...“THE YELLOW WALLPAPER” BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN Introduction In the late nineteenth century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1973) wrote “The Yellow Wall Paper”. This story can make a readers' mind think just by the way this story presents the main character of a woman and her ordeals as she lived a secluded life, as well as how her relationship with the man in her life is dealt. Some readers might think she is crazy and some may think she is depressed. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the story of a woman's descent into madness as the result of being isolated as a form of "treatment" when suffering from post-partum depression. The author, who is believed to be narrator as well, talks about her personal travel in to the world where an illness has brought her. All her thought and feelings are written in a journal and as she goes down in to the world that she has created in the confines of the room where she was kept. The story line presents that the narrator's mental condition is getting worse, leading to psychosis. Gilman explains the complexities of woman nature as she uses symbolisms to define the psychological realms of the plot. “The Yellow Wallpaper” The unnamed woman in this story (believed to be the author herself) fantasies about the yellow wallpaper are driving her mad. The protagonist experienced hallucinations and persistent thoughts over things. Crawling women, colorful artwork and a moving pattern depict the narrator's increased anxiety...
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...The Yellow Wallpaper was written by the prominent American feminist, Charlotte Gilman. It was published on January of 1892 and has been read by millions of people over the years. This story attempts to give a man perspective so he can further understand the struggles of being a woman. Gilman uses Syntax, Diction, and Figurative Language to develop her theme, which is that women want to have the same rights as men and to be as highly portrayed. Gilman uses excellent structure throughout her story, and the sentence functionality is used correlate to the story in a very interesting way while proving her point that women deserve more respect. Later, as the character begins to 'fall apart', you can notice that the Syntax creativity does as well. The story begins a little more playfully with the punctuation and long clauses: "John is a physician, and perhaps - (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) -perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster" (Gilman, 1). This is a reference to her feministic points of view, stating...
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...Instructor: Joshua Weathersby EN 210 September 20, 2015 Feminist For the first paper, I want to talk about a fiction called “The Yellow Wall-paper” which made a profound impression on me. This short novel is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman who is a well-known American novelist and wrote so many works about feminist. She also made a huge contribution of feminist movement from 19 to 20 century. If we want to know well about a fiction, the first thing we need to do is to understand the experience or background of the author. According to the introduction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the book “The Norton Anthology American Literature”, she was born in Hartford, Connecticut and had an unfortunate childhood. When she was young, her father divorced with her mother. Then, she lived a hard life with her father. Maybe because of this reason, she showed a high degree of autonomy and independence in her young age. Gilman got married in 1884, and had a daughter. However, her marriage is not so lasting and it ended in 1888 (484). Housework always troubled her and made her almost breakdown. As for this fiction which called “The Yellow Wall-paper”, it was published in 1892 and this novel was written based on Gilman’s life experience. At the beginning, the heroine was send to a villa which was in a remote suburban for recuperating by her husband, because she suffered from mild postpartum depression. She was forced to accept medical treatment in this villa, and lived like a prisoner...
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...Charlotte Gilman uses her experience with postpartum depression to create a short story called “The Yellow Wallpaper”, that describes a woman with hallucinations from confinement. The narrator's husband, John, is a doctor who belittles his wife as if she’s a child, which is only normal for this time period. While the narrator is trapped in a room with yellow wallpaper, she realizes there is more than one woman trapped behind the wall, it symbolizes she is not the only individual dealing with this problem. By writing this story, the author is not only condemning the narrator's husband, John, but the whole society of the 19th century. In Charlotte Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator and her husband have an unequal relationship, her husband is controlling and domineering, and themes in this story prove society of the 19th century was not much better....
