Essay on Attempts to Communicate in The Yellow Wallpaper

1018 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is the message in the yellow wallpaper

Attempts to Communicate in The Yellow Wallpaper

Human nature is complex. Its requirements to remain healthy supersede those basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. It is human to desire attention, companionship, to communicate heart-felt sentiments, and to be understood. In order to acquire self-esteem and to battle loneliness, one naturally searches to have these desires satisfied. Charlotte Perkins Gilman vividly illustrates these human aspirations in The Yellow Wallpaper. Subsequently she paints a horrific picture of someone who fails in her quest. These elements of this short story render it to be, for any reader who has experienced these hungers, an intensely personal experience.

The heroine of this tale knows that she is not well, and the fact that medical authorities contradict her self-diagnosis frustrates her. She concedes that her husband should be more knowledgeable than her about her condition. This undermines her self-confidence in being able to evaluate herself.

"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporarily nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do?"

Another acceptable title for this short story could be "John says". Many of her feelings and much of her behavior are reactions to what John says. Her attempts to assuage her anxiety generally meet opposition by her husband. She offers suggestions to remedy her condition:

"- But John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad."

She expresses her uneasiness about the house:

"...but he said...

... middle of paper ...

... more careful!

Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!"

And she is prepared to protect her world even if it requires resorting to violence:

"But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me, - not alive!"

The Yellow Wallpaper is poignant. The heroine is in desperate need of attention, a need that is never adequately met. Although the dramatization of her development may appear extreme, considering the fact that she probably had a preexisting condition of mental instability permits the outcome to be acceptable. Although the average reader may not be able to relate to the demise of the heroine, most can understand the frustration and anxiety which accompany restrictions, the feeling of not being understood, insecurities and loneliness.

Show More
Related

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Essay

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms

    Read More

  • Explain Anselm’s version of the Ontological Argument for proving God’s existence and Gaunilo’s criticism

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    St Anselm’s argument was from a theistic stance, he had produced the Ontological Argument in a time period where the existence of God was a given. It was very rare to find atheists, therefore it may seem that the Ontological argument was used to convert atheists, it was a response to Psalms 14 and 15 which begins as “The Fool says to himself “there is no God”. However, the argument is actually from a “faith seeking understanding” view and only wants to get closer to understanding the nature of God.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wall Paper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him."(162). She feels that she should be "a good girl" and appreciate the protective love John offers to her.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Anselm For The Existence Of God

    1374 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the explanation of this argument for the existence of God, Anselm states that God is the greatest being that can be thought and nothing else can be conceived as a greater being than God. For example, when one grasp the idea of God, one thinks of that being as one who has the best properties that could exist in the world such as wisdom, power, knowledge and even the unique essence of existence, and we amplify each attribute to its limits, and as a result we have God. If we can still think of something greater than that, then we have failed to really think of something that-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought. This brief explanation of the argument is explained in detail in the following paragraphs.

    Read More

  • Treatment of Mental Disorders Exposed in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1986 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has fabricated that includes a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The narrator of this story grows obsessed with the wallpaper in her room because her husband minimizes her exposure to the outside world and maximizes her rest.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Power Of President

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    The President also has many implied powers. Implied powers are not stated in the Constitution but have been possessed throughout history. They are mainly meant for him or her to have the ability to respond to immediate crisis situations (Dautrich and Yalof 189). When a crisis or natural disasters happen, the people of the United States look to the President to come forward with an action plan to try to remedy the disaster. During Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt responded by joining World War II. When Hurricane Katrina hit President Bush supported the states by providing aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Taking actions such as these can make a President popular. Becoming popular can help them with “campaign’s for the party’s congressional candidates…[so they can] have leverage…from those members of Congress for [their] own legislative programs”(Dautrich and Yalof 190). Another one of the President’s important roles is being chief legislator. He becomes leader of his party needing a large amount of support to get the party’s goals to happen. The President also has many global roles being the leader of the United States. For example, as the head of state the President is the living symbol of our nation. Another role the President has is chief diplomat, They become “the main face and voice of American foreign policy,

    Read More

  • Analysis of John in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ssion and intrusiveness. John’s lack of having an open mind to his wife’s thoughts and opinions and his constant childish like treatment of his wife somehow emphasizes this point, although, this may not have been his intention. The narrator felt strongly that her thoughts and feelings were being disregarded and ignored as stated by the narrator “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 115), and she shows her despise of her husband giving extra care to what he considers more important cases over his wife’s case with a sarcastic notion “I am glad my case is not serious!” (Gilman 115). It is very doubtful that John is the villain of the story, his good intentions towards doing everything practical and possible to help his wife gain her strength and wellbeing is clear throughout the story.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Should Doctors Tell The Truth

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Should Doctors Tell the Truth?” Joseph Collins argues for paternalistic deception, declaring that it is permissible for physicians to deceive their patients when it is in their best interests. Collins considers his argument from a “pragmatic” standpoint, rather than a moral one, and uses his experience with the sick to justify paternalistic deception. Collins argues that in his years of practicing, he has encountered four types of patients who want to know the truth: those that want to know so they know how much time they have left, those who do not want to know and may suffer if told the truth, those who are incapable of hearing the truth, and those who do not have a serious diagnosis (605). Collins follows with the assertion that the more serious the condition is, the less likely the patient is to seek information about their health (606).

