The Yellow Wallpaper And Gilman's Vital Symbolism

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the story of a woman suffering from post-partum depression, undergoing the sexist psychological treatments of mental health, that took place during the late nineteenth century. The narrator in Gilman’s story writes about being forced to do nothing, and how that she feels that is the worst possible treatment for her. In this particular scene, the narrator writes that she thinks normal work would do her some good, and that writing allows her to vent, and get across her ideas that no one seems to listen to. Gilman’s use of the rhetorical appeal pathos, first-person point of view, and forceful tone convey her message that confinement is not a good cure for mental health, and that writing,

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.

The structure of the text, particularly evident in the author’s interactions with her husband, reveals the binary opposition between the façade of a middle-class woman living under the societal parameters of the Cult of Domesticity and the underlying suffering and dehumanization intrinsic to marriage and womanhood during the nineteenth century. While readers recognize the story for its troubling description of the way in which the yellow wallpaper morphs into a representation of the narrator’s insanity, the most interesting and telling component of the story lies apart from the wallpaper. “The Yellow Wallpaper” outwardly tells the story of a woman struggling with post-partum depression, but Charlotte Perkins Gilman snakes expressions of the true inequality faced within the daily lives of nineteenth century women throughout the story. Although the climax certainly surrounds the narrator’s overpowering obsession with the yellow wallpaper that covers the room to which her husband banished her for the summer, the moments that do not specifically concern the wallpaper or the narrator’s mania divulge a deeper and more powerful understanding of the torturous meaning of womanhood.

Throughout the novel, the wallpaper has been part of her confinement to escape, and by tearing it down, she is freeing herself. The narrator describes the wallpaper even more by seeing a woman behind it and as a reflection of herself. “Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and she shakes them hard (Gilman 481).” The women behind the wallpaper which is a reflection of how she sees herself escaping from her struggles. The wallpaper is the main symbol in the story.

First the wallpaper simply appears very unpleasant due to it being a color that “is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (267). It is extremely unappealing to the eye and “the paint and paper looks as if a boys’ school had used it” (267). Keeping this in mind, the woman witnesses the entire condition of the wallpaper day by day as she analyzes each flaw and focuses on interpreting the pattern of its layers. As she attempts to figure out how it is all organized, she becomes entirely fascinated with the paper’s “ostensibly formless pattern.” Frustrated and unaware of why it is structured the way it is, the woman is then attached; determined to soon comprehend its meaning and purpose. “For the thousandth time that I WILL follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion,” she stated (270).

It is the wallpaper, alive and a character in itself, that charges our main character 's mind and helps her break free from the dull and husband driven life she has been living. The wallpaper itself, so marvelously described, becomes our storyteller 's best enemy and best friend. More like a mirror, this yellow consuming wallpaper reflects what our main character is really going through and feeling and the woman that stirs and creeps within the wall is literally herself which is found out by us, the readers, when the housekeeper mentions the yellow stains on all of her clothes. She wants to tear the confining wallpaper down that holds this imaginary woman in just as she wants to tear the confining way of life her husband has chosen for her. The story continues to progress as she deconstructs and analyses the wallpaper until the climax when our main character locks herself in the yellow room to finally tear all of the wallpaper down so that the woman can never be put back and imprisoned forever. The story concludes with her husband fainting, and our main character "creeping" and paying him no concern at all except that once again he is in her way but this time, not able to stop her voyage along the wall and for the rest of her life.

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

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist and a creative writer who wrote the short story entitled “The Yellow Wallpaper,” first published in The New England Magazine in 1892. The , reveals the effects of restcure treatment for women suffering from mental illness that was prescribed by male doctors (Horowitz, 152). After her marriage with Walter, and birth of a daughter Katherine, Charlotte herself experienced deep depression and rest cure was prescribed to cure (Gilman, 379). Gilman’ mother takes over the baby’ care and Charlotte “broke down entirely and since needed outmost care and tender tretment ” (Horowitz, 96). The nararator’ husband John, who is doctor, prescribes the rest cure and put her into isolation in a haunted house away from

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.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, presents a feminist approach within the story. Gilman writes about a woman, the narrator who is not identified, who moves into a new house with her husband to help with her “rest cure”. While at the house, the narrator becomes very interested with the yellow wallpaper in her room and starts to fantasize about a woman being trapped behind it. Within the story, feminism is present in examples with the relationship between the narrator and her husband, the purpose of the narrator not having a name, and the symbolism of the wallpaper. The narrator is married to a man, John, who is a physician.