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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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...English - 205 Baby Blues Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “ The Yellow Wallpaper ”is a tragic story of a women in the 1890’s, whose oppressive treatment by her physian husband for her postpartum depression, causes her to spiral into madness. The setting is the narrator’s constant companion as she suffers through her rest therapy, which was the popular treatment at that time for women given to fits of “hysteria”(Gilman, [2006] p.487-491 ). The author focuses on the setting to get the reader’s attention, and to pull them into a world that the narrator has created to ensure her survival. The narrator has only her imagination while she suffers through her imprisonment alone. Away from her home, family, and friends in an isolated country house, she is forced to endure her quiet time in an aged nursery room. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, and a haunted house are a few of Gilman‘s descriptions used to to pique your curiosity. Subtle hints throughout the story make you wonder if this deserted rundown place was at one time some type of sanitarium, for instance; the barred windows, rings on the walls, gate at the head of the stairs, or the bed frame nailed to the floor. Yet as she notices these strange things, her denial quickly explains them away (p. 487-489) . This forced treatment of solitude seems only to contribute to her mental illness, which sends her into a severe depression. Trapped without any form of stimulation or distraction, ...
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...The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, shows the slow progression of insanity the narrator/Jane experiences through the fixation of the yellow wallpaper. In the beginning the narrator seems to be stable, she expresses her shock and pleasure of vacationing at the Estate. We go on to learn the true reason and intent her husband John meant for the stay. John felt it to be necessary for a break, to her cure her nervous condition. By hindering her creativity and imagination, with the stifling role of mother and wife, lead her to become more and more unreliable. We question on several occasions whether if it is truly her illness causing the paranoia, or if it is John’s treatment causing her loss of sanity. As soon as...
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...Carolyn A. Holley English 227 27 June 2010 The Yellow Wallpaper: Analyzing Literary Madness A short story about a new mother, happily married to a doting husband-who also happens to be a well respected doctor- relaxing at a manor in the countryside does not sounds like the beginnings to a tale of paranoia and psychosis; but in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper it is exactly that. The setting in this story is what gives it its depth and gives relevancy to the plot. The Yellow Wallpaper gives insight into the deranged mind of woman whose obsession and delusions about particularly hideous wallpaper that causes her mental and physical state to creep into darkness. Gilman, herself, suffered from postpartum depression and had a history of mental illness which is the reason the story reads so convincingly. The author’s views on feminism and women’s roles in society in her own life and setting also come into play repeatedly throughout the story in the interactions with the main character. Imagine a sprawling colonial mansion surrounded by lush gardens, filled with airy rooms and rich furniture is what you find yourself calling home. Jane’s loving husband, John, takes care of all the finances, there is a nanny, Mary, to take care of your child, and your precious sister-in-law, Jennie, to keep the house in order fills the mansion with life. Does this scenario sound bad in any way to the? From the perspective of the main character this is absolute torture. The setting...
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...The Yellow Wallpaper By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman Conflict is the commotion that is created between characters or their ideas. It could also be the mental dilemma a character might face. In the Yellow Wallpaper, a short story written in the early 1890s in California was able to show a range of conflicts. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who has given birth and is suffering from postpartum depression which was not discovered during that time. The short story is told in the first-person narrative from a woman’s perspective which shows conflict that is created between her and her husband, the society and the yellow wallpaper. The narrator’s mental deterioration is shown in the story clearly and this had created conflicts which the narrator had found her own way of resolving. The major conflict in the Yellow Wallpaper is the conflict between the narrator and her husband. Their conflict is mainly caused by the lack of trust that is inflicted upon their relationship “You see, he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” This indicates that the writer’s husband whom is also her doctor doesn’t trust his wife and plays a major role in her ‘nervous breakdown’. “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” The husband, John is a controlling husband that babies his wife and has isolated her from the outside world by putting her in a room because of her alleged illness. John is manipulative and authoritative...
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...Marggiori Salas Professor Cordell Composition II 7/26/12 The Meaning Behind “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilmanʼs “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story of a woman who is not only trapped in a room but is trapped in her mind by her seemingly loving and patient, husband John. He is a physician and believes his wife’s nervous condition is curable by isolating her in a room without any mental stimulation including: exercise, work, reading, writing or any kind of excitement. This was called a “rest cure” at the time the story was written. Gilman herself was treated in this way and the story is a fictional version of her own experience. Gilman removed herself from the treatment when she realized it was not working. The wife in this story secretly writes in a journal like Gilman regardless of what her husband might say. Gradually, she starts to write more and more about the yellow wallpaper since this is the only stimulating thing in the room. The wallpaper increasingly fascinates her until it seems to her to have a life of it’s own and she ends up losing her sanity. This story is an example of how a wife and mother was perceived in the turn of the century as a fragile, helpless creature, without a voice beyond her husbands and how this woman ultimately proves how ineffective this treatment is in the worst possible way. The narrator starts out saying the house her husband has rented is haunted,...