    Read More

  • Diction In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, through expressive word choice and descriptions, allows the reader to grasp the concepts she portrays and understand the way her unnamed narrator feels as the character draws herself nearer and nearer to insanity. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator writing in a journal about the summer home she and her husband have rented while their home is being remodeled. In the second entry, she mentions their bedroom which contains the horrendous yellow wallpaper. After this, not one day goes by when she doesn’t write about the wallpaper. She talks about the twisting, never-ending pattern; the heads she can see hanging upside-down as if strangled by it; and most importantly the

    Read More

  • The Meaning of the Wallpaper in The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is given its name for no other reason than the disturbing yellow wallpaper that the narrator comes to hate so much; it also plays as a significant symbol in the story. The wallpaper itself can represent many various ideas and circumstances, and among them, the sense of feeling trapped, the impulse of creativity gone awry, and what was supposed to be a simple distraction transfigures into an unhealthy obsession. By examining the continuous references to the yellow wallpaper itself, one can begin to notice how their frequency develops the plot throughout the course of the story. As well as giving the reader an understanding as to why the wallpaper is a more adequate and appropriate symbol to represent the lady’s confinement and the deterioration of her mental and emotional health. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the color of the wallpaper symbolizes the internal and external conflicts of the narrator that reflect the expectations and treatment of the narrator, as well as represent the sense of being controlled in addition to the feeling of being trapped.

    Read More

  • The Narrator of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Short Story, The Yellow Wallpaper

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    The narrator is trying to get better from her illness but her husband “He laughs at me so about this wallpaper” (515). He puts her down and her insecurities do not make it any better. She is treated like a child. John says to his wife “What is it little girl” (518)? Since he is taking care of her she must obey him “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”. The narrator thinks John is the reason why she cannot get better because he wants her to stay in a room instead of communicating with the world and working outside the house.

    Read More

  • Anselm's Ontological Argument Essay

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    In conclusion, Anselm’s ontological argument is based on the concept analyze instead of the fact or experience. He uses the logical analysis for the concept of God, then he uses the concept of the God which he gives to people as the start point to prove God exists. In this argument, the biggest problem is that Anselm is a believer for God. Before he tries to prove God exists, deep in his mind, he already thought that God is existence. Then he can come up with some concepts that can only accepted by the Christians to prove that God exists. I think that for a Christian like Anselm, the ontological argument still a good example to prove that God exists. However, for people who do not believed in God, this argument is difficult to convince them.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Self Expression In The Yellow Wallpaper

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gilman shows through this theme that when one is forced to stay mentally inactive can only lead to mental self-destruction. The narrator is forced into a room and told to be passive, she is not allowed to have visitors, or write, or do much at all besides sleep. Her husband believes that a resting cure will rid her of her “slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 478). Without the means to express herself or exercise her mind in anyway the narrator begins to delve deeper and deeper into her fantasies. The narrator begins to keep a secret journal, about which she states “And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way - it is such a relief” (Gilman 483)! John tells his wife that she must control her imagination, lest it run away with her. In this way John has asserted full and complete dominance over his wife. The narrator, though an equal adult to her husband, is reduced to an infancy. In this state the narrator begins her slow descent into hysteria, for in her effort to understand herself she fully and completely loses herself.

    Read More

  • Anselm And Descartes Argument

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anselm’s argument for the existence of God is quite simple. He first proclaims that humans can grasp in their mind “something than which nothing greater can be thought” (Anselm 7). This “something” is an all-perfect God. Then, Anselm states that, if the all-perfect God existed only in thought, then something greater than the the all-perfect God can be conceived, namely, an all-perfect God that exists in reality. And

    Read More

  • Marital Rape Essay

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to statistics, 90% of rape victims are female, and over 98% of rapists are male. Because of our patriarchal society, the majority of all rapes happen to women. A patriarchal society is a predominantly male based society, meaning that men are deemed to be more superior t...

    Read More

More about Essay on Attempts to Communicate in The Yellow Wallpaper

Open Document