Why You Should Use Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived in a time when sexism was a much more predominant than it is today. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman uses symbolism and irony to express feminist thought. Charlotte Gilman experienced unfair treatment similar to what is described in her story in her lifetime and was a pioneer of feminism. She uses the narrator, Jane, as an example of how harsh certain treatments can be and of the toll they can have on someone mentally. Charlotte Gilman uses the narrator of this story to express her opinion of how horrible unfair treatment can be and the effects it can have on someone. Her husband, John, treats the narrator as though she is a child throughout the story, and he considers her less intelligent because of this. One of the first examples is that the narrator 's husband and brother are both introduced as physicians. This begins the story with her being surrounded by people who are seemingly more intelligent than she. At the beginning of the story, a “physician of high standing” (Gilman, pg. 328) examines her, and the men, …show more content…
This would symbolize how women dealt with the tension that would have been caused and the results it had on them. The narrator first starts to lose credibility when she says that she is glad that she has to be the one in the room so that her child will not have to bear the wallpaper, but she secretly believes that she is wise to come to this conclusion and that she cannot tell the others. She comes to the conclusion that John and Jennie are intrigued by the wallpaper as well. She says she catches them looking at it, and she catches Jennie touching it once. She also comes to the “realization” that a woman is trapped within the wallpaper, which could symbolize the way women were “trapped” by men. The original “treatment” was the ultimate cause of all her
Misogynistic Confinement Yellow Wallpaper depicts the nervous breakdown of a young woman and is an example as well as a protest of the patriarchal gender based treatments of mental illness women of the nineteenth century were subjected to. The narrator begins the story by recounting how she speculates there may be something wrong with the mansion they will be living in for three months. According to her, the price of rent was way too cheap and she even goes on to describe it as “queer”. However, she is quickly laughed at and dismissed by her husband, who as she puts it “is practical in the extreme.” As the story continues, the reader learns that the narrator is thought to be sick by her husband John, yet she is not as convinced as him.
The setting of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is crucial to the reader’s understanding of the narrator 's experiences. Even though the narrator is aware of some illness affecting her, she instinctively insists is caused from lack of artistic expression, but other outstanding factors are portrayed through Gilman’s writing which contribute to the psychosis of our narrator. To consider these aspects Susan , author of “The Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America,” criticizes the degree where Gilman’s story transforms contemporary feminism and social practices.
She does not accept their diagnosis but has no other choice but to follow it’s harsh procedures, much like the woman of the 19th century. The wallpaper, rules, and opinions of others stood between the narrator’s imagination and intellectual desires, eventually driving her to insanity. However, she is not the only woman in the story to feel this snared feeling. John’s sister, Jennie, claimed that she wouldn't mind tearing the wallpaper apart herself, proving she also felt oppressed by the strict rules of society. The narrator finds Jennie studying the wallpaper, trying to solve the puzzle behind the bizarre rules and restrictions upon women at the time.
An example of John’s feelings of superiority over Jane, is shown in how he adores the fact that she is a weak woman, who depends greatly on him. Throughout the story her behaviors exhibit that she feels inferior to her husband. Jane obeys every command John gives without asking any questions. Jane delivers, “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 474). Jane is forbidden to complete tasks on her own. Jane’s feelings of inferiority are deeply rooted from being under her husband’s complete control. Jane explains, “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!”(Gilman 474). John does everything for ...
The Mistreated and the Mislabeled. Physicians who are gender biased tend to misdiagnose and mistreat patients because of their ignorance and poor communication. The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a captivating socio-political allegory expressing how cultural expectations can shape and effect the mind of a creative woman suffering from what could be assumed to be a severe case of postpartum depression. Gilman, uses a unique epistolary form point of view using the journal belonging to a character assumed to be by the name of Jane, who is the wife and patient of a physician named John. She provides a chilling and alluring setting to vividly depict the grave consequences of gender bias doctors who are mistreating and mislabeling patients.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is an observation on the male oppression of women in a patriarchal society. The story itself presents an interesting look at one woman's struggle to deal with both mental and physical confinement. Through Gilman's writing the reader becomes aware of the mental and physical confinement, which the narrator endures, and the overall effect and reaction to this confinement.
Beyond this current reality everyone finds themselves living in, could there be an alternative realm in which our inner embody is roaming around freely or even facing the troubles that one contains inside? In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the short story seems to be representing a tale of which the narrator 's mind projects into an imaginary realm where her inner self is trapped behind a dreadful wallpaper. The wallpaper signifies all the demons she faces like her husband and his high standing of being a Physician, her lack of having a say in her own life, and the judgments she faces every day on her sickness. Upon several examinations of the text, “The Yellow Wallpaper” shows stereotypical gender roles that women face, which she portrays as the women trapped behind the wallpaper.
She secretly stays awake at night and goes to sleep during the day. Giving the image to John she is resting like he has ordered. This is also a great place of irony the author wrote. The more the narrator obsesses about the wallpaper, the deeper and deeper she falls into insanity. But her husband is happy she is getting plenty of rest during the day. He has no idea how insane his wife is becoming. The narrator has begun to see shadows of women in the pattern of the wallpaper. Women sneaking around trying to escape the wallpaper. The pattern resembles bars of a cage to the narrator. She begins to tear down the wallpaper. As she tears at the paper she see many heads. Heads of women being strangled as they try to escape the pattern. The wallpaper becomes a symbol of women trapped in domestic life, of family and tradition. In the end, the narrator reveals how much sacrifice women and herself have done breaking the chains man have placed on them. In her final speech to her husband, the readers get the sense of how much she has sacrificed. She says, "I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" She is free! Free from the constraints of marriage, of society and her own
When looking at conformity of gender roles in “The Yellow Wallpaper” you have to think, about what the female main character was going thru in this short story. As the husband and wife decide to rent a remote estate outside of normal suburban civilization; the female character seems to feel very uneasy about living inside of such a remote rural estate in the countryside in the middle of nowhere. The female character always obeys her husband as he is a physician and seems to always know what is best for his wife. The female character seems to know what is best for herself in the first place despite her husband being a medical physician with years and years of experience in his specific medical field. Just because her husband is a physician realistically does not make him the smartest most intelligent person in human existence; himself being a medical physician can make mistakes like any other person whether they are a janitor, or a politician, or lawyer does not matter in terms of not making mistakes in their lifetime.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist who advocated for women’s rights, political equality, and equal domestic roles in marriage during the Victorian Era. Gilman was raised by her mother after her father abandoned her at a young age. She struggled with depression for much of her life. Charlotte Gilman committed suicide on August 17, 1935, after being diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer. She published “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892, after receiving an unusual treatment for depression. It is believed that Gilman wrote this story to describe one of her treatments. “‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is generally considered to be Gilman's greatest literary achievement and has been reprinted regularly since its 1899 publication” (Stone). “The Yellow Wallpaper” shows the struggle that women of the 1800s went through to have freedom of thought while being dominated by male figures.
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story narrative written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late 19th century to early 20th century. Gilman’s narrative reflects the conflicting social constructs and gender roles during this time period. The early 20th century was a turning point in women’s rights as women pushed for roles outside of the household. As social constructs began changing, Gilman faced a “severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia” and was prescribed the “resting cure”. It was after Gilman’s “treatment” when she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper to describe her own person battle with the “resting cure” as well as her feelings of hostility towards the sphere of domesticity that forced many women into domestic-centered lives. The Yellow Wallpaper describes the
The wallpaper in The Yellow Wallpaper represents the societal barriers oppressing women. In the beginning, the narrator, Jane, is very skeptical of the wallpaper but does not question it, thus emphasizing how she is trapped by this oppression. However, as the story progresses, she starts to become more intrigued by it. The wallpaper runs parallel to Jane’s life. The more she observes the patterns, the more she acknowledges that in order to seek liberation, she must resist these restrictions placed by the patriarchal society.
The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, exposes the horrid truth regarding the limited amount of expression allowed for female individuals and the toll it can have on them and their families. Gilman furthers the understanding of the reader concerning social standards for women by depicting a parallelism between the woman and a wallpaper. Instead of staying quiet, Gilman took action by creating a voice for the women of the 19th century-all through a simple piece of literature.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” contain many symbols in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman develops the idea that society at the time of the story presumed certain things “proper” - without knowing that they were indeed harmful. In the author’s time, woman had no power, worth, or opportunities, and that could have been enough to drive woman of the time, including the narrator, into madness. Women were not apart of the workforce, could not vote, or have a say in anything. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she uses numerous symbols to show the many restrictions upon women, lack of public interaction, and the struggle for equality.
She imagines she is a woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper; she locks the door and tears the wallpaper and creeps around the room. When John gets to her, she says, “I’ve got out at last . . . in spite of you . . . and I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (Gilman 656). In a symbol of the undermining of the patriarchy, John faints, which is the sort of thing he would have previously mocked. In this moment, he must see that his patriarchal control of his wife has ultimately backfired and tragically taken his companion and the mother of his child. This important moment undermines the patriarchy by giving the patriarchal figure a traditionally female experience. His wife then steps over him, which is also symbolic of his treatment of her. These important symbols illustrate the need for men and women to treat each other as equals, rather than superiors and inferiors. Had John simply listened to his wife, trusted her intuition, and trusted her as his equal instead of treating her as a foolish child, the story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” may have had a happy ending instead of such a tragic