Not much is worse than feeling all alone in the world, feeling like no one cares or understands. The complete emptiness of being solitary for long periods of time is enough to drive someone crazy; enough to make up imaginary people living with in the confines of a room. It is enough to force an older woman to put complete confidence in a stranger that probably doesn't care at all. Lack of attention from a husband can be one of the worst forms of loneliness for a woman to endure.
Every detail of both "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck drips in loneliness and solitude. These stories, so similar in theme, leave the audience with a feeling of complete and total desolation. Both authors know how to use their words to convey the intense feelings of the characters in their stories. There is no room for doubt that the protagonists in each of these stories is at her wits end, trying to escape her own isolated world by any means possible.
In "The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilman describes the intensity with which Jane, the protagonist, despises the wallpaper in the room her husband has confined her to. After Jane gave birth to a baby, she fell ill with something her husband, John, referred to as a "nervous disorder." John thought it best for her to try the "rest cure", proposed by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and moved everyone to a beautiful mansion, secluded from all outside contact, for the summer so Jane could rest and get back to normal. In reality, she was suffering from post-partum depression and just wanted to be around people so she could get back into her old lifestyle. Locked in practically just one room for an entire summer, Jane took a huge interest in the wallpaper...
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... She has no children of her own to look after, so in a way, these flowers are like her children. She puts a good amount of her effort into nurturing them and getting them to grow big and strong, much like a mother would do to her children.
Just as Jane does in "The Yellow Wallpaper", Elisa devotes her time and energy to the flowers to make up for the fact that she can't care for another human being. Her poor relationship with Henry only fuels her need to care for something.
Gilman and Perkins use heavy attention to imagery to convey the vast amounts of loneliness and unhappiness that these women felt with their marriages. Isolation can drive women to such extremes that they may be driven mad or leave them clinging to the hope that one day someone will truly care.
Works Cited
Kelly, Joseph. The Seagull Reader. New York, London: W.W. Norton. 2005.
Through the story "The Yellow Wallpaper," written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main character is driven into a state of madness as a result of isolation. The narrator explains that she is suffering from a slight nervous depression, leaving her husband to treat her with rest. She and her husband moved to a house in the country house expecting improvement. During this time, she is placed in a solitary room with walls covered in yellow wallpaper against her will. The excessive abundance of social isolation that this character experiences brings her to an inevitable mental breakdown.
In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story is a woman who is struggling with her mental health. Throughout the story, she progressively gets worse in her condition, due to the lack of mental health awareness, and her treatment plan. To start off, she is given the “rest” method of treatment.This is a treatment that focuses on letting the brain rest due to the thought that mental health issues were just a matter of an overactive or overstimulated mind. The narrator’s husband is the reason why her condition continued to get slowly worse, his main concerns were making her normal again, even if he hurt her in the process. Although this story can be interpreted many ways, through symbolism and
While on vacation for the summer, the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is, at the most, depressed at the beginning of their visit to a colonial mansion. Her husband John, however, thinks there is nothing wrong with her except temporary nervous depression (pg 391) and has her confined to a bedroom upstairs. I believe John loves her very much and is trying to help her get well, but he won’t believe there is an illness unless he can read about it or see something physical with his own eyes. "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." (pg 391) During the time of this writing it was the norm that men dominated women. Women were to be seen but not heard. They were not to argue with men, so she was forced to do as he said. Her husband has forbidden her to "work" until she is well again. (pg 392) She is held prisoner in her bedroom and has nothing to do to keep her mind active except stare at the wallpaper, although she did sneak in writing in her journal when possible.
I-Chieh Chen (2015) in The study The Scale for the Loneliness of College Students in Taiwan (http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/download/46795/25238) stated that Loneliness was initially studied by Sullivan (1953) (A Peplau, D Perlman, LA Peplau… - Loneliness: A …, 1982 - peplaulab.ucla.edu) who proposed that loneliness was an unpleasant and intense experience related to unsatisfied requirements for intimacy (http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jedp/article/download/46795/25238). Sullivan’s research was all but neglected in his time. This neglect lasted until 1973, when Weiss, an American scholar who was an adherent of Bowlby’s attachment theory, published an article entitled “Loneliness: the experience of emotional and social isolation” (RS Weiss - 1973 - psycnet.apa.org).
In the "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes her postpartum depression through the character of Jane. Jane was locked up for bed rest and was not able to go outside to help alleviate her nervous condition. Jane develops an attachment to the wallpaper and discovers a woman in the wallpaper. This shows that her physical treatment is only leading her to madness. The background of postpartum depression can be summarized by the symptoms of postpartum depression, the current treatment, and its prevention. Many people ask themselves what happens if postpartum depression gets really bad or what increases their chances. Jane's treatment can show what can happen if it is not treated correctly. If Jane would have had different treatment, then she would not have gone insane.
