In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we never learn the narrators’ name, which begs the question could Gilman be narrating her own life. The tale was written in the late eighteen hundreds as a private diary of sorts and is a lugubrious narration about a woman who has quite possibly went mad. The narrator’s husband John and her brother both respected physician diagnosis her with nervous depression and at the time, a Victorian era of time, the cure for losing one’s mind was to rest. While she may have indeed been suffering from depression which dictionary.com defines as “sad and gloomy; dejected; downcast” (dictoionarycomdepression) she just had a child so she may have actually been suffering from postpartum depression. Due to her diagnosis and because she tired so easily, she was forbidden from working, her attempts at conversations were stifled and her hallowed writing was even frowned upon. In an effort to help her to overcome her depression and to rest, her husband whisked her away to a rental home where they would have a housekeeper and a nanny. While those around her thought these efforts were for the best, shortly after arriving at the mansion she started her diary and wrote, “congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (Gilman 434) which implies she felt activities and interactions would be a better course of treatment. Because she has no one to talk with and no activities to occupy her time with, she
An anonymous author once said, “What consumes your mind, controls your life.” In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator is suffering from severe depression, at the very least and constantly tries to get better. While trying to get better she becomes increasingly fixated on the yellow wallpaper that encompasses her in her room. It gets to the point where the wallpaper is all she thinks about and slowly, it starts to control her life. The yellow wallpaper in this story is a representation of the narrator’s relationship with her disease.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a woman driven insane by postpartum depression and a dangerous treatment. Nevertheless, when you study the protagonist, it shows that the story is more about finding the protagonist’s identity. The protagonist’s proposes of an imaginary woman, which at first, is just her shadow against the bars of the wallpaper. The pattern shows her identity, expressing the conflict that she experiences and eventually leads her to a complete breakdown of what is her identity and that of the imaginary shadow.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the setting is very symbolic when analyzing the different the meanings of this book. The main character in the story is sick with nervous depression. In the story, John, her husband, and also a physician, takes his wife to a house in the middle of the summer and confines her to one room in hopes of perfect rest for her. As the story progresses, it is made clear that confinement, sanity, insanity, and freedom are all tied together and used to make the setting of the story symbolic.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story of a woman who goes mad while fixating on a bizarre wall-covering has been used as an early example of post-partum depression. In the latter part of the 1800’s women were seen as inferior subordinates to men who could not be trusted due to the effect of the female organs on their brains. The narrator is almost certainly a victim of the lack of medical knowledge of the day, while the prevailing attitudes in the medical field of women as childlike and the social pressure of male domination contribute to the narrator’s illness. The husband’s role as spouse and physician enable his benevolent manipulation of the narrator by isolating her and removing her
In the 1950’s, women weren’t respected for doing anything besides being an outstanding wife and mother. Women and men weren’t on the same level when it came to rights in the eyes of the law. Also during this time, mental illnesses were not accurately researched, and since doctors weren’t fully aware of all the information about mental illnesses, patients did not always get the best treatment and were treated as freaks. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both of these elements are present. Gilman did a wonderful job portraying how women are not taken seriously and how lightly mental illnesses are taken. Gilman had, too, had firsthand experience with the physician in the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's believes that there really was no difference in means of way of thinking between men or women is strongly. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband 's lack of belief. The story appears to happen during a time period where women were mistreated. Women were treated as second rate people in community during this time period. Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the thought process of the community during the time period in which “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written. Using knowledge on equal rights between women and men, one can carefully study “The Yellow Wallpaper” by
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Gilman is a chilling portrayal of a woman’s downward spiral towards madness after undergoing treatment for postpartum depression in the 1800’s. The narrator, whose name remains nameless, represents the hundreds of middle to upper- class women who were diagnosed with “hysteria” and prescribed a “rest” treatment. Although Gilman’s story was a heroic attempt to “save people from being driven crazy” (Gilman p 1) by this type of “cure” it was much more. “The Yellow Wallpaper” opened the eyes of many to the apparent oppression of women in the 1800’s and “possibly the only way they could (unconsciously) resist or protest their traditional ‘feminine’
