Although a reader cannot assume the narrator is also the author, in some instances the resemblance is uncanny. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, drew on her own experience of undergoing the infamous Rest Cure of Doctor Silas Weir Mitchell to write her story. According to Gilman, “[The story] was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (The Forerunner). Through her platform of writing Gilman successfully illustrated the inferiority women suffered. The Rest Cure led people to believe that women should “live as domestic a life as far as possible” and only be allowed to “have but two hours' intellectual life a day,” (The Forerunner). These restrictions propagated the idea that women were to be seen and not heard. In addition, the only place women were to be seen was in the household. The work of Doctor Mitchell shows just how controlled many women’s lives were at this time. Women succumbed to the will of their spouses constantly. Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman uses symbolism, specifically the nursery and the wallpaper, to exemplify the inferiority women dealt with in society and how it inevitably drove some women to try and find their freedom.
The theme of inferiority reoccurs throughout Gilman’s work. Throughout the story it seems as though men have the upper hand and the power in the relationship of husband and wife. The narrator’s husband, being a physician, prescribes medications to cure her hysteria. Even though she does not agree with his methods she goes along with them. An example would be when the narrator states, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas...But what is one to do?” (Gilman 625). This conformity to her husband’s wil...
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Works Cited
Mitchell, S. Weir. Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1882. The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fat and Blood, by S. Weir Mitchell. Project Gutenberg, 7 July 2005. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. ""The Yellow Wallpaper"" Portable Legacies: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction. Ed. Jan Zlotnik Schmidt and Lynne Crockett. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 624-38. Print.
Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. ""Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper"" The Forerunner Oct. 1913. The College of Staten Island Library. The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York., 9 June 1999. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was a groundbreaking piece for its time. It not only expressed feministic views through the defiance of a male but also discussed mental illness and the inefficacy of medical treatment at the time. This fictional piece questioned and challenged the submissive role forced upon women of the 19th century and disclosed some of the mental struggles one might go through during this time of questing. Gilman shows however that even in the most horrific struggle to overcome male dominance, it is possible. She herself escapes which again shows a feminist empowerment to end the
Quawas tells how there is a “sharp contrast between male and female nature.” Quawas reveals that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s true purpose is to fight for women’s rights and equality, instead of being seen as just an object to nurture the children and do the chores at home. Quawas suggests that since Charlotte Perkins Gilman cares so deeply about presenting the deeply hurtful ways women can be treated like because she lived through the era of the women being the stay-at-home-smiling-trophy-wives and got to witness the incline of women’s rights movements and the empowerment of women. Quawas says that “The Yellow Wallpaper is a particularly interesting and rich example of her audacious and defiant writing.” she says this because The Yellow Wallpaper explores the feminine rebellion against the “rest cure”. Though the narrator’s doctor husband believes in the “rest cure”, the narrator steadily makes efforts to express herself in private, such as through her journal entries. Historically the author of the yellow wallpaper went through the oppression of women and the rise of empowerment of women. She got to witness both, which allows for the inference of women empowerment being hidden throughout the yellow
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is set in the 18th century, and this specific time era helps substantiate Gilman’s view. During the 18th century women did not have a lot of rights and were often considered a lesser being to man. Women often had their opinions
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman's point of view is expressed through first person narration, which provides her readers with brief glimpses into the other characters' perception of her and her perceptions of them (which essentially enlightens readers), as well as the main character's active dissemination of what is occurring in her mind. First person narration can at times be considered biased or naive within the context of their perceptions and projections of other characters. Not so with the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper." She seems to offer an almost unbiased perspective of husband John, which the reader notes from the beginning as she goes back and forth from justifying his attitude and behavior towards her--"Dear John! He loves me dearly, and hates to have me sick" (324)--to eventually becoming mistrustful of him: "The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John" (326). One ends up viewing John as completely oblivious yet superior in his lackadaisical attitude and treatment of his wife. Therefore one has little sympathy for John in the end (which I believe is also intended), when he finally realize...
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. The New England Magazine. Reprinted in "Lives & Moments - An Introduction to Short Fiction" by Hans Ostrom. Hold,
Firstly, the majority of the characters in this piece are males, while the minority, female characters playing weak and submissive roles. For example, Ford wrote, “John is identified in relation to the patriarchy first and in relation to his wife only afterwards: he is ‘a physician of high standing and one’s own husband’. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the physician is the quintessential man, and his talk, therefore, is the epitome of male discourse” ( ). Gilman obviously shows us how society viewed the man, but also how she viewed the man. Not only was John the patriarchal figure, but he also was the ‘voice of reason’ that stunted the imagination and expressivity of his wife. This ‘voice of reason’ would make him the foil for Gilman’s narrator because she is the voice of insanity. Therefore holding true that the men hold the power, just like the gender roles have always allowed for it to
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The Story and Its Writer. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 462-473. Print.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tantalizing short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the horrifying tale of a nineteenth century woman whose husband condemns her to a rest cure, a popular approach during the era to treat post-partum depression. Although John, the unnamed narrator’s husband, does not truly believe his wife is ill, he ultimately condemns her to mental insanity through his treatment. The story somewhat resembles Gilman’s shocking personal biography, namely the rest cure she underwent under the watchful eye of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, two years after the birth of her daughter, Katherine. Superficially, the rest cure the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" endures loosely replicates Gilman’s personal anguish as she underwent such a treatment. More complexly, however, the story both accentuates and indirectly criticizes the oppression women faced in both marriage and motherhood.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. The Forerunner Charlotte Perkins Gilman‘s Magazine. Charlton Co., New York, Volume 1, No. 1 November 1909.
Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature a World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Ed. David Pike, and Ana Acosta. New York: Longman, 2011. 543-51. Print.
...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century.
Societal control of the accepted terms by which a woman can operate and live in lends itself to the ultimate subjugation of women, especially in regards to her self-expression and dissent. Gilman does an extraordinary job of effectively communicating and transforming this apparent truth into an eerie tale of one woman’s gradual spiral towards the depths of madness. This descent, however, is marked with the undertones of opportunity. On one hand, the narrator has lost all hope. On the other, she has found freedom in losing all hope. This subversion of the patriarchal paradigm is tactfully juxtaposed against a backdrop of the trappings of insanity.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. Mineola: Dover, 1997. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The story and its writer: An introduction to short fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 340-351.