The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a first-person narration of madness experienced by an unnamed woman in the Victorian era. The madness is exposed through a “nervous condition” diagnosed by the writer’s husband, a physician, who believes the only cure is prohibiting all intellectual thought and to remain in solitude for a “rest-cure”. The act of confinement propels the narrator into an internal spiral of defiance against patriarchal discourse. Through characterization and symbolism, “The Yellow Wallpaper” exhibits an inventive parallel between the narrator’s mental deterioration and her internal struggle to break free from female oppression imposed on her through her husband and society.

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, is a great example of early works pertaining to feminism and the disease of insanity. Charlotte Gilman’s own struggles as a woman, mother, and wife shine through in this short story capturing the haunting realism of a mental breakdown.The main character, much like Gilman herself, slips into bouts of depression after the birth of her child and is prescribed a ‘rest cure’ to relieve the young woman of her suffering. Any use of the mind or source of stimulus is strictly prohibited, including the narrator’s favorite hobby of writing. The woman’s husband, a physician, installs into his wife that the rest treatment is correct and will only due harm if not followed through. This type of treatment ultimately drives the woman insane, causing her to envision a woman crawling behind the yellow wallpaper of her room. Powerlessness and repression the main character is subject to creates an even more poignant message through the narrator’s mental breakdown. The ever present theme of subordination of women in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is advanced throughout the story by the literary devices of symbolism, imagery, and allegory.

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.

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.

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

During the nineteenth century, women and men played vastly different roles. While men had the free will to choose the life paths they desired, women lacked such privileges. Women, instead, were expected to tend to domestic responsibilities. Unlike men, they were unable to voice their opinions, instead, myriads of them lived monotonous lives with their, often condescending, husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, portrays a woman in the nineteenth century descending into psychosis. After the birth of her daughter, the unnamed narrator presumably endures postpartum depression and is forced into bed rest as a cure. In her male-dominated society, the narrator often feels as though she is at a loss of control over her life. Despite what she believes is best for her own betterment, her husband, John, overrides her inputs. She is stripped away from the outside world and left with nothing more than her concealed diary entries and the horrid yellow wallpaper of her bedroom. Although John seemingly wants the best for his wife, his dismissiveness towards her mental state and solicitations necessarily cause her to become deranged; her breakdown is a result of feeling powerless as she is encaged in a house she does not care for, restricted from her activities, and her inability to communicate effectively.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860, in the city of Hartford, CT. She would later move to California. She would end her own life in 1935, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought for women’s rights and was an advocate of socialism. She wrote novels, poetry and short stories. She was a woman who was educated; her writing reflected her knowledge, relating to her strong thoughts on woman’s rights and independence and how women of Victorian times suffered from this lack of rights. In her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her views on feminism and how women are treated through characters who represent this treatment. The characters she uses help the reader really get drawn into her story;

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.

The yellow wallpaper is the most obvious symbol in this story. This symbolizes the protagonist 's mind named Jane during the 19th century. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the way women were perceived. The yellow wallpaper includes models, angles and curves so that they contradict each other. we could say that these angles represents the identity of women during the 19th century. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is about the control and attacks the role of women in society. What is expected of women of the 19th century is to have children, take care of the house and do only what the husband says. The man of this time have the privilege of having a good education, have their jobs and they make their own decisions. The

treats her like a child and just like a child she is kept in this

The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Gilman, presents as a feminist text written in protest to the treatment of women by a male dominated society. The story is told from the narrator’s perspective, a woman who’s name we never learn. A woman suffering from post-natal-depression who is prescribed the remedy of the day, a course of treatment known as “rest cure”, in which the sufferer is confined to bed and not allowed to partake in the activities of daily life. This extended period of isolation and activity deprivation drives the narrator further into a depression, and later into insanity as she tries to cope with the isolation. In the story, the patriarchy of society is blamed in part for the narrator’s mental

Stories can have a person feel like they can relate to the characters and have ways to express their emotions. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story written in the late nineteenth century, 1890 's a time period where women were oppressed. This is the time of era, where women have no voice, they stayed home and did wifely duties. The story is written in first person, however we never learn the woman 's name in the story. She stays anonymous, but we learn a lot about this woman. However, the narrators name may be Jane. Gilman may have slipped the narrators name at the end of the story when she is free, but then again, It is not a complete known fact. She is however the protagonist in the story. We learn that she has a mental illness or possibly some sort of post-partum depression and she is not able to get proper treatment, due to the lack of her husband who seems in denial as a physician. Charlotte Perkins Gilman lets us know that she is in a summer vacation house and is mesmerized by this yellow wallpaper in this room. She becomes fixated. The pattern of the wallpaper is not together and crazy and torn, ugly and, a pointless pattern but has hidden expression, which she is using the wall paper to symbolize her life. The wallpaper has the sense of entrapment, and a distraction that becomes an obsession and slowly trajectory towards madness. We will discover many elements of this story along with the story being in the American Feminist time period of women

The nineteenth century was a time where men had a certain amount of control over women’s lives, to the point where they defined their roles in society. Women at this time suffered greatly because of this and in ways that lead them to depression, anxiety, who knows what else. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the main character, Jane, faces those terrible things that eventually lead her to becoming insane. The traits that make up who Jane is, provides the readers with the importance of her identity throughout the story and they also make up the context of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Trying to free herself from her nervous depression, Jane is propelled into insanity.

The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1891. Gilman chose the first person narrator who slowly slides to insanity as a way to protest the men’s and medical harassment against women at the time. Women’s depression considered as hysteria and popular treatment for it was a “rest cure”. Gilman was also under this treatment, when she fell into depression after giving birth to her child. This treatment drove her almost to insanity, but she found a way out of this situation, she divorced her husband, stopped “rest cure” treatment and wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”. She was raising her voice to describe all problematic conditions of women who were struggling with depression. Narrator point of view plays a significant role in the story because it reveals suppression against women in the men-dominated society that can lead to a tragedy and fall of society as whole.

with a rest cure. The doctor in the story is much like the doctor that