Summary: A Feminist Reading Of Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that portrays a mentally ill young woman. The story is illustrated in first person, narrated by the woman’s point of view. The woman suffers through a nervous depression, and is spending three months in a rented old mansion with her husband and family. Based on her descriptions of her stay, one can tell that she was being oppressed, treated unjustly like many women in this time period. She is oppressed through three connected things, her mental illness, the room in which she is staying, and her husband.

The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a perfect example of a story that needs to be re-analyzed from a feminist perspective. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in 1892 which was during the time period that feminists initially emerged and began fighting for women’s rights. This was also the time that women began trying to show their equality to men and proving that women could be just as useful outside the home as within. However, in literature, women were still being portrayed as weak, feeble-minded, and incapable of doing anything except for chores. Due to this information, “The Yellow Wallpaper” needs to be re-evaluated because of its set gender roles, its put-downs of women, and its blatant disregard

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a story of a mid-nineteenth century woman placed into isolation as her husband’s cure for her diagnosis. However, the tale presents a much deeper meaning when analyzed through its historical context, and when Gilman’s own connections to the plot are explored. Gilman’s short story exhibits the consequences of fixed gender norms in a male dominated society where women had little to no authority. Such restraint and denial of self expression resulted in the emotional suffering and loss of individuality in many women, much like the narrator in the story.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story around a woman who has a mental ailment however can't recuperate because of her husband's absence of conviction. The story seems to happen amid a period where women were mistreated. Women were dealt with as inferior individuals in society amid this time period. Charlotte Perkins Gilman precisely depicts the manner of thinking of the society amid the time period in which The Yellow Wallpaper is composed. Utilizing the parts of Feminist criticism, one can investigate The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman through the dialog through both the male and female perspective, and through the image found in the story.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story about women’s repression in the 19th century. This story shows an immense difference between men and women inside society. While the men are the one making the decisions and taking responsibility, women must accept their obligations. The protagonist is repressed and appear for the effect of the oppression of women in society. This effect is develop by the use of complex symbols such as, the room, the wallpaper, the window which facilitates her oppression as well as her self-expression. Charlotte Gilman writes from her own personal experiences and emanates a strong message about how males dominated society. Gilman uses her personal bout to with postpartum depression to generate a powerful fictional narrative which has broad implications for women. Women were considered weaker than men, which meant they had to adapt to the domestic sphere. Gilman wrote many other books about feminism, one of them is “Herland” which is about the assumptions of women’s roles in society. Gilman states that the meaning of her story extends beyond an isolated, individual situation. Women were treated as second class citizens. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the wallpaper symbolizes the narrator’s growing repression.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. Many of Gilman’s works are centered around a universal theme of feminism and equality. This particular tale combines standard elements of Gothic fiction with fresh clarity of that provides insight to Gilman’s feminist perspective. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator, Jane, is held captive by her husband and because of her captivity, ventures down the path of mental insanity. During this journey, Jane continues to tell herself that she eventually will get better, but this thought is what causes her to reach the brink of madness. Jane’s husband, John, attempts to cure his wife by imprisoning her in a nursery with horrendous wallpaper. Consequently, as a result

In the book the, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte P. Gilman uses the entire short story to illustrate how gender bias was huge a problem and how society looked upon women in the 1800s ; since it was predominantly a male dominate time when women had very little say so in anything that occurred. In the beginning of the text the narrator is forced to live inside a house that is supposedly “haunted” because the husband evaluated her as having a nervous depression “If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (130); which she completely disagree with “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is regarded as an important early work of American literature, voicing Feminism. Gilman’s short story depicts the negative attitudes of the 19th Century, geared towards the wellbeing of women. This story illustrates the negative effects of under stimulation on the narrator's mental health, driving her into a psychosis. With nothing present to “stimulate herself”, she (the narrator) becomes increasingly “obsessed” by the color and pattern of the wallpaper. Gilman utilizes literary imagery, delineating the narrator's mental break down.

