The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Essay

The Yellow Wallpaper represents the narrator’s life, the woman in the wallpaper is trapped behind a pattern and so is the narrator. “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be” (p.6). The woman who she sees that is trapped in the yellow paper is a reflection of herself, she herself felt trapped, she was crying for help and she felt like someone needed to come and save her from the life that she was living. The way in which she is describing what she is seeing in the yellow wallpaper is a representation of female language, she is describing her position in her marriage with John from her point of

The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.

The narrator feels very imprisoned in the house and tries to find a way to escape it. During the narrator’s rest cure treatment, she has attached herself to the wallpaper: She would “lay there for hours trying to decide whether that front pattern and the back pattern really did move together or separately”(260-261). This was the narrator’s way of escaping the oppression she was in. The wallpaper often seemed confusing to her, but she was determined to figure it out: “I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself”(301-302), everytime John takes of her illness lightly, her interest in the wallpaper grows. This is a direct reflection of her loneliness and isolation from her treatment. The speaker’s rest cure treatment directed her not to do any activities that would make her think intellectually or imaginatively, so she is forced to stay isolated from people, books, and chores. However, as her loneliness grows intensely, she finds relief in writing, something she was told not to do. The narrator would often have to hide the fact that she writes when nobody's around, and when someone comes while she is writing she records “I must not let [them] find me writing”(141-142). The oppression the narrator has been put through has made her stronger mentally, she starts to become more and more possessive of the wallpaper and tries

The surroundings which one is placed in can drastically contribute to their mental state. Deterioration and a lack of stimulation will be reciprocated within the mind of the inhabitant. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, depicts a young, unnamed woman who is suffering with post-partum depression. In this time period, the treatment of mental illness typically did more harm than good as electroshock therapy, and the rest cure were the classic treatments of choice. Similarly, William Faulkner, the author of “A Rose for Emily”, written in 1930, gives the reader an inside look upon an elderly woman experiencing mental distress. Although there are major signs of an issue being present within Miss Emily’s old, southern house, the town chooses to ignore and cover them up as to not disrupt the elderly woman who buys poisons without a reason and sleeps next to the dead corpse of her lover. Theme and setting play two very distinct and important roles within each of these stories allowing the reader to have a more complete understanding of the message the author is trying to convey.

The narrator finds herself trapped in her home , quarantined in a bedroom with a bed bolted to the floor. The narrator is a woman who’s experiencing postpartum depression after the birth of her child. At this time in history mental illnesses were highly misunderstood. It seemed to be easier to conceal one who isn’t mentally sound; as did the narrator's husband did to her. The mental constraints placed upon the narrator are heavier than the physical ones.

The narrators husband plays a big role in the worsening of her depression. Her husband, a physician, assures her that her “temporary nervous depression” (71) will be cured if she stays at the colonial mansion to rest. He discourages her from writing, leaving the house, or anything that would stimulate her too much. Her husband rooms her in the nursery, despite the narrator insisting on being in a different bedroom.

A new mother suffers from what is now known as postpartum depression and is diagnosed by her husband as having “temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 209). Instead of addressing the real issues the husband treats her by locking her in a room with a ghastly yellow wallpaper which will become the housing for her mental deterioration. The husband is portrayed as a doctor who knows exactly what is best for his wife and is unfaltering in his ideas. This overconfidence shields him from the fact that his wife is seriously ill and is in need of a different kind of treatment than that being provided.

Gilman writes “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a description of the flaws in marriage and in society. Though at its core the story is about a woman’s descent into madness, Gilman’s purpose through the representation of the wallpaper itself is to point out the oppression of a woman’s freedom and creativity; to tell a dramatized story of how one frees themselves. The wallpaper is an object of obsession for the narrator; it is a thing which confuses, disgusts, and captivates her. The colour yellow is never used to represent something that is happy— its use as a symbol represents that of a sickness, something that is “repellant, almost revolting”, with a “sickly sulphur tint” (Gilman, 649).

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story about a troubled mother attempting to overcome her struggle with mental illness. John the woman’s husband, a top-rated male psychologist treats her with something known as the “rest cure.” This treatment deprives her of any social interaction besides with him or her sister. As her condition slowly worsens we see the “rest cure” is not working and we see the gender roles of the ninetieth slowly emerge. Mental illness consumes the women; the reader can’t help see the overlying theme, that by trying to help someone, sometimes you make it worse.

Upon seeing a specialist about it she was prescribed a “rest cure” and that was all she needed, also he instructed her to never touch a pen again (Gilman). She followed those orders for a short while, ultimately making her decline. Something clicked and Gilman tossed the specialist advice in the trash and began working again, leading her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Just as Gilman had a moment of awakening in a sense, there were moments that the reader can see the narrator fighting the “norm”. One was when John her husband felt that writing would only hinder her and would not help with his diagnoses of a “rest cure” (Gilman).

They just got a summer home and she wonders how they will afford it. The woman suffers from a “nervous depression” which was diagnosed by her husband. Her husband’s constantly belittles her illness, thoughts, and concerns. The woman thinks that being active, and having interesting work will help her illness. This is why she wants to work on the house and write. However, the treatment her husband gave her was to do nothing; so she sneaks up to the attic to write. She writes and fixates on the wallpaper, which she finds revolting. Throughout the story John fixates and tries to “treat” his wife’s illness, while the wife fixates and fantasizes at the wallpaper. She imagines a nursery and having a child. After a while she begin to see women creeping around the wallpaper, so she tried to get rid of them. She begins destroying the wallpaper, and not long after she thinks that she stuck in it too. She tries to escape herself, then John breaks through the locked door and

The woman, who recently had a baby, is suffering from post-partum depression. Her husband, John, a physician of high standing, insists that her problems are a product of an overactive imagination, and he “assures friends and relatives that there is nothing

The wallpaper seems to signify irrationality and a feeling of shame or dirtiness, qualities which are tied into the narrator's own life. The color dirty yellow was chosen because it is most commonly associated with stains and the process of aging. The color possibly signifies how unclean the wife felt in her own marriage and the thought that she would grow old, trapped in such a condition. Furthermore, the pattern of the wall-paper is a constant reminder of the narrator's degrading marriage. During the day it is described as "a defiance of law....[The wallpaper]...slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you....The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of fungus" (p.807). This violence again ties in with her married life being somehow an act of degradation, and by

The narrator’s perception is scaled down to resemble the size of a child, and is unable to stand up for herself without appearing to be disloyal to her husband. Her husband says to her at one point, “"What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don 't go walking about like that -- you 'll get cold" (5). John never once calls her by her real name and only refers to her by these pet names as if she were his child. Even with the smallest details in her life the narrator consistently retreats back to the yellow wallpaper which she begins to obsess over. This is the only place she can retain some control in her life and exercise the power of her own mind. The yellow wallpaper helps the narrator regain her own perspective of herself as a woman which is crushed by her husbands perspective of viewing her as a merely a child.

To begin with, one can analyze “The Yellow Wallpaper” by examining the aspect of dialogue through the male perspective. Gilman makes a strong statement about males in society during her time period. The men are portrayed to really see women as children more than as individuals. This is made clear when the Narrator says, “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- - slight hysterical tendency- - what is one