Summary Of ' The Yellow Wallpaper ' By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the setting is very symbolic when analyzing the different the meanings of this book. The main character in the story is sick with nervous depression. In the story, John, her husband, and also a physician, takes his wife to a house in the middle of the summer and confines her to one room in hopes of perfect rest for her. As the story progresses, it is made clear that confinement, sanity, insanity, and freedom are all tied together and used to make the setting of the story symbolic.

This gothic horror tale of nineteenth century fiction, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892; during a time that women writers were starting to come out and write about key issues in their treatment. She craftily sets up or spins the story with a setting of isolation and a character who feels trapped, by a husband who chooses not to know her; yet does not listen to her and keeps her trapped on an island, all in her best interest. The tone is filled with desperation, sarcasm, anger, and shows that though she is mentally unstable there is intelligence behind her instability that is kept unseen. The main symbol is the wallpaper which is a constant bane to her.

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

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Gilmans is a short story narrated by a woman who is suffering from depression soon after giving birth. The narrator’s husband is a physician who asserts that he knows what is best for his wife’s health and betterment. As the antagonist in the story he brings his wife to a secluded house with strict orders to rest and recuperate, keeping her away from society, physical exertion, and the writing that is her one true form of expression. Ironically, the narrator being placed into this environment only serves as a reminder and catalyst for her “nervous depression” and “slight hysterical tendencies” (473). Throughout the short story you see constant references in this environment to the inner turmoil of the protagonist until the narrator and her surroundings seem to become one and the same. The setting of “The Yellow Wallpaper” not only plays a crucial role in the development of the protagonist, but also acts as a mirror to the narrator’s mental and physical entrapment. As the short story is told first person the reader gets a unique view of the narrator’s description of her surroundings and slow decline into insanity.

Despite living in a confined room, the narrator of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” finds a way to break free, become an entirely new person, and explore the evils and unfairness holding her back in society. This demonstrates that those who are oppressed can overcome their oppressors but cannot belong in the same structure after realizing the negative impact on not only themselves, but also on society as a whole. The narrator is forced to suppress her true feelings until she violently overcomes her unjust treatment and cannot return to the compromised structure. Her treatment is directly affiliated with her femininity and she chooses to abandon all aspects of her gender, gender roles, and expectations to lose her past self and reject the patriarchal influences on society.

Imagine being waited on hand and foot in a mansion, yet removed from society, your own baby and any work that arouses your mind. Such is the life of the wife in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, whose husband diagnoses her with a temporary nervous depression and leaves her to his improper care which includes isolation, lots of medication and a strict suspension of mental stimulation. The short story reflects the excessive power of men over their wives during the nineteenth century, while challenging the patriarchal conditions in unconventional manners. Despite her husband’s positive intentions, his remedies become the conditions that drive her completely insane. Despite the irrationality of the narrator’s insanity to others,

Women have been devalued by men for as long as people can remember. In the past, when men were off at war, women had to work jobs and keep business functioning routinely. Filling in the gaps the men left to go off to combat was no trouble for women, but as soon as the men returned, the women had to return to the kitchen. Women are the inferior option, the substitute if the male species were to be wiped out. Women aren’t acknowledged for all they are, nor are they given the same opportunities as men. In the story, “What if Shakespeare had a sister”, Virginia Woolf discusses how incompetently women were regarded in society. Women were dispossessed of all their rights, being nothing more than a housewife, being restricted of their potential. In, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a narrative of a woman being trapped and living in a patriarchal world. In the sonnet “Quincenanera” Judith Ortiz Cofer, discusses a girl growing into a woman who knows she will be treated miserably by society. As portrayed in all these stories, a theme of women being deprived of their rights. Gilman and Cofer both defend Woolf’s assertions about the contradiction of women’s depiction compared to real life because of the expectations of reproductive work, devaluation, repercussions of women being denied of their true freedom, and sexism.

This paper manages Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “ The Yellow Wallpaper,” with regard to interaction between gender and family appearance in the explorations of space and home life at the turn of the most recent century. The general theoretical structure will likewise consider Gilman’s own particular viewpoints on changes and her required another part of ladies in a market- arranged society, as she connects them in her various studies in human science and social history. The point is to give an understanding of gender differences by considering the geographical setting inside which they happen.

Mental illness is a pressing condition that requires a doctor’s acceptance and understanding to be treated. One must respect the disorder and be aware of its side effects and characteristics in order to comprehend what is happening to the affected individual. In today’s society, most people are accepting of people’s handicaps and take into consideration their limits, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people were unaccepting of impairments and were quick to misjudge individuals leading them to be wrongly diagnosed. No piece of American literature better demonstrates this concern than Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman uses her background filled with her own struggles with mental illness and

In most stories, the narrator talks about present or past events that are undoubtedly true and the narrator just stating the facts and not offering his or her perspective. In this case, there is no need to question the narrator’s credibility. However, other narrators may state some facts, but in the end, it all comes to his or her perspective. And as we all now, there are two sides to every story, so can we really believe the narrator’s perspective? This is exactly the question all readers of “The Yellow Wallpaper” ask themselves.

“Aesthetically disorganized and confusing, its frenzied design representing a break from the straightforward, instructional acclimated patterns”: the trademarks of yellow journalism (*****). The increasingly dominating war for customers between newspapers employed sensational writing, consisting of inaccurate journalism, printed on cheap yellow paper, coining the term ‘Yellow Journalism’ in 1896. Although yellow journalism not yet proper terminology during Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s publishing of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, sensational writing was present during the story’s publication. Gilman was a literary author who opposed the increase of the sensational press that threatened her position as an author in its frequent personal attacks on her and its refusal to print non-sensational or serious writing. Similarly Gilman’s classic short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” recounts the plight of a woman

The role of women in society has been controversial for centuries if they should just stay at home, pursue a job, or have a greater purpose in society, but why not let women take the decision on what they want to do? In the 20th century during the World Wars, the relevance of women in society became more apparent and as a result suffrage movements and other gender equality movements took place. A famous advocate for women's right was Margaret Fuller who a wrote a book called Women in the Nineteenth Century is quoted as "What woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely, and unimpeded to unfold such powers as were given her when we left our common home." which stresses the importance of letting women do what they want and not be chained from the equal opportunities given to everyone by God.

The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was a journal style first person narrative. The female protagonist is also a writer who is struggling with her own identity. Gilman takes her readers on a journey of a woman controlled completely by her husband. Her husband was so controlling to the point that she has been imprisoned in a solitary room by his command. Gilman confirms the woman’s unimportance by not giving her a name, as she does to the other characters in the story.

The story, Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins, describes the role of woman in the traditional American society. Charlotte describes how women were confined to the traditional roles as mothers who underwent oppressive forces in the society. Charlotte also observes that women were regarded as mentally weak. As a result, they faced a lot of setbacks in their quest for recognition and better treatment. The perspective on the abilities and characteristics of women was a creation of the society to continue sabotaging their efforts for recognition. As depicted in the story, the scenery brought out by the wallpaper shows the experiences and aspirations of the traditional American women. The significance of the wallpaper in mapping the social classes