Inaccessible from the mental prison of her husband’s planning, the protagonist of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the depiction of the struggles faced by a woman in seeking a freedom of thought. It is clear that this is a clarification on the state of women in late 1800s, and perhaps even the struggles of author with a culture run by men. In the beginning of 19th century, all the women around the world were bound to stay at home and give all of their attention to their husband and children. The narrator in the story cleverly uses symbolism that develops the theme of domination of the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper, and tells a story about a woman’s struggle against male-centric society.

Feminism is the push for woman’s rights considering their political, social and economic equality to men. The feminist movement of the 1960 's demonstrated how women demanded equal rights since they wanted to be included into the world around them not only as mothers and house wives but as a vital part society. Women realized there were more opportunities for them in the world rather than staying home cleaning and taking care of their children. Some women wanted to self-govern and be free from the control and influence of this patriarchal society. At this realization many woman took extreme measures to no longer live in the society they had once accepted and cherished and went against everything they once believed in to demonstrate their point. Kate Chopin 's The Awakening, “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's “The Yellow Wallpaper” expose their views on feminism and demonstrate the patriarchal society their stories were set in and reveals how cultural roles, subjectivity, and the psychological state of women at that time stood and changed.

In the late 1800s, women in literature were shown to be submissive to men. This is true for Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This story tells the tragic tale of a women’s plunge into depression and insanity. The narrator’s declining mental health is portrayed through the features of the house she is confined to. Her husband’s attempts to protect her are truly destroying her. The narrator of the story represents all women in this time. During this period, literature characterized women as being oppressed by society and men in their lives. Society believed women should only marry, have children, and tend to the household. Women were also supposed to be solely dependent on their husbands. This caused women to be in a prison of submission, because they lived in a male-dominated era.

Using Feminist Theory the reader can understand the meaning of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which is about how men oppress women. The author uses tone, diction and syntax to show the meaning. First off, the tone throughout the story changes from a light tone to a darker and depressed tone. At the beginning, the narrator says “You see he does not believe I am sick” which shows the reader how John did not have very much respect for his wife. Later on in the story John says “I could and would, but you really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know.” which shows that John is making decisions for her even though the narrator thinks that she has gotten worse or stayed the same. Both

“In 1973, a new publishing house with the brave name of The Feminist Press reprinted in a slim volume Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, first published in 1892 and out of print for half a century. This is a story about an unnamed female narrator and her slide into psychosis due to her feelings of oppression. The narrator, a writer by nature, is ordered by her husband to leave off all activity including congenial work. He has diagnosed her with a temporary nervous depression with slight hysterical tendencies and forbidden her to leave her attic nursery bedroom but for short periods of time. Forbidden to write, the narrator becomes obsessed with the room’s wallpaper, which at first she finds both repelling and intriguing, on its chaotic surface she eventually deciphers an imprisoned woman whom she attempts to liberate by crawling around and peeling the paper off the wall. This is a brilliant tale about a white, middle class woman driven mad by a patriarchy that she felt was

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story told from the perspective of a woman who’s believed to be “crazy”. The narrator believes that she is sick while her husband, John, believes her to just be suffering from a temporary nervous depression. The narrator’s condition worsens and she begins to see a woman moving from behind the yellow wallpaper in their bedroom. The wallpaper captures the narrator’s attention and initial drives her mad. Charlotte Gilman uses a lot of personal pieces into her short story, from her feministic views to her personal attributes. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written from a feminist and autobiographical standpoint and includes elements, like symbols and perspective that the reader can analyze in different ways.

The feminist movement began around 1948 to help fight for women's equality. Women fought to change societies perspective about the role they play. They wanted the right to vote, to obtain jobs that only men had work, equal wages, and they just wanted more for themselves. Women at the time were thought to be weaker and perceived as less intelligent than men. In "The Yellow Wall-Paper" written by Charlotte Gilman the short story reveals about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy.