Yellow Wallpaper Theme

  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbolic tale of one woman’s struggle to break free from her mental prison.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the reader how quickly insanity takes hold when a person is taken out of context and completely isolated from the rest of the world.  The narrator is a depressed woman who cannot handle being alone and retreats into her own delusions as opposed to accepting her reality.  This mental prison is a symbol for the actual repression of women’s rights in society and we see the consequences when a woman tries to free herself from this social slavery.

She has been trained to trust in her husband blindly and sees no other way. He calls her “little girl” (352) and “little goose” (349) and states “She will be as sick as she pleases!” (352) whenever she tries to express her issues. Instead of fighting for what she thinks will make her better she accepts it and keeps pushing her feelings aside, while he treats her like a child. We get an instant feel for her problem in the first page when she says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (pg 346). A woman shouldn’t expect her husband to laugh at her concerns. Even after briefly writing about her condition she remembers her husband telling her the very worst thing she can do is think about it and follows his instructions. This is when she begins to focus on the house instead of her problems and the obsession with the wallpaper starts. She has nothing else to think about alone in the home; they don’t even allow her to write, which she has to do in secret.

Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely

The geographical, physical, and historical settings in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" were more than the primary character could handle. The geography would lead to think she could enjoy the environment, but she chose not to. The physical setting showed us the reader just how grotesque and unbearable it would be to live a room in which the wallpaper to over the narrators mind. Lastly, we looked at how historically women were not allowed to speak their minds about how they felt. Maybe now that John has seen his wife go completely insane for himself he will finally seek extra attention for

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” suggests that the woman behind the wallpaper parallels the narrator’s struggle

Being secluded from the outside world, and having nothing to do made the home feel like a prison. The similarities between the main character of, “The Yellow Wall-paper” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman are uncanny. There is a lot of room for analysis within this story. Almost every line of this story can be picked apart to find hidden, yet important meanings.

Feminist studies generally focus on the role that hysterical diagnoses and treatments played in reinforcing the prevailing, male-dominant gender roles through the subversion, manipulation and degrading of female experience through the use of medical treatments and power structures. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “ The Yellow Wallpaper” is a perfect example of these themes. In writing this story, Charlotte Perkins Gilman drew upon her own personal experiences with hysteria. The adoption of the sick-role was a product of-and a reaction against gender norms and all of the pressures and tensions that their satisfaction demanded. Gilman’s essay uses autobiographical experiences displayed as doppelganger quality the in the main narrator of the

During this period (late 1800 -- early 1900's) it was common for physicians to treat depression with the "rest cure" of complete bed rest and limited intellectual activity. Therefore, despite her opposition to the treatment the narrator adheres to the restrictions with the exception of covertly writing in a journal about her feelings, daily routine and the mansion. Her initial focus is on the mansion, the surrounding gardens and the bedroom chosen for her during her stay.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character, Jane encounters a mental illness that would take control of her entire life. The progression of Jane's mental illness is demonstrated through the environment and how her surroundings depict her mental state. The house Jane lives in is a physical representation of her mental state. As the story progresses Jane has completely become isolated from her family and the rest of society. Jane is a prisoner in her own home.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Although the work is short, it is one of the most interesting works in existence. Gilman uses literary techniques very well. The symbolism of The Yellow Wall-Paper, can be seen and employed after some thought and make sense immediately. The views and ideals of society are often found in literary works. Whether the author is trying to show the ills of society of merely telling a story, culture is woven onto the words.

            In order to treat this "temporary nervous depression," John isolates her from society and orders her to do nothing but rest.  He even becomes upset when she wishes to write, causing this story to be "composed" of writings she manages to do in secret.  John places her in the attic of the mansion, like a dirty secret, in what she believes to be a former nursery.  There is, however, strong evidence that the narrator is not the first mental patient to occupy the room.  There are bars on the windows, gouges in the floor and walls, and rings fastened to the walls; the bed is bolted down and has been gnawed on, and the wallpaper has been torn off in patches.

In the story”The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman reveals changes in the narrator that expresses the yellow wallpaper which she has to write down in her journal because the 1900’s women didn't get the respect that men all got. At first the wallpaper was nothing to her but now it has her and now she is found of the room. The different symbols used in the,” The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveal changes the narrator to a feminist story which shows her frustration by being trapped and not being herself. First symbol that Gilman stated in this reading was the yellow wallpaper. In this symbol the narrator has thoughts of hating the room with this wallpaper but throughout the story the wallpaper dwells in her.

     In the short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper'; by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband move to a colonial mansion for three months in order to help the narrator get better. She moves upstairs in this horrid room with yellow wallpaper. Throughout the story she studies the wallpaper because she isn't allowed out of the room that much because her husband, John, a physician, says that it is best that she stays inside. As she learns more about the wallpaper she realizes that she sees a woman inside it and she spends a lot of time plotting how to free the woman. She locks her room and tears off most of the wallpaper and frees the woman. At the end John comes into the room, sees

She begins to fixate on the yellow wallpaper that coats the walls of their room. She hates this wallpaper, specifically stating, “I never saw a worse paper in my life” (Gilman, 1892). However, over time she slowly begins to see herself in the wallpaper. She is living a life where she feels trapped; something is wrong with her and every time she tries to talk to her husband about it he tells her it is all in her head. She wants to get out, she wants to feel better, but her thoughts begin to take her into a deep downward spiral. She believes she is the one stuck behind the wallpaper and that those around her put her back in every night, “I’ve got out at last, said I, in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman, 1892). Her husband faints because at last he finally sees just how sick his wife really is (Gilman,

While in the room, she feels uncomfortable and sees the room as a prison in her own house. She is restricted to doing nothing, but she chooses to secretly write in a journal because it is the only thing that she feels keeps her sane. As she describes and writes about the room even more, she seems to grow interest in this wallpaper explaining details of the wallpaper saying “I never saw a worse paper in my life.” (Gilman). She begins to further examine this yellow wallpaper and believes that she sees something the wallpaper that no one else can see or relate to for that matter.