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Essay on medical ethics
Elaine r hedges analysis of the yellow wallpaper
Elaine r hedges analysis of the yellow wallpaper
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In Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" there are a few possible reasons as to why she made both the narrator's husband and her brother physicians. One of the main reasons could have been to not only show how futile the advice of physicians was, but what happens when one is forced to obey it. It would have been different had she gone to see a regular physician. She could have neglected to take the advice offered to her and found her own way to treat herself. That being said, in this particular case, both the narrator's husband and brother are physicians. Although her husband is a physician, she doesn't believe that his advice is helping her at all, "John is a physician, and perhaps---(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead …show more content…
She follows this up immediately by describing the unfortunate circumstance she finds herself in, "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 temporary nervous depression---a slight hysterical tendency---what is one to do?" (486) It does not help her case that her brother is also a physician, "My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing" (486). By the end of the story, she goes from describing the woman confined within the wallpaper to becoming the woman herself. However, she could have avoided this had her husband and brother taken Gillman's advice. After following her physician's advice for a while before recognizing how harmful it was, Gillman described what ultimately cured her, "Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again--work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite--ultimately recovering some measure of power"
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” knows she is sick, but the men in her life do not think she is seriously ill. Her husband, John, and her brother are both physicians of high standing, so she does not know what to do when they diagnose her as being perfectly healthy. Even though she does not agree with their remedies, she has no say over them. She admits with discomfort, “So I take phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and airs, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again”(Gilman 956). Although she would know if she was sick and what would make her feel better than anyone else, she is forced to go along with her husband’s elaborate plan for her path to recovery.
The narrator is forbidden from work and confined to rest and leisure in the text because she is supposedly stricken with, "…temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency," that is diagnosed by both her husband and her brother, who is also a doctor (1).
Nevertheless, her attempts are futile as he dismisses her once more, putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progresses, she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous, so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars.
Perkins stated that she wrote the story after a period of being interred for mental illness, and that she was only able to recover from this illness after having ignored her doctor's advice: “Using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again…ultimately recovering some measure of power.” (Perkins, 2009. 300) From the start of the story, Perkins describes an uneven relationship between her narrator and her husband. The latter is a person of standing and has a respectable social position. He is therefore put in a position of authority. This is made clear in the lines: “ You see he does not believe I am sick!...If a physician of high standing...assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?” (Perkins, 2013. 76) From the start of the story, Perkins puts her narrator in a position in which she is surrounded by male authority figures who deny...
The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has a very negative tone towards the treatment of mental patients in the late nineteenth century.
When the only way out of a society based prison is to lose sense of all reality, then losing sense of reality it shall be. In the short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane (the narrator) becomes obsessed with the wall-paper in her bedroom, which really is a prison that has been forced on her by her husband. Jane is an imaginative young lady who enjoys writing stories, however her husband forbids her to write. Jane is suffering from a nervous condition and her husband, who is also her doctor, feels he knows what is best to keep his wife from going mad. This leaves Jane trapped in a room with no imaginative outlet, surrounded by the god awful wall-paper that begins to close in on her sanity one day at a time.
The husband and brother of the narrator are physicians, and neither believe that she is sick, they say “there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency.” (The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman) and so she is confined mentally, with what they tell her to do, although she thinks there are other things that would fare her better. As the story continues she begins to have more delusions and the wallpaper in her room begins to come alive. But the most alarming effects were the hallucinations.”
To initiate on the theme of control I will proceed to speak about the narrators husband, who has complete control over her. Her husband John has told her time and time again that she is sick; this can be viewed as control for she cannot tell him otherwise for he is a physician and he knows better, as does the narrator’s brother who is also a physician. At the beginning of the story she can be viewed as an obedient child taking orders from a professor, and whatever these male doctors say is true. The narrator goes on to say, “personally, I disagree with their ideas” (557), that goes without saying that she is not very accepting of their diagnosis yet has no option to overturn her “treatment” the bed rest and isolation. Another example of her husband’s control would be the choice in room in which she must stay in. Her opinion is about the room she stays in is of no value. She is forced to stay in a room she feels uneasy about, but John has trapped her in this particular room, where the windows have bars and the bed is bolted to the floor, and of course the dreadful wall paper, “I never worse paper in my life.” (558) she says. Although she wishes to switch rooms and be in one of the downstairs rooms one that, “opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window. ...” (558). However, she knows that, “John would not hear of it.”(558) to change the rooms.
In one portion of Gilman’s story, the narrator describes an act of treatment that her husband and physician had implemented.
The character of the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is introduced as a respected physician and a caring husband who strives to improve the mental health of his wife, the narrator, who is diagnosed with temporary nervous condition. John tries throughout the story to apply professional treatment methods and medications in his approach to helping his wife gain strength. However, his patient, his wife, seems to disregard John’s professional opinions and act as if she is following his advices only during his awakening presence with her. The narrator seems to be in need of John’s positive opinion about the status of her mental condition in order to avoid the criticism even though she disagrees with his treatment methodology. John, without doubt, cares for his wife and her wellbeing, but he does not realize how his treatment method negatively impacts their relationship his wife’s progress towards gaining strength. Although John was portrayed as a caring and a loving physician and husband to the narrator through out most of the story, he was also suggested as being intrusive and directive to a provoking level in the mind of the narrator.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” it says, “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 temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” and “Personally, I disagree with their ideas” she did not really want this treatment (Gilman 792). Mrs. Gilman actually refused this treat and did not want it. In the story, it is the same way, but, the character has no say in it because the husband controls her. The husband is a physician who made all the calls for her. He has a powerful voice not just over her, but friends and family too. Her opinion to him did not really matter. She had no voice due to the fact that at the time men had the power in a
In everyday day life we go through changes and sometimes we even break down to the point we do not know what to do with ourselves, but in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story” The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is an obsessive person. The story focuses on a woman who is going through postpartum depression and has had a nervous breakdown. Her husband John moves her into a home where he wants her to rest in isolation to recover from her disorder. Throughout her time in the room the narrator discovers new things and finally understands life.
The narrator is ordered by her husband, who is serving as her physician as well, that she is “absolutely forbidden to work” and instead get “perfect rest,” and “all the air” the narrator can get (Gilman, 549). The narrator is confined to spend her time in a room which is playing tricks on her mind until she can no longer identify reality from her imagination. Another cause of the narrator’s loneliness is her husband’s rare presence at home due to his work as a physician, “away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious,” leaving the narrator with his sister, who even then also leaves the narrator alone most of the time (Gilman, 550). The narrator falls into a state of insanity because she hardly had anyone with her to normally interact with. The only interaction she did have was that of the yellow wallpaper which constantly plagued her
Immediately, in the story Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes a statement regarding the patriarchal society. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (75). So very early we notice the outlook the woman has on herself. As they arrive at the mansion, the purpose starts to unravel slowly. As John takes her to the “room” with the yellow wallpaper, we realize this is more of a trap rather than a getaway. We find out she is “sick” because her husband and brother, who are high standing physicians tell her so. The woman says that the she is forbidden to work yet right after that she states, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me no good” (76). Therefore, this shows that the woman has opinions and thinks there are better ways to cope with her “sickness” but yet she just accepts what her husband tells her and does not ask questions. So, I believe this a good example of how the patriarchal society has affected the woman and how she simply lives her everyday life. As the woman becomes more and more attached to the wallpaper in her room, “the wallpaper elicits from her voluntary compliance with her husband’s prescriptions” (Neely para 3). He then opposes her writing, refuses to let her see friends, and eventually refuses all communication with her
"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 temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings.