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The Yellow Wallpaper Patriarchal Essay

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The Yellow Wallpaper: Protesting The Patriarchal Society Of The 19th Century
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published January 1892 in The New England Magazine. Presented in first person, the story comes in the form of a collection of diary entries written by an unidentified woman whose husband John rents an old house far from town for the summer. The text follows a day to day description of the woman’s thoughts and experiences -the main topic being the yellow wallpaper-, and depicting how these circumstances eventually lead to her insanity. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gillman addresses several undertones of domestic abuse predominant in the 19th century, encouraging women to not …show more content…

Julie Axelrod’s article reinstates the five stages of grief that were first proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying (1969), explaining the five phases individuals are said to go through when faced with difficult situations such as the loss of a relative, close friendship, valued possession, etc. The five stages of grief are: 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; 5. Acceptance. Although The Yellow Wallpaper does not address all five of the stages, a pattern of three or four is indeed reflected upon the narrator's day to day, and not in the sense of mourning, but the loss of self. Axelrod states that “the five stages of loss do not necessarily occur in any specific order” and proceeds to explain each of them. The first stage is denying the reality of a given situation. It is a normal response of the mind to “rationalize overwhelming emotions.” It works as a defense mechanism that blocks off the immediate shock, and a temporary response that carries us through the “first wave of pain” (Psych Central). This is congruent with the beginning of the story, when the protagonist tries to convince herself that “[her] case is not serious…” as her husband repeatedly tells her, that “Of course it is only nervousness” (The Yellow Wallpaper,

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