Symbolism In Rosalind Warren's Furniture Fight

Shortly after the passage above, there is another change in the mental state of the narrator. She begins to show symptoms of paranoia, another classic sign of schizophrenia. Speaking of how glad she is that her baby does not have to stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the narrator says "Of course I never mention it to them any more— I am too wise,— but I keep watch of it all the same" (Gilman 430). She again shows her mistrust of the people who are caring for her when she says "The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look" (Gilman 431). At one point she catches Jennie looking at the yellow wallpaper. She says "I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!" (Gilman 432). This kind of paranoia is a solid indicator that the narrator's psychological state is deteriorating towards schizophrenia.

Amelia’s caring response towards a furniture crazed Linda illustrates that in inescapable situations, it is common to hide true emotions on the inside. In fact, when forced into an argument between the two, Amelia is given a clear advantage due to her ability to separate her actual feelings and what she is saying on the surface. Growing up in a critical thinking family, she never discusses her issues openly because she knows that only underlying messages have any significance (Warren 72). With the realization that direct verbal confrontation in many cases does not reveal the truth, Amelia bottles up her true feelings out of pure instinct. Even when her stepmother makes a blind assumption that they’ve come to an agreement about the situation, the narrator knows better than to say what she’s truly thinking (72). Rather than create a hostile situation, Amelia diffuses it in a certain way that shelters herself from the aftermath of exposing her true feelings. When first describing her stepmother, she clearly states that starting a conversation with her is so painfully inescapable that “[her stepmother] won’t shut up until you run screaming from the room” (69) but she also acknowledges the fact that it is realistically never an option. At any given moment, it is clear that dealing with Linda’s obsession for furniture is an unavoidable nuisance, however, she makes the situation significantly more easily

“We don’t accept handouts form anyone” says Rose Mary Walls, the mother of Jeannette Walls. In the memoir The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls she describes events from her life from childhood to adulthood and how she overcame her struggles. She had to adjust to her family’s situation and comply with how her parents wanted her to act, which was to be independent. Walls’ memoir embodies the theme of being self-sufficient by illustrating scenes that take place in hers and her siblings life that demonstrate the need to become self-sufficient. Jeannette Walls has been learning how to be independent from a young age.

The problem is that the woman does not give herself enough credit to speak up for herself. This is slightly comparable to what many people go through today, in our society, with medical practitioners. Although one knows what makes him or her feel better, we most often will rely on the doctor's advice, instead, simply because of his or her authority. The woman is trying so hard to get better, and deep down she knows what she needs to do, but she is constantly being shut down by her husband and her own personal insecurities. The woman describes writing as "Such a relief" (Barnet 748) but because of John's constant observation of her as well as her low energy level she must direct her thoughts elsewhere. So she begins to daydream about the wallpaper. She imagines people,

As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.

The father’s way of dealing with his inner issues is reflected by the way he distracts himself with hobbies of the women he loves. This illustrates how a sudden tragedy can influence someone’s lifestyle. In fact, before his first wife passed away he showed a lot of interest in art and when she died he was lost and devastated ,” (…) after mom died, my sister and I used to worry about his living alone. And he was lonely.We knew that after putting in his usual twelve-hours workday, he would return to the empty house (...) then read medical journals until it was time to go to sleep.”(16). This implies that

Upon argument of the lovely quilts, Wangero feels that she is inclined to have them because they serve as good keepsakes. However, once informed by her mother that the quilts were already promised to Maggie, she argues that Maggie would never know the significance of the quilts, and that she fails to possess enough cultural understanding to own the quilts. She completely goes off of a tangent in disagreement with her mother about the promising f the quilts to Maggie. Dee feels her mother that, "[she] just doesn't understand," why she should have the quilts. Dee solidifies her argument with a modern and traditional understanding of the thematic cultural idea: "Your heritage," [Wangero] said. And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her and said, "You ought to try to make something of yourself too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live, you'd never know it." It is with this ideal that Wangero strongly demonstrates here surefire need to dominate the intellectually world, merely leaving her mother and sister in the dark. Education is of great significance in this ever changing

The fear of loosing the culture and heritage leads Dee back home. The possessions that she asks for are a small way to regain a portion of life she has forgotten. Dee does not accept the lifestyle that Mama and Maggie are living. ?You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It?s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still

