The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Essay

Through a woman's perspective of assumed insanity, Charlotte Perkins Gilman comments on the role of the female in the late nineteenth century society in relation to her male counterpart in her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Gilman uses her own experience with mental instability to show the lack of power that women wielded in shaping the course of their psychological treatment. Further she uses vivid and horrific imagery to draw on the imagination of the reader to conceive the terrors within the mind of the psychologically wounded.

“You see, he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” A woman writes, frustrated and trapped in a house with hideous, yellow wallpaper. The woman is aware of her own mental illness, yet her husband believes that her "nervous depression" is temporary. As a result, her husband forces her into isolation with her husband and their maid in a house far from society. Trapped in a mansion, the woman anchors herself to an odd thing: the yellow wallpaper of her bedroom. Despite her husband telling her not to, the woman writes pages about the yellow wallpaper. Her description of the wallpaper grows more elaborate each entry. The woman begins by only seeing stains in the wallpaper, then patterns, then movement, then a woman trapped. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is that of a mentally ill woman once strong and observant. Yet, improper treatment and the four walls of a house that became a prison led to her fall.

Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Fall of The House of Usher’ both serve a highly horrific purpose which is both good examples for the gothic. The strongest example of gothic is ‘The Fall of The House of Usher’ as it established the extreme horror intense and shows the gothic scene of the house.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” a short story about a mentally ill women,written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman at age 32, in 1892 is a story with a hidden meaning and many truths. Charlotte Perkins Gilman coincidentally also had a mental illness and developed cancer leading her to kill herself in the sixties. The story begins with Jane, the mentally ill woman who feels a bit distressed, and although both of the well respected men in her life are physicians she is put simply on a “rest cure”. This rest cure as well as many symbols such as the Yellow Wallpaper, her journal, and her inevitable breakdown are prime examples of the typical life of a woman in this time period and their suppressed lives that they lived even with something as serious as a

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the idea of “true womanhood” is challenged. The white woman portrayed in the story is prescribed what is known as the “rest cure” due to the overwhelming pressure of being the perfect woman, wife, and mother. Driven mad by the smothering of her husband and her inability to do anything for herself, the woman in this story goes crazy attempting to free herself from the constraints. In stark contrast to the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Sojourner Truth, a former slave, delivers a speech titled, “Ain’t I a Woman,” in 1851 that shakes people to their very core. A little before “The Yellow Wallpaper” was released, Truth shares a message that is astoundingly different from the

Tyler Stollings Mrs. Klueh ENGL 102 August 29, 2014 The Yellow Wallpaper Theme: Fear and depression I. Jane and her husband went to stay at ancestral halls over their Summer break. A. In Jane’s opinion the house looked like it was haunted. B. The whole time that the couple had spent there, Jane felt as if there was something different/creepy about the home.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s grim short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” of female empowerment and equality was read four times by her first husband whom considered it “the most ghastly tale he ever read. Says it beats Poe (Moss and Wilson 427).” The story opens from the perspective of a nameless woman, who lives in the attic of an ornate house. The house is a very elaborate property, yet the female character must not leave the constraints of an old nursery room. Her husband, John, is a doctor and is supposedly a good one.

Perspectives toward women’s both physical and mental health are displayed in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is told through journal entries written by the narrator. It is rather obvious that the narrator in this short story is suffering from depression, but the illness eventually becomes detrimental when her companion, John, does not believe it is a medical condition. John is an empirical man who is a physician, who tends to belittle his wife’s concerns and thoughts. The narrator and John’s move into a large house in the country for the summer is influenced by his aspiration to reveal his suffering wife to fresh air and tranquil life.

Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a woman who progressed to insanity due to how she was treated. Her passion was withheld from her. The story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is based on the author’s purpose. The author’s purpose is the reason an author writes about a specific topic. Stetson wanted to convey to her readers what happens to an individual when one’s purpose or passion are being withheld. Even the environment within the setting proved to be a factor in achieving the desired results, and the evolution of the main character throughout the story.

Angelou expresses the hardship endured through not only being a woman but also racially inferior, a parallel can perhaps be drawn between the plight of the oppressed middle-class white woman of the nineteenth century and the oppression faced by the black women of the 1970's and their inability to overtly rebel. The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper exploits her journal as an outlet for rebellion over the three months she is imprisoned, during which John attempts to cure his wife's "nervous condition" through the 'rest cure' proposed by Weir Mitchell. Whilst the rest cure suggests intellectual stimulation damages a woman physically and psychologically, the narrator disregards the ideology as it is outweighed by the sense of alleviation it provides

night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, 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” (Gilman 799). The narrator decides to free the woman from the cage by tearing the wallpaper up. By doing so, Gilman thematically questions the situation of a generation of women and clearly presents the institution of marriage as being a “cage with bars”. Through her literary works Gilman aims at shedding light on the passivity of her contemporaries in a male-dominated society and pushing the readers to empathize with women in the time period and to become aware of their psychological state. According to Jean Shawn, feminist movements and the press contributed

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.

Throughout history and cultures today, women have been beaten, verbally abused, and taught to believe they have no purpose in life other than pleasing a man. Charlotte Perkins Gillam uses her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a weapon to help break down the walls surrounding women, society has put up. This story depicts the life of a young woman struggling with postpartum depression, whose serious illness is overlooked, by her physician husband, because of her gender. Gillman 's writing expresses the feelings of isolation, disregarded, and unworthiness the main character Jane feels regularly. This analysis will dive into the daily struggles women face through oppression, neglect, and physical distinction; by investigating each section

Underneath The Wallpaper Written in journal form, the author uses symbolism to paint a vivid picture of the character’s marriage, the social perception of women, and an inadequacy of understanding within field of psychology. The dialogue of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is taken from the context of the main characters journal. The main character shares her inner thoughts and perceptions to give the reader insight to her reality and deterioration of her mental condition. The yellow wall- paper encountered by the main character serves many symbolism functions to the author and is subject to interpretation by the reader. The main character perceives her husband John and herself as ordinary.

Every story is unique in their own distinct way. Whether it be the dialogue, the style, or even the characters themselves, no tales are the same. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” illustrates a scenario of a wife who is suffering from unknown mental illnesses that slowly deteriorates her mind. Gilman managed to spin the narrative in first person view, which allowed the reader to witness the story in the character’s firsthand experience. By doing this reader is able to observe the story through a character’s eyes, but it will be an unreliable observation.