The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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.

“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’

According to Gilbert and Gubar she is “mad” only by society’s standards, and, more importantly, that she is, in fact, moving into “the open spaces of her own authority” (91). This interpretation seems to just touch on the many social issues the narrator experiences. Keeping the narrator anonymous is one of the key themes to show the reader who the woman really is, because of the assumption at the beginning of her status in society and in her marriage to a prominent doctor. Her husband John does not even acknowledge his wife may have any mental problems and all attempts for the woman to tell him fail. For as she in desperation states “John laughs at me about this wallpaper” (Gilman 803). Thus, if the woman can expect to get laughed at in her marriage, it would be impossible for her to actually talk to her husband, much less convince him to change his diagnosis of her, especially because he is “so wise” and a physician (Gilman 806). Indeed, male-dominant opinion becomes even more prevalent when it seems that all three different men in the story are all close to her and all prescribe the same “rest cure” for her. However, she seems to “disagree with their ideas”, for as she lucidly states, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good” (Gilman 801).

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.

In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates a narrator who rents out a mansion in the summer with her husband. The main reason for their summer retreat is because the narrator is “ill” and suffering from what her husband calls “a slight hysterical tendency.” The narrator’s husband places her in a big airy sunlit room with hideous yellow wallpaper asserting she be confined to bed rest. As time goes by, the woman becomes infatuated with the yellow wallpaper claiming that there’s a woman enclosed in the pattern. I’m arguing that the wallpaper plays a role in symbolism. In my opinion, it represents how the narrator suffers from the oppression of her husband and the feeling of being trapped.

The constant act of avoiding the worth women have in society spirals down to the core fact how women are envisioned inferior to men. In The Ways We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson, the simple declaration, “We lie. We all do. We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid confrontation, we spare people’s feelings, we conveniently forget, we keep secrets, we justify lying to the big-guy’s institutions.” Depicts how far lies have come to fit in the spectrum of society, which has inevitably caused women to lose their voice in established lies – mistaken as truths – into thinking that the unfair treatment they receive is what they deserve.

If we are to believe our mothers, we are aware that time heals all wounds. Everyone feels sad or low sometimes, but these feelings usually pass with time. When one starts to experience these feelings of feelings of hopelessness, pessimism, guilt, or worthlessness for longer than two weeks, it is likely that they suffer from depression. Depression is a mood disorder that causes symptoms that affect how we feel, think, and handle daily activities. Due to its widespread occurrence, scientists have been searching for an effective treatment for this mood disorder for decades. During the late 1800s, one of the treatment options available for those suffering with depression and other nervous illnesses was the rest cure. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s

An inner battle between oneself wanting freedom and a scape and society finding its ways of not letting that happen. In “The yellow Wallpaper” author Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes a story in 1899 of a woman trapped by the oppression lead by society which at the time could be said men. The female in the story finds herself trap in a yellow wallpaper drifting into madness, losing her sanity until she gains her freedom.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1889. The story was written to explain a woman’s experience during her rest cure process. In the story, the narrator goes through a sickness. She was having a hard time expressing her feelings, because her husband was always away and very distant from her. She never had the quality time she wanted and needed to spend with her husband. Even though she wasn’t able to fulfill all the womanly duties a wife should complete, she was still dealing with a nineteenth-century marriage. Throughout this essay I will be discussing how Gilman portrayed nineteenth-century middle-class marriage in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

The standing that women have had in the past was so bad that often times they were deemed less than their counterparts. May a times a woman’s intuition of themselves were ignored, because the male doctors were certain they were the ones correct not the females. In the time period in which physiological heath was relatively new, certain diagnostics would have been overlooked and patient were given the wrong type of help they need, especially woman that often times knew they had something different. Other times if a woman desired to do something they had to ask there significant other, if they were refused they had to refrain themselves from asking again. As it was in the case in the story made by Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper”, in which a young mother opinions and wants were all but ignored. A question that some people have while reading the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” was if the young woman was suffering from oppression or depression. However one might feel that she might be subject to both, it is more than clear that depression is the higher factor involved here. Depression can be defined like an example given Merriam-Webster “by a state of feeling sad : dejection (2) : a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies” The emphasis of

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was written in the late nineteenth century. In the time of the late nineteenth century, hysteria, “which is a psychological disorder when the persons symptoms covert from psychological stress into physical symptoms, selective amnesia, shallow volatile emotions, and overdramatic or attention-seeking behavior.” (Hysteria biography) Has also been defined as, “a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excess” (Hysteria biography). Hysteria has been previously thought to be the condition that the narrator has in the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, during the time it was written, because it was such a common diagnosis for symptoms such as these around that time. Personally, I think that the condition she is actually suffering from is postpartum depression, due to the extended amount of symptoms that she shows throughout the entire story. Which postpartum depression differs from hysteria because it’s “a complex mix of physical, emotional and behavioral changes that occur in a mother after giving birth.” (WebMD) “Most mothers who experience postpartum love their children but feel that they won’t be good at mothering.” (healthyminds) In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator says, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman 105). In this we see how the narrator doubts

The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” usually means the cover of the book could mislead the actual meaning of the text. Just like that if the author states that the genre of the book is supposed to be horror doesn’t mean it is actually horror. Audience could view the novel or the text different ways. Certain genre has certain rules and criteria that they need to follow in order to create that genre. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she shows how the narrator who may or may not be Jane, moved into this big house with her husband John for few weeks. He is also her doctor, treating her for postpartum depression. She wasn’t supposed to do anything or meet anyone. Since she was so bored, she started to look in depth in the wall paper, and noticed a lady, the monster trying to get out of the pattern. Toward the end of the story she got worst because her illness became the monster in the wall paper. In “The Nature of Horror” by Noel Carroll, he explains how to decide if a text is classified as horror or not. There are many techniques he suggested, like a horror text should have discovery plot, or audience and narrator should feel disgusted and horrified. There should be a monster and the monster have to be from a foreign place. Based on Carroll’s text, Gilman’s story does qualifies as horror because she used the discovery plot to set the story and explained how the monster from the wall and her illness was from a foreign place, and it was threatening

The ‘Annual Global Writing Competition’ had various entries this year, which proved the wonderful talent we have all over the world. The semi finalists were Henry Lawson with ‘The Drovers Wife,’ Barbara Baynton with ‘The Chosen Vessel,’ Katherine Mansfield with ‘The Fly’ and Shirley Jackson with ‘The Lottery.’ We had a high calibre of contestants this year and the winner is Charlotte Perkins Gilman with ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’ ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a short story that emphasises a young woman struggling with the negative impacts of mental illness such as depression and nervous breakdowns. Through the fantastic use of repetition, convoluted sentence design, sophisticated language, active voice and evocative accounts of her surroundings, Gilman effectively plays with the feelings and emotions of the audience by creating a setting in which has jumping wallpapers and woman trapped behind the incarcerate designs. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ won this prestigious award due to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s use of extensive themes, various gothic elements, captivating motifs, outstanding techniques, engaging symbolism, gripping plot and the fantastic use of characterisation.

The dignified journey of the admirable story “The Yellow Wallpaper” created by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, gave the thought whether or not the outcome was influenced by female oppression and feminism. Female oppression and feminist encouraged a series of women to have the freedom to oppose for their equal rights. Signified events in the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” resulted of inequality justice for women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave the reader different literary analysis to join the unjustifiable lifestyle the unidentified woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” had to go through and escalated to insanity. Therefore, symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing help prove the unequal rights and escalating stigma of her mental disorder.

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