Her relationship with her dad reaches a conflict when she accuses him of taking her money from her and Lori’s piggy bank, and when he denies it, they get frustrated with him and the conditions they’re living in. Although they’ve had good experiences with their dad, the support given by him starts to deteriorate and they are desperate to turn it around. Because of this, Lori claims that she will never get out of Welch with Jeannette thinking that “..if Lori never got out of Welch, neither would I” (229). Another example of the tense relationship between her dad was when he brought up plans of “The Glass Castle” once more when Jeannette was set on going to New York City. Her dad tries to bring back the plans that she had been excited about early in her childhood, but she overcomes the previous joy she had and is now realistic about outcome of The Glass Castle, saying that it will probably never be built (238). Her relationship with her mother has also been changed, with Jeannette being more conscious about what her mom is doing as she settled later in life in New York City with Jeannette telling her mom that she wants to change her life and make it better. Her mom immediately rejects this and states that she is fine and that Jeannette is the one that needs help since her values are all confused, which conflicts the relationship between them as they both feel that the other has

While the narrator recognizes the great care with which her husband is treating her she seems to constantly feel that she is being ungrateful. She calls herself out in her journal for being a “comparative burden” (Gilman) The room in which the narrator resides has a sturdy bed that is nailed to the floor. The narrator notes that there are bars on the windows and rings hooked into the wall. She wrongly assumes that this room was used as a nursery or gymnasium by the previous owners. As the reader, we are able to instill our own thoughts that this room was in fact built to house someone with a mental disorder. This begs the question of what the house really is, to contain such a room away from decent society.

Her marriage also causes her to lose control. Even within the one thing that is supposed to hold strong, she is alone. Her husband, leaving her on a daily basis to work, insists that she cannot write nor visit friends and family. Thus, he leaves her alone during the day to sit

Her loving husband, John, never takes her illness seriously. The reader has a front row seat of the narrator’s insanity voluminously growing. He has shown great patience with the recovery of his wife’s condition. However, the narrator is clear to the reader that she cannot be her true self with him. In the narrator’s eyes she feels he is completely oblivious to how she feels and could never understand her. If she did tell him that the yellow wallpaper vexed her as it does he would insist that she leave. She could not have this.

She has been trained to trust in her husband blindly and sees no other way. He calls her “little girl” (352) and “little goose” (349) and states “She will be as sick as she pleases!” (352) whenever she tries to express her issues. Instead of fighting for what she thinks will make her better she accepts it and keeps pushing her feelings aside, while he treats her like a child. We get an instant feel for her problem in the first page when she says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (pg 346). A woman shouldn’t expect her husband to laugh at her concerns. Even after briefly writing about her condition she remembers her husband telling her the very worst thing she can do is think about it and follows his instructions. This is when she begins to focus on the house instead of her problems and the obsession with the wallpaper starts. She has nothing else to think about alone in the home; they don’t even allow her to write, which she has to do in secret.

At the beginning of this same line, the girl tells what she does not like, "It seemed to me that work in the house was endless, dreary and peculiarly depressing."  She sees her mother's life and the work that she does and simply does not want to be a part of it.  She also outright says, "I hated the hot dark kitchen in summer; the green blinds and the flypapers, the same old oil table and wavy mirror and bumpy linoleum" (113).  The girl is showing her opposition to her assigned gender role.  She does not like working in the house or preparing comparing and contrasting of the father's world versus the mother's world.  The father's world is composed of outdoor work, fox farming, has no emotion, expresses freedom and identified by light.  The father's world is all about the death of animals.  So, there is no time for emotions.  This lack of emotions is also carried into the relationship between the girl and her father.  The girl says, My father did not talk to me unless it was about the job we were doing.  Whatever thoughts and stories my father had were private, and I was shy of him and would never ask him questions" (112).  The girl accepted this and considered it part of the attitude you have to have for this job.  The girl prefers her father's type of emotion rather than her mother's.  The girl describes her mother's emotions:

Her husband labels her as crazy and restricts her to a single room and forbids her to do most activities. Her husband demeans and belittles his wife’s condition by dismissing the severity of her depression. The Narrator has no say or control in her relationship. She has no control over the activities she’s allowed to do while in her room so she takes control of the only thing she can, her mind. She soon begins to imagine images within her room and within her wallpaper. The Narrator says, “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” because every day she now looks forward to helping the women behind the wallpaper escape. Now that Louise has complete control over her mind, she is beginning to taste freedom, even if she is destroying herself. Because John thinks he’s superior to his wife, he misjudges her condition and ends up making her condition worse by repressing her even