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she discusses some of the issues found in 19th century society such as women’s oppression and the treatment of mental illness. Many authors throughout history have written stories that mimic their own lives and we see this in the story. We see Gilman in the story portrayed as Jane, a mentally unstable housewife who cannot escape her husband’s oppression or her own mind. Gilman reveals a life of depression and women’s oppression through her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper” we are introduced to a woman who enjoys writing. Gilman does not give the reader the name of the women who narrates the story through her stream of consciousness. She shares that she has a nervous depression condition. John, the narrator’s husband feels it is “a slight hysterical tendency” (266). She has been treated for some nervous habits that she feels are legitimately causing harm to her way of life. However she feels her husband, a physician, and her doctor believe that she is embellishing her condition. The woman shares with the reader early in the story that she is defensive of how others around her perceive her emotional state. This causes a small abrasion of animosity that
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s brilliant work, The Yellow Wallpaper, readers explore the consequences of the ignorance of mental health, as well Gilman’s underlying message of the restriction of women, in nineteenth century America. The author of this story doesn’t want readers to focus on the progression of the woman when realizing her real situation, but in my opinion, how Gilman comments with this piece of fiction to the real oppression of women, and lack of weight Medicine held on the patient 's opinions in Charlotte’s society.
Humans are flawed individuals. Although flaws can be bad, people learn and grow from the mistakes made. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, gives one a true look at using flaws to help one grow. Gilman gives her reader’s a glimpse into what her life would have consisted of for a period of time in her life. Women were of little importance other than to clean the house and to reproduce. This story intertwines the reality of what the lives of woman who were considered to be suffering mental disorders were like and elements that make one as a reader feel as though they are living the hell that Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived herself. This story can be interpreted several different ways, yet one can ultimately realize that Gilman’s goal was to show the horrors she faced. Looking at the life that Gilman lived, one better comes to understand what “The Yellow Wallpaper” is truly about.
It seems as though our best writings are formed from personal experiences. Weather happy or sad, our emotions we feel, are the driving force of our actions that leads to our most intimate events from the heart. However, this can enlighten all, on a story that is filled with the upmost sincerity for its depiction of a mental debacle of one woman at the hands of her physician, her husband. The short story of The Yellow Wallpaper is a story of a woman who undergoes an illness and inevitably finds peace utterly in taking full part of her insanity. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author, did not have a loving and caring life growing up. Her perseverance through thick and thin helped in her growing, through it all it has made her stronger and without a doubt the writer she has grown to be. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is well known for her short story The Yellow Wallpaper, but also for her deep work in the feminist movement. Through her experiences in life and her own characteristics, they are seen incarnated in the character Jane our hero of the story.
treats her like a child and just like a child she is kept in this
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is about the internal struggle and confinement of a nameless woman. This woman confesses she is indeed not well and that her husband, John, who is a physician, diagnoses her with nervous depression. The treatment of said nervousness is where the story’s conflict arises. John decides his wife needs solitude in order to recover. He believes this solace will be found in an estate he rented. The narrator’s ultimate insanity is prompted by the isolation, denial, and self-judgment that she is forced into by her husband.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of the realism story The Yellow Wallpaper, struggled with depression, which makes a great connection between her and the narrator. Realism, which is an accurate and detailed portrayal of actual life, is what Gilman used to describe how women were treated in the 1890’s and how depression can affect one’s body. The author uses the unnamed narrator in this story to explain the reality and horrors of depression in the 18th century. The purpose was to inform her readers of how mistreated women were in this time, especially because of the apprehension she, and others, had to go through. The narrator’s husband may be a leading cause in the reason she got depression, and also a reason she did not get better.
with a rest cure. The doctor in the story is much like the doctor that