The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

The narrator falls into a state of deep depression following the birth of her baby, which is currently known now as postpartum depression. During the 1800’s they called it “temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency” a diagnosis common to women during that era. There was little or no knowledge for the treatment of postpartum depression. The doctors used “rest cure” as a form of treatment, the patient is prohibited from doing any kind of work. All they need is to rest, exercise, eat well and get enough air then they will recover. No external stimulation which lead to the deterioration of the narrator’s mental health in the story. She is ordered by her husband and brother, who are respected physicians to rest. She is isolated from everyone except her husband John and her sister in law Jennie the house keeper. Locked in a room with yellow wall paper, windows facing all direction, all the

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 Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, shows the slow progression of madness from the point of view of the person who is going mad. Our narrator, unnamed, but possibly named Jane, says she is sick, as does her doctor and husband, John. This short story can be interpreted in many different ways, but mainly focuses on the oppression of women in the late 1800’s. This woman who is seemly mad journeys through “hell” as she slides deeper into the confines of madness.

While the narrator recognizes the great care with which her husband is treating her she seems to constantly feel that she is being ungrateful. She calls herself out in her journal for being a “comparative burden” (Gilman) The room in which the narrator resides has a sturdy bed that is nailed to the floor. The narrator notes that there are bars on the windows and rings hooked into the wall. She wrongly assumes that this room was used as a nursery or gymnasium by the previous owners. As the reader, we are able to instill our own thoughts that this room was in fact built to house someone with a mental disorder. This begs the question of what the house really is, to contain such a room away from decent society.

“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

Throughout the beginning of the story, the wife continually references the things “John says” (844-5). That indicates to me that she is timid and perhaps frightened of him. “John says this,” and “John says that,” shows me that our narrator doesn’t feel permitted to have a thought that is her own. The story’s unilateral male, as well as unilateral female conversations are friendly and comfortable. However, male to female conversation in the writing is dominant, aggressive, assertive and sometimes dangerous. Female to male exchanges appear delicate, soft and understanding, always agreeing with the male perspective. I would consider women in this time period to be viewed as a pet or toy to the male, dominant figure in her life. The use of the words in this short is very important, and gives you the information to interpret the story. For instance, on page 845 it says, “It was a nursery first, then a playroom and gymnasium. I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children.” This discloses that our woman has post-partum depression. At the very least, she feels as if she is trapped or in an asylum within her own home. Perhaps this feeling of entrapment lends itself to driving her mad. It is no surprise that the woman feels trapped behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. Her days and nights are filled with constant repetition of the same nothingness. She is left with little to

Her marriage also causes her to lose control. Even within the one thing that is supposed to hold strong, she is alone. Her husband, leaving her on a daily basis to work, insists that she cannot write nor visit friends and family. Thus, he leaves her alone during the day to sit

In To Room 19, Susan Rawlings becomes emotionally and physically isolated from her family after learning of her husband’s infidelity. Susan struggles with processing the affair; intelligent Susan tries to ignore the affair and act like it didn’t matter “the whole thing was not important” (866 Lessing), emotional Susan is confused and betrayed. Susan’s inner turmoil over the affair causes her to begin to crave complete isolation from her family and the world around her. “In that case why did Susan feel…as if life had become a desert, and that nothing mattered, and that her children were not her own?” (867 Lessing). In The Yellow Wallpaper, the storyteller becomes isolated following the birth of her first child. Her isolation, unlike Susan’s is involuntary. Having been diagnosed by her husband with “temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency” (580 Gilman), the storyteller is “absolutely forbidden to work” (581 Gilman) until she is well. Although she believes that “congenial work with excitement and change” (581 Gilman) would benefit her, she yields to

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story that surrounds many different topics. The narrator is living in a time period where women were looked down upon and mental illnesses were misunderstood. The narrator of the story suffers from post-partum depression and is recording her journey in a journal. Her husband, the typical man at the time, put her on “the rest cure,” as he believed that mental illnesses should be treated like physical illnesses. He brings her to a house far away from other people and makes her stay in the nursery. The nursery had shabby yellow wallpaper which sickened her, but intrigued her at the same time. The rest cure was basically confinement, both physically and mentally. She was deprived of

The husbands reoccurring actions to keep the Narrator isolated from outside stimuli, presents the fact that he thinks isolation is a treatment for mental illness.

The fact that her "husband" is also a doctor suggests her mental state. She says that, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special instruction." This sounds more like a description of a doctorpatient connection than a husbandwife relationship. The narrator also says that John is gone quite a lot on trips to see other patients and is only with her at night. Even then he is not always there at night. She says he is gone "nights when his cases are serious." By nighttime she may mean the time when her doctor, John, goes to check up on her and sometimes he can't check on her everyday, because he is busy with the other patients in the mental ward.

The author emphasizes the drastic contrast in the speaker's emotional state through the setting she finds herself in. She is taken from the comfort of her home and thrust both an environment and mind state of isolation. However, the setting also helps fuel the hatred that develops in the wife's mind for her husband. The speaker is ambivalent of her feelings for her

Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story about an unnamed woman who is dealing with depression and is driven to insanity. In the 1890s, women who suffered from depression or anxiety were not taken seriously by men. Physicians believed that keeping women confined to one compact space with no entertainment would quickly cure them. Therefore, her husband and physician, John, does exactly that. This feeling of being trapped leads to the main character's psychosis because she begins to see an unusual, mysterious figure in the wallpaper.

Through this description one can see hat the husband seems to be in a fine state, however, the fading beauty of the woman hints at a sense of distress inside of her. As the story progresses we find

In the novel, The Yellow Wall-Paper, the narrator is introduced to the audience as someone who seems normal. She has a husband and a child as well. The narrator begins writing her journal and explaining to us that she has been taken into a summer vacation home wit her husband. She at first describes the house to be an more expensive place and questions their ability to purchase the house. However, she soon begins to explain to us her disorder and how her husband John and her brother as well, doesn't believe in her disorder. John gives her a simple treatment and solution to her issues, he explains to his wife that the treatment she will receive is to do nothing active and that she will get better if she stays in her room in the attic. This room is described as “It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge;