...The Wallpaper To many critics, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about a symbol. Wallpaper, a furnishing associated with domesticity, is used to represent the cultural pattern of male dominance and female submission that circumscribes the Narrator’s mental freedom. Just as the wallpaper with its imprisoning pattern literally surround the Narrator, the course of rest and quiet prescribed by her physician/husband comes to repress her body and mind. Though the Narrator’s body remains trapped – forced to creep – by the house and the wallpaper; her mind frees itself, first through her journal and then by succumbing to insanity and delusion. The irony that insanity was the thing which her physician/husband most sought to avoid only compounds the Narrator’s helplessness. For, as she observes several times in the story, her physician/husband has good intentions and is doing what he believes correct. This puts the Narrator in the position of appearing ungrateful, and thus deserving more treatment if she argues against it. The parallels between the wallpaper and the Narrator are clearly delineated. Outwardly the paper’s disgusting shade of yellow symbolizes the Narrator’s own “illness” – the depression borne of nervous anxiety as diagnosed by her physician/husband. The sickly yellow, however, supports the wallpaper’s chaotic and restrictive pattern just as the Narrator’s illness is fed by the restrictions placed upon her body and mind by the male-centric world she inhabits. Finally, the...
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...“The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about a young woman whose husband takes her to a country home for the summer in order for her to get some rest and fresh air to cure her of her nervousness, but she has an obsession with the wallpaper and ends up going completely mad. The narrator is a mother of an infant and wife of a physician, John, who decides that her nervous condition can be cured with plenty of rest, tonics, and sunshine and fresh air. She believes her condition would improve with “congenial work, with excitement and change” (Gilman 221). Being in the same room day after day, she begins to try and make sense of the pattern in and behind the wallpaper, seeing a creeping woman. The narrator’s fixation with the old yellow wallpaper drives her insane. Gilman implies that the discouragement of mental development can have negative effects on one’s psyche. The narrator is treated like a small child by her husband and is told not to think about her condition or write in her journal. She hides her suffering from her husband and takes great pains to show proper self-control when he is around (Gilman 222). When the narrator does mention to John that perhaps she is not getting better, “he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word” (Gilman 225). With no intellectual activity and no one to converse with, the yellow wallpaper becomes her primary stimulus leading her...
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...Lack of Creativity and Isolation in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents an unnamed woman who gradually spirals into a state of mental psychosis. Gilman sought to bring attention to the unfair treatment of women in the nineteenth century. She uses this story to reveal to the audience that the narrator’s insanity stems from her isolation from society, and her inability to be expressive and creative through writing. Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is locked away in an isolated room, which was supposed to cure her mental disorder but instead it makes her worse. With the windows barred and the doors locked she is secluded from society. She wishes to go visit her cousin Henry and Julia, but John forbids her by telling his wife that “[she] wasn’t able to go, nor able to stand it after [she] got there; and [she] did not make out a very good case for [herself], for [she] was crying before [she] had even finished” (Gilman 92). The constant isolation causes her to focus only on the room in which she is living in, and more specifically the yellow wallpaper. She becomes obsessed with analyzing and examining the wallpaper and it causes her to become further insane. She says, “On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind” (Gilman 93). The narrator realizes that the wallpaper is an annoyance to someone with a normal mind. However, for her, she...
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...The Yellow Wallpaper The writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes the short story ‘’The Yellow Wallpaper’’, in 1899. A period of time where women weren’t allowed to have equal rights or the same opportunities as men had because of the male dominated society. The short story is written in first person narrator with a limited point of view. The narrators’ husband, named John, is a physician and she is very dominated by him. She is mentally ill and her husband always tells her what to not do and in her head she doesn’t agree with his methods ”Personally, I disagree with their ideas”(p. 1, l. 24), but she does it almost as he says anyway. John is a physician why truly believes in physic and that is the reason why he doesn’t consider her as ill, it is not measurable. She is depressed by her duties, she is also nervous and insecure: “But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing”(p. 2, l. 37), even though all she wants is to be good and helpful. “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!”(p. 2, l. 41-42). The narrator is very fragile and she think it’s nearly an impossible thought to be with her baby: “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.” (p. 3, l. 1-2). This may indicate that she is suffering from a birth depression. Women suffocating from a birth depression are not rare and therefore this could be the illness she is suffering...
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...reading Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. I found the story very intriguing and quite disturbing- but that’s what made this story very appealing to me. For me, it was interesting to see the psychological breakdown of a character from a first person point of view- it made it all the more relatable. This story does not remind me of any others I have read or heard, however, I can relate to this story based on my knowledge of psychology and on my personal experience with being mentally ill such as depression as in this story. What makes this story even more haunting to me is the ending. It is somewhat unclear to me as to who Jane is or what eventually happens to the narrator at the end of the story. The significance...
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...The Yellow Wallpaper Being deprived of imagination and freedom by her husband, the distraught narrator’s gradual obsession of the wallpaper ultimately portrays a reflection of her own trapped, hopeless life. At the beginning of the short story, the unnamed narrator first explains her unique predicament: Her husband John, who is also a doctor, diagnoses her with “temporary nervous depression.” As a result, John puts her on medication and they move to a vacant house for three months. John also encourages her not to promote any thoughts of imagination or “fancies.” The narrator further explains the practical personality of John: “He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (508). Even at this point it is evident that the narrator has no form of freedom in her life; her husband is constantly controlling her with procedural instructions. Needless to say, John is the one who initially provokes the narrator’s obsessive nature. The strict methods of his “cure” ironically lead the narrator to seek some sort of diversion from her dull life, which came to be the symbolic yellow wallpaper. When the narrator starts writing about the wallpaper, it is initially described as dull and distasteful. The narrator explains why she is so disgusted: “The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (509). As her husband...
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...Through out the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main characters finds herself led into a state of insanity. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator explains that she is suffering from post partum depression, leaving her husband to treat her with rest cure or bed rest. During this time, she is placed in a solitary room with walls covered in yellow wallpaper. The over abundance of social isolation the characters experience leads to their states of insanity. Through out “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is locked away in an isolated room, which was supposed to cure her disorder, but instead, the treatment makes her worse. With the locked door and barred windows, she is secluded from the real world and what was once supposed to refresh her mind, dulls it. She finds herself only exposed to the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her, which is explained as a scattered and unorganized pattern. The constant isolation, time for examination and reflections of this wallpaper causes her to become further insane. “On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind” (6.1). This shows that she is aware that this pattern is an annoyance to someone with a normal mind. Although, for her, she has nothing else to focus on; therefore she relies on her imagination to pass the time. Eventually she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper leaving her in an insane state of mind...
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...The Culture of The Yellow Wallpaper Through her many stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, developed the notion of how being a strong independent woman can be inspirational to all. The expression of her personal feelings and opinions behind the guise of a seemingly fictional story brings new life to the story itself. During the nineteenth century, there were many stereotypes of what was expected from women. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman composes the story of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression and finds an infatuation with a wall covered with yellow wallpaper. Seeing that Gilman herself has experienced this form of mental illness, we can analyze the context of the text and see the reflection of her own life through...
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...of the story, The Cask of Amontillado. Art can be defined as a physical expression of creativity and imagination. This can often be seen in works of literature such as The Yellow Wallpaper. In this story, Jane, is a mentally ill woman with post-partum depression. They reside in a home where Jane is imprisoned in her bedroom with damaged yellow wallpaper. After continuously staring at the wallpaper, it becomes and obsession and it is all she can fixate on. She writes about this in her forbidden journal. In this journal she channels her creativity because it is the only way she is free, in the written expression of her emotions. Jane confides in her writing, that she believes someone is lurking in the wallpaper and trying to escape. She begins to believe this is a trapped woman. This trapped woman, to the reader, seems to be a reflection of Jane. At the end of the story, her husband finds her having torn down the yellow wallpaper and releasing the woman claiming she is now free. This journal is how Jane physically expresses her imagination and is a coping mechanism for her to survive the post-partum. She uses this written expression of art to help her withstand imprisonment by her husband. The use of the journal and creativity helped advance the plot line because the reader could easily see Jane’s descent into madness. Without this use of art, The Yellow Wallpaper, would have just been a narrative tale of a crazy woman told from third person perspective. When I...