The Yellow-Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It narrates the story of an unnamed woman that is subjected to the famous “rest cure” in order to cure her from her mental illness. This story shows
The main symbolic image that the flowers provide is that of life; in the first chapter of the novel Offred says “…flowers: these are not to be dismissed. I am alive.” Many of the flowers Offred encounters are in or around the house where she lives; it can be suggested that this array of floral life is a substitute for the lack of human life, birth and social interaction. The entire idea of anything growing can be seen as a substitute for a child growing. The Commander’s house contains many pictures; as they are visual images, “flowers are still allowed.” Later, when Serena is “snipping off the seed pods with a pair of shears… aiming, positioning the blades… The fruiting body,” it seems that all life is being eradicated, even that of the flowers.
In the 19th century, women had to accept their situation because they lived in a world dominated by men. In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman named Jane is suffering from postpartum depression. John, the husband of Jane is a doctor. In order to cure her illness, he tells Jane that they will go to a summer house. Once they arrive in the summer house, he orders her to stay in bed. At the beginning of the story, Jane was not sick as her husband said, all she had was postpartum depression. She was in a big house away from the others, unable to see or care for her child, in a room with ugly walls, windows with railings, without doing anything and alone, that led her to madness. Jane began to observe all objects in the room, specifically the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the way women were perceived in the 19th century by society. The illness of the narrator explains the problems of imprisonment, captivity and the lack of freedom that the women were going through in the period of the time. The yellow wallpaper acts as a metaphor of how Jane and the
In the first entry of her journal, where she describes the house she is staying in for the summer, Jane describes the wallpaper: “The color is repellent, almost revolting.” Having developed only a slight distaste for the misfit, Jane only sees the wallpaper as any “normal” person in society would. She states that knows a little bit about the “principle of design” and notes that the wallpaper doesn’t follow any sort of pattern that she recognizes, making it even more off putting. With a disagreeable pattern, and an even worse color, the misfit only really fits in with it’s own environment. Gilman describes the furniture in the room as “nothing worse than inharmonious” and the rest of the room is worn down and disturbing to say the least. No one in Jane’s company is particularly itching to be able to stay in the room, but she is forced to, driving her to maintain contact with the misfit. During the second entry to her journal, Jane’s opinion on the wallpaper starts to warp. Gilman writes, “This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had!” Instead of just being a simply disagreeable object, the wallpaper starts to become a threat. Not only has it started to personify in Jane’s mind, it is a danger in her mind. This personification of the wallpaper/misfit continues as Jane spends time with
There is far more meanings behind the yellow wallpaper than just its own color. The pattern plays an immense role in causing the woman to become so entranced and obsessed with the wallpaper, as well as the source of her ever diminishing mental health. Gilman narrates, “I never saw a worse [wall] paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns
The main character in John Steinback’s short story: The Chrysanthemums, is a married woman named Elisa Allen. She is a hardworking diligent young woman. In the opening chapters of The Chrysanthemums, Elisa is seen heartily in a great degree tendering to her gentle flowers. Powerful she is – gentle and conservative with her strength. She knows her weakness. Like the gentle calm flow of water embedding itself into layers of strata – which forms the highest peaks and grandest canyons.
This is added to by the fact that she is isolated from others. She lives in “a lonesome-looking place” with poplar trees around it that were also “lonesome-looking.” She has no visitors and does not visit others. This isolation is because of her husbands wishes. So not only does he not provide her with love or affection, he prevents her from getting companionship elsewhere.
Have you ever been locked in a dark closet? You grope about trying to feel the doorknob, straining to see a thin beam of light coming from underneath the door. As the darkness consumes you, you feel as if you will suffocate. There is a sensation of helplessness and hopelessness. Loneliness, caused by oppression, is like the same darkness that overtakes its victim. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in "The Yellow Wallpaper," recounts the story of a young mother who travels to a summer home to "rest" from her nervous condition. Her bedroom is an old nursery covered with ugly, yellow wallpaper. The more time she spends alone, the more she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper's patterns. She begins to imagine a woman behind bars in the paper. Finally, she loses her sanity and believes that she is the woman in the wallpaper, trying to escape. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses setting and symbolism to suggest that imprisoning oppression causes a type of loneliness (in women) that can lead to a deadly form of insanity.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" became significant not only in literature, but also socially, it was a current issue that Gilman was relating to at the time. Gilman sought medical help from the famous neurologist S. W. Mitchell for her slight depression. Mitchell, who prescribed his famous "rest cure", that restricted women from doing anything that labored and taxed their minds, and for Gilman, her writing. More than just a psychological study of postpartum depression, Gilman's "The Yellow...
When Elisa’s husband Henry comes over and compliments her garden and ability to grow things, Elisa is smug with him and very proud of her skill with the flowers. Her "green thumb" makes her an equal in her own eyes. When Elisa’s husband asks her if she would like to go to dinner, her feminine side comes out. She is excited to go eat at a restaurant and states that she would much rather go to the movies than go see the fights, she "wouldn’t like the fight’s" at all (paragraph 21). Elisa is taken aback by her own submissiveness and quickly becomes preoccupied with her flowers as soon as her husband leaves.