms of this psychosis may include; hallucinations, delusions, hyperactivity, paranoia, rapid mood swings, insomnia, unsupported feelings of worthlessness and even thoughts of death. In the modern society, postpartum psychosis is temporary and treatable with professional help. The paper analyses the possibilities of society induced depression and
The first time I read “The Yellow Wallpaper” I thought it was weird and confusing. My first impression about the narrator was that she was crazy. I did not understand why the narrator’s husband made her stay alone in a bedroom upstairs or why she was seeing people behind the wallpaper. However, I do know that she was trying to help them escape, but I am not sure why. I was also unaware of what was causing her to be crazy. I knew the narrator was suffering from postpartum depression, but I did not know what postpartum depression was. I was not sure how postpartum depression could affect someone or how someone could prevent it from occurring. I think “The Yellow Wallpaper” has two major themes. I think these important themes are the negative effects of the resting cure and the need for self-expression. Everyone, both men and women, needs to communicate and be actively involved in their everyday lives.
Mothers who have brought into this world a blessing have been preparing themselves for a big change in their life. They have been learning and educating themselves about how to be a good mother. Many mothers find it really hard to transition from being an independent woman without children to becoming a mother (Corrigan, Kwasky, & Groh, 2015). Adapting to motherhood can be a drastic change, and usually creates challenges that lead to feeling overwhelmed (Leger & Letourneau, 2015). When a newly mother begins experiencing stress or becomes emotional then there can be a possibility that they can encounter Postpartum Depression (Leger et al., 2015). Postpartum depression can be seen and experienced in many different ways, it all varies on every mother (Corrigan et al., 2015). Many different mental health issues can be seen including baby blues, postpartum depression, postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the most serious, postpartum psychosis (Tam & Leslie, 2001).
In “The Yellow wallpaper”, the wallpaper is a metaphor that expresses women’s protest against the repression of the society and their personal identity at the rise of feminism. During the Victorian era, women were kept down and kept in line by their married men and other men close to them. "The Yellow Wallpaper", written By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a tale of a woman, her mental difficulties and her husband’s so called therapeutic treatment ‘rest cure’ of her misery during the late 1800s. The tale starts out in the summer with a young woman and her husband travelling for the healing powers of being out from writing, which only appears to aggravate her condition. His delusion gets Jane (protagonist), trapped in a room, shut up in a bed making her go psychotic. As the tale opens, she begins to imagine a woman inside ‘the yellow wallpaper’.
Having a baby should be one of the happiest and most important events in a woman's life. However, although life with a new baby can be both thrilling and rewarding, it can also be a difficult and quite stressful task. Most women make the transition without great difficulty, yet some women experience considerable complexity that may manifest itself as a postpartum psychiatric disorder (O'hara, Hoffman, Philips, & Wright, 1992). Many physical and emotional changes can occur to a woman during the time of her pregnancy as well as following the birth of her child. These particular changes can leave a new mother feeling sad, anxious, afraid and confused. For many women, these feelings; which are
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, depression is “a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.” According to the definition of the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), postpartum depression “may include any nonpsychotic depressive disorder during the first four weeks of postpartum, according to research criteria during the first year after birth. The exact cause of postpartum depression is not yet known, and most researchers believe that postpartum depression is a bio-psycho-social problem. So far, the biological aspect of the disease is explained by changing the levels of estrogen and progesterone during pregnancy, and by decrease of hormone levels after birth. Psychological correlates are often associated with low self-esteem, pessimism as a personality trait, bad strategies of coping with stress, mood swings and emotional reactions. The social aspect of the disease is associated with the existential conditions of pregnant woman, support of partners and education level. Actually, ”it is estimated that on average 15% of women, regardless of the pregnancy outcome, are suffering from postpartum depression.”(Fazlagić. 2011,) In United States, postpartum
"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!” (Gilman). The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman challenges the thinking and perspective of the 19th century society. It provides readers a realistic view of women’s life and challenges back in the day as it points out issues regarding gender inequality and mental illnesses.