The Main Themes of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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 in the patriarchal Victorian Era were not given a significant role in society. They were often confined and belittled by their husbands and were thought to be inferior, in contrast to men. Many women were stripped away of their basic rights and were seen as their husband’s property, constantly being told what and what not to do, and were completely submissive not being able to break free from the abuse. In the short passage “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman goes in depth about the main character and her relationship with her husband John, his role as a husband during the Victorian period and how he mistreated the narrator. She was not able to express her true self and become an independent individual due to John being patronizing

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.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman does a remarkable job letting us get inside the head of her unnamed main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” giving us a taste of the female psyche, in particular showing how historically some women subject themselves to the control of men. Alternatively, Nick Hornby does something altogether similar with “High Fidelity”, introducing us to Rob Fleming, whose male psyche reveals, among other things, how men focus and base their success one expectations influenced by gender roles. In the paragraphs that follow, I will attempt to compare and contrast Gilman’s and Hornby’s findings regarding the male and female psyche. In particular, I hope to explore how gender divisions have vastly influenced society.

What if something as simple as a pattern could cause someone so much grief, attention and unwanted thoughts that it could eventually causes them to slowly go insane? In Charlotte Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" she uses the techniques of foreshadowing, personification, simile, and symbolism, in order to acknowledge how easily humans are convinced and influenced in their daily lives. One's own perspective on themselves can quickly be changed as they are exposed to different thoughts from others and objects that are disturbing, unwanted, and forced. These influences can cause a person to rethink everything they believe and take something else into consideration. It can cause someone to feel completely suffocated to the point

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story first published in 1892 that depicts a woman’s struggles against a heavily patriarchal society while dealing with post-partum depression. A feminist text generally points out deficiencies in society in regards to gender equality. This is seen throughout the story which makes it possible analyze the text with the use of feminist theory. The oppression that women endured during the 19th century is seen in this story through the actions of her husband as well as in the crumbling of the Narrators mental state.

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

Charlotte Perkins wrote the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. For this analysis paper, I am only going to mainly talk about three characters and they are as follows: the narrator (some call her Jane), John (a certified physician and the husband), and the narrator’s brother (also a physician). This story starts off with the narrator talking about the new transition she has made with her husband John into a new house. On the very first page, she begins to explain how she is sick but her husband John does not believe her. We learn that he is a physician that has prescribed the ‘rest cure’ for his wife. As the story continues, the wife’s mental state deteriorates, while her husband John persists that nothing is

The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, involves the reader by going through the horrifying stages of the principal character’s mental illness. Throughout the piece of writing, a major theme takes place, gender oppression. During this time period, society was male-driven. The primary character’s husband, John, is her primary caretaker/doctor. This one man controls her life, “I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me…” (Stetson). Her husband chooses her medication, her social standing, the activities she partakes in. He chooses everything. Contrary to what John believes, requiring his wife treatment is worsening her condition. “John is a physician, and perhaps - (I would not say it

I thought that “The Yellow Wallpaper” was a great piece because of its meaning and message. The messages that Charlotte Perkin Gilman portrays in the story are very powerful and, given the biographical background, are clearly derived from her own experiences as a woman during the 19th century. I felt empathy for the main character as her depression worsened and her mental state progressively declined. I felt like the main character felt very isolated and unheard. No one seemed to be able to understand her issues or could relate to the way she was feeling. Only in her journal could she express the feeling of oppression and loneliness that she had. I feel as though if her husband were to read her journal that he might also empathize with his

Numerous interpretations have been constructed on what the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” actually intends to portray to the reader; it has been analyzed by many scholars over the years. It was written in the nineteenth-century by Charlotte Perkins Gilman who was known to write about the dangers that existed with fixed gender roles along with the patriarchal model which ensured power for men. The males were to maintain the public sphere outside of the home, providing for the family and the women were to remain inside of the home keeping the domestic sphere. Notably, women portrayed the submissive role beneath the male-dominated society. The husband “John” is a doctor that takes his wife “the narrator” to a rental home to rehabilitate from her

Through consciousness, our minds have the power to change ourselves. It is within ourselves to discuss the emotions and the state of our mind, as the environment and our judgement can affect our mind, and alter the way we perceive things. As the mere things in our life can affect our judgement and the vulnerability of our minds - our minds are more powerful than we perceive them to be; causing us not to tend to the “garden” and destroy it. The Yellow Wallpaper, a story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in which is shown as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by an anonymous woman. The story is showcased through a series of journal entries from a woman who has been confined to a room by her husband that is a physician,

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman focuses on the oppression of women in the 19th century. The story introduces us into the awareness of a woman who is slowly going insane over the course of the summer. She recently just gave birth to a baby and is most likely suffering from some type of depression. Analyzing this story, we see the frustrations of women during The Victorian era. Women were manipulated into certain stereotypes as a wife and mother. Gilman’s "The Yellow Wallpaper” analyses the question is “Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s real life experiences are reflected in her short story”? “The Yellow Wallpaper” examines the theme of

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a semi-autobiographical novel. A lot of episodes come from the author's real life in the book. “The Yellow Wallpaper” adopts the first person "I" to reveal a knowledge female’s tragic fate in a social situation to us. In order to break the bondage of family and seek self personality liberation, the heroine fell into the plight of schizophrenia.

The Yellow Wallpaper, written by the famous Charlotte Perkins, is a captivating short story published in 1892 that presents the story from the perspective of the narrator. This story is quite fascinating and readers may easily view it from different perspectives. For example, some readers may interpret it as a medical critique while others may view it as feminist allegory. In this short story, Charlotte Gilman uses her personal experiences with pregnancy, especially the depression and anxiety that follows, to present a compelling anecdotal account which has far-reaching effects for ladies. At the point when the storyteller perceives that there is more than one caught, inching lady, Gilman demonstrates that the importance of her story develops past a segregated, singular situation. The author’s main persuasions for writing in this case, is to highlight the Victorian Era gender roles and to censure a particular medical treatment and the appalling standards in medicine as well as to discuss the sexual legislative issues which make the treatment acceptable in any way considered right.