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...Feminist allegory: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published for the first time in 1892 and it is oftentimes referred as being a feminist, psychological or even a gothic story. From a feminist point of view, or women's liberation movement this story is taking into account the supposition that woman should have the same human, social and political rights as men, moreover, that they ought to have the same opportunities as men, and make their own decisions with respect to vocations, and legislative issues. In this story Gilman portrays a woman’s personal conflict with her unjust conditions. In the first place a feminist story is written by a woman, and it reveals...
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...“Women's liberation” When my parents were still married I saw first hand how repressing, nonfunctional and dissatisfying patriarchal marriages can be, specifically for the women involved. I often saw how my dad would try to control my mother and tell her how things should be run inside our home as well as outside. He would restrict her in every possible way to the point where she would have little to no say in the decisions taken at home. He would restrict her from hanging out or even talking to certain friends because he though they were a bad influence on her and they would end up filling her head with “nonsense”. It extended to the point where she wasn't even allowed to speak with any male outside of her family. Since my mom was a stay at home mom and didn't have a job outside of our house she would depend on my dad economically and this meant he was often the one who took the economic decisions of our family and often most of the decisions. My dad believed a women should not work and should stay at home to take care of her children and her husband. This would often make my mom dissatisfied with her marriage because he would treat her more like a maid than his wife. She would never be in the same level in the relationship as him, she would always be below him. She would always have to be the one making sacrifices for the sake of our family and her marriage. This type of marriage was very common in Mexico where we lived at the time. Since Mexico has a patriarchal society...
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...Maddie Hawkins Accel. English 10 Presswood 01.05.15 Equality “A woman is human; she is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human” — Vera Nazarian. Unfortunately, this idea is not seen in action in society. A story that displays the equality rift between men and women is the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, which displays the worsening of the human condition in women when they’re controlled and suppressed by the men in their lives. There have been many instances of inequality between men and women expressed, and sometimes addressed, in the media as well. Women continue to be treated unequally in society compared to men, socially...
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...Gilman with The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes this depressing short story called The Yellow Wallpaper that really explores the views of the medical world during the 19th century and how male doctors looked at woman with the postpartum depression as if it was no worse than the simple cold. Gilman uses Jane, a young woman, in her story to help express her own views of the feminist world. Along with these views Gilman uses her own journey and experiences through life to depict how painful and unproductive the rest cure actually was for women that male doctors diagnosed them with. As Jane is locked away in this room she begins to discover the woman inside the wallpaper and as she begins to peel away the paper it’s a way she becomes...
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...A Psychoanalytic Approach to “The Yellow Wallpaper” The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” first appeared in the January 1882 publication of The New England Magazine, a monthly literary magazine published in Boston. Authored by Charlotte Perkins Gilman this short story was not well received at printing and was not reprinted until twenty-eight years later in William Dean Howell’s collection,The Great American Short Stories in 1920. As part of the collection it gained some popularity for a time and then just died out again. Unfortunately this was the extent of the life of her work while she was still alive. However in 1973 the story was reissued by the Feminist Press with an exceptional commentary by Elaine Hedges and finally became popularly rediscovered. Elaine Hedges explained the work as a “pioneering masterpiece of feminist literature” (Pompele 61). Since the publication, theorists using a Feminist approach most overwhelmingly study the story.Gilman’s emphasis on the importance of language and text, and the fact that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a tale of mental breakdown, make Lacanian psychoanalytic a natural way to consider the work in order to help readers understand the author’s use of language as a manifestation not of herself but the “other” as a means to safely express herself. As an autobiographical story there exist very undeniable connections between Gilman’s personal life and that of the narrator. A study of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is quite remiss if not...
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