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...“The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was a famous English writer. The sole of her famous work “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written when she was in a strange physical and mental condition. The atmosphere the story was developed also had a great influence to make this story meaningful and interesting. This writing is a best example of fiction in which the narrator inputs some of her imaginary fancies. It may also have some real life coincidence and moments. This story also tells the readers about her depression, eager to express her feelings through writing and her strange mental condition. Firstly in the writing, the author is saying that “You see, he does not believe I am sock ! And what can one do?(Bausch & Cassill, 2006). From the above statement it is understood that she is trying to express about her real physical and mental condition. As a physician, her husband John will not agree with the above said statement. Both her husband and her brother are physicians with well reputation. Their conclusion about her is that her fancy thoughts and imaginations are making her disturbed and that makes her sick. Secondly, in the fiction “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try (Bausch & Cassill, 2006). This gives the readers a clear view about her eagerness to write and express her thoughts. But her physical and mental condition limits...
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...In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses first person narration to describe protagonist character, Jane’s mental state of mind. The narrator conveys this message through yellow wallpaper. The wallpapers color/smell and pointless pattern communicate the narrator’s unspoken suppressed feelings/emotions and thoughts. Furthermore, the symbolic detail of the wallpaper reveals the narrator’s mental state of mind, confusion and absence from reality. The bedroom is imparted by the narrator as a room that is big/airy with sunshine galore yet confined by barring windows and a bed nailed to the floor. “It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore”...
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...ushering in some form of conflict helps to develop a character without taking the attention away from them. This contrast brings out character flaws or highlights which makes the character and story more dynamic. Descriptive detail is highlighted in “Royal Beatings”. In this short story the detail helps to fill-out the character, to develop her; to give you a peak into her psyche. Rose’s imagination gives a great example of descriptive detail as it relates to her beatings “the blood came leaping out like banners” is a line that resonated with me. There is a sense of theatricality to the part she has to play in this story; “She plays his victim with self-indulgence that arouses, and maybe hopes to arouse” is a line that also lends heed to this notion. The descriptive detail in her thoughts are so vivid that you can’t help but visualize what she is thinking. You can understand and relate to her character having to retreat to these fantastical thoughts in order to cope with life. Examples of emphasis on a single character are evident in both “Royal Beatings” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Flo’s ongoing physical abuse and emotional isolation from her father and stepmother and longing for a connection to her dead mother brings to light the extreme struggle she has gone through in her...
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...Homework # 2: “The Chrysanthemums” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” In what ways does each character experience a miscommunication or a misunderstanding? There was miscommunication between Elisa and her husband,Henry, after he made a comment regarding how pretty she looked in a dress. She takes offense, claiming that she has always been strong. As they head down the road, she sees the chrysanthemum sprouts that she had given to the traveler on the side of the road. Then she cries. As the story progresses, the wife discern misunderstanding regarding the yellow wallpaper. She sees behind the wallpaper begin to merge together. She claims she sees figures moving around on the wallpaper, but that could have just been her shadow from the moonlight. Either way, it paves the way for her to eventually become a woman behind the yellow wallpaper...
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...likely play the dominant role in decision-makings. Generally, male chauvinism is one of the major issues caused the gender discrimination. For instance, according to the Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman used the first person narrator to narrate that in order help her recover from the nervous depression, her husband stopped her from doing everything except taking a rest (Gilman 1899). The author used this narrative point of view to express how she was ignored, but incapability had no choice to change it. Moreover, the author intentionally emphasized her husband’s high social status while comparing with her menial work, which strongly represents the imparity between men and women. Through this writing style, Gilman modeled this female protagonist with unlimited potential but did not get acceptance, was asked to give up writing and even her imagination was deprived. All these details symbolized that she was bound up in fetters of male chauvinism. Furthermore, Gilman used abundant descriptions of the repellent yellow wallpaper and her attitude to express how tightly she was tied by the male chauvinism. Especially, this dull yellow wallpaper plays a vital role in symbolizing the discrimination of women, which strongly affected Gilman’s mind and finally made her crazy (Gilman 1899). For looking at this ironic yellow wallpaper, Gilman saw a woman who was imprisoned like her, so she attempted to struggle to the free of herself, which effectively shows how humble the woman social roles were. Also...
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...Gender roles have always existed, but Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” shows how these gender roles had extreme consequences for women in the 1900’s. “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses several topics in De Beauvoir and Gilbert and Gubar’s texts by illustrating the passivity forced onto women, the aura of mystery that subsequently surrounds the feminine, and the mental illness that inevitably follows. Gilman’s text is a tale that warns of the dangers of forcing inactivity onto women. The narrator’s husband, a physician named John, diagnoses her with a “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 648). He prescribes for her uninterrupted isolation: a “rest cure.” This was a common treatment for hysteria...
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