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The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Paper

Decent Essays

Individuality and the importance of upholding women’s rights, such as viewing a woman as a respectable, free-willed human being, are the essential truths established in Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Through the development of the narrator Gilman uses symbolism and imagery to awaken the reader to the reality of what a woman’s life was like in the 1800’s. Analysis of the symbolism throughout the story reveals that the author was not only testifying to the social status of the women in society but specifically giving insight into her personal life, and what she was subjected to. What appeared to be a mere, contrite story to many readers, was actually a successful strike at the wrong mindset that society possessed at that …show more content…

Because of the narrator’s madness, she was unable to make the connection between the woman behind the wallpaper and herself. The narrator felt trapped, like the woman in the wallpaper, due to her domineering husband, her lack of individuality and personal freedom of choice, as well as the prejudices suppressing her from society at large. The narrator’s life was parallel to the author’s life. Gilman, like the narrator was subject to a confinement, cut off from society. She found individuality and freedom through her writing but it was abruptly ended by a doctor’s diagnosis stating that these activities were not healthy. The doctor prescribed the rest cure for Gilman; she was to live “ as domestic a life as far as possible, to have but two hours intellectual life a day, and to never touch a pencil, brush or pencil again.” She went home and followed the doctor’s orders for 3 months, and became even more mentally unstable than before. Soon she decided to break the doctors orders, and began to work again, and to continue her previous routine of everyday life. Gilman’s decision to exert her God- given ability to choose what she thought best resulted in her becoming a strong individual. She wrote the “Yellow Wallpaper” as an attempt to change the way women were viewed and to express the importance of individuality. Her purpose “was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being

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