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What Is The Mood Of The Yellow Wallpaper

Decent Essays

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” first published in 1892, illustrates themes such as the subordination of women in marriage through the haunting yellow wallpaper. The narrator at first does not see anything but a strange pattern, but gradually comes to realize that there is a woman trying to escape from behind bars. This wallpaper pattern represents the unfair position of women in the nineteenth century. When this story was written, women were second class citizens compared to their male husbands. At the beginning of the story, readers view the story as Gothic fiction about a woman whom the “resting cure” is forced upon by her husband. This “cure,” developed in the late 1800s, was common treatment for women suffering from hysteria or other nervous diseases. By the end of the story, the narrator sees many women behind the bars of the cage, trying to escape. Wallpaper is originally used as decoration, covering, and a way to create a mood or atmosphere. The yellow wallpaper is a symbol illustrating the narrator’s feelings of neglect throughout the story as well as the perception of all subordinated women throughout the eighteenth century. Wallpaper is …show more content…

The yellow wallpaper is symbolically attempting to cover up the true situation of women during the nineteenth century. The story conveys that restraining women from the working world and forcing them to remain at home, cooking and cleaning, will cause women to behave ignorantly and act immaturely. John, the narrator’s husband, believes he knows more than his wife could possibly know about her health and method for healing. The “resting cure” he prescribes for the narrator places her in a situation where she has no contact with the outside world, and she must not engage in any processes that require significant brainpower, similar to what women were subjected to throughout the nineteenth

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