The third theme that the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses in order to show the role of women in the 19th century American society is the evils of the “resting cure”. Gilman wanted to illustrate through the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the way a mind, which is already poisoned with anxiety and fear can deteriorate when it is forced into inactivity and it is kept from healthy work. Mitchell took seriously Gilman’s criticism and stopped the “resting cure”. Gilman criticizes any form of medical treatment that is done to the patient by ignoring

“Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is best known today as the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a riveting account of a young mother’s descent into madness as a result of the stultifying cultural expectations for women in Victorian America” (Maloney). The experiences of the protagonist, John’s wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is a reflection of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s own life. The story is about a creative woman whose talents are suppressed by her dominant husband. John, a physician, thinks by oppressing his wife it will keep her within societies normal ways of what a wife is supposed to act like, but it only leads her to a mental breakdown. He is more concerned with what others may say about her than the mental health of his wife. In trying to become independent, overcome her own suppressed thoughts, and her husband’s false diagnosis of her, she loses her sanity.

In a male dominated society, women had little choice when it came to the path of life they would trek upon until death. From the first words of the doctor when they announce, “it’s a girl”, amidst cries of the baby and the relief of the mother, the path a woman shall take has already been predetermined. Chalotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a harrowing short story about a woman diagnosed with post-partum depression and her gradual slip into insanity when she is prescribed the rest-cure, a discredited treatment that only allows two hours of productivity each day. Gilman, the author, not only integrates stupendous aspects of gothic literature into her story but she also depicts a deeper, hidden message about the 19th century attitudes towards women from the words written in the journal of the unreliable narrator. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a woman born on July 3, 1860 during an extremely turbulent decade with numerous upheavals in society. After Gilman’s father left the family in 1859, Gilman grew up with the sole care of her cold mother and this childhood shaped her into an ambitious, independent woman. Holding onto her strong dreams and goals, Gilman hesitantly married Charles Walter Stetson, an artist. However, she began suffering from severe bouts of depression and was diagnosed with post-partum depression after her pregnancy with her daughter,

The setting and point of view of Charlotte Gilman's story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is crucial to the reader's understanding of one woman’s plight from depression to her descent into complete and total madness. Gilman mixes her personal life with fiction in efforts to better the mental health treatment. The story takes place in the late 1800’s where women are submissive and oppressed by men. This setting coupled with the narrator’s throes of depression only worsens her situation. Her identity stays anonymous, thus taking on the role of the narrator. Societal roles such as being the wife makes her feel as though she is a second-rate citizen and not someone with dignified emotions. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman depicts the inconsistencies and the contradiction of the resting cure using the elements of a secluded mansion, a dominating alpha male, and most importantly, the wallpaper itself turning the narrator into a passive victim of circumstances.

The setting and narrative of Charlotte Perkin Gilman's story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is crucial to the reader's understanding of one women's plight from depression to her descent into complete and total madness. A mixed account of Gilman's personal life and fiction in efforts to better the mental institution as a whole. It takes place in the late 1800s where women were already submissive and oppressed by men, this coupled with the Narrator's throes of depression only made it worse for her. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage”(Gilman 226). Societal roles such as being the wife make her feel as though she is a second-rate citizen and not someone with dignified emotions. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gillman depicts the inconsistencies and the contradiction of the resting cure using the elements of a secluded mansion, a dominating alpha male, and most importantly the wallpaper itself. All of which turns the narrator into a passive victim of circumstances.