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. John’s approach appears to be logical as he decided it would be better for his wife to escape her depression by moving temporary to an isolated estate where air, water, greenery, and calmness should be the uplifting factors in his wife’s journey towards gaining strength and getting better. The narrator disagrees with her husband’s decisions on how she should stay and do what he decided for her in this retreat, but follows his orders regardless. John’s treatment of his wife consists of medical prescriptions, “I take phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is-and tonics,... ... middle of paper ... ...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.
Through "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman comments on the roles of husband and wife and the inequality that exists within their relationship. In the depiction of her protagonist's mental collapse she shows the problems with psychological diagnoses and the lack of power women had in their own treatment. This stance comes from her own experience with mental illness and her inability to assert her will in the situation. Most importantly she uses the case of one's psychological deterioration to ultimately break the barrier between men and women in terms of mental treatment and diagnoses.
The hero must stop this villain and make him cease his evil ways. In the story, John, the narrator's husband, a physician, appears to take the role of the villain. He is not actually out to harm his wife, but he will not use all of his resources to help her like a normal husband should. The husband just will not listen to his wife. She claimed that she was very sick, but he thought otherwise.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, –who’s also been through postpartum depression- (Gilman 366), is a fictional story about a woman, who actually has postpartum depression but, unfortunately, is misdiagnosed by her physician husband and brother (367). Therefore, because she is misdiagnosed and doesn’t actually have “temporary nervous depression” as her husband and brother says (367), the treatment that her husband and brother give her is a wrong treatment technique (leaving her alone, not letting her do anything but rest, not letting her talk about her condition, etc…), which at the end causes her to go totally insane, even though in the beginning she shows no signs of insanity. It is fundamental to understand two of the characters, the theme, and the setting of the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, in order to achieve a deeper understanding and a greater enjoyment of the story and to figure out what the author is trying to indicate to the readers.
Throughout the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we see a woman handicapped by depression and mental illness. We see how the narrator and John interact as husband and wife and as doctor and patient. From the surface, it seems as if John is a kind-hearted man wanting what is best for his wife, and willing to do whatever it takes to make her better again. But as the reader looks closer and the story progresses, John becomes more of a handicap to his wife than the illness itself. Gilman uses John's detriment to Charlotte as a way to describe the gender roles, professional and medial, in the nineteenth century. She uses this parallelism as a way to break the patriarchal society's oppression on women and the idea of women's only role being in the household.
The Yellow Wallpaper is a story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Although the work is short, it is one of the most interesting works in existence. Gilman uses literary techniques very well. The symbolism of The Yellow Wallpaper, can be seen and employed after some thought and make sense immediately. The views and ideals of society are often found in literary works. Whether the author is trying to show the ills of society of merely telling a story, culture is woven onto the words. The relationship between the narrator and her husband would be disagreeable to a modern woman's relationship. Today, most women crave equality with their partner. The reader never learns the name of the narrator, perhaps to give the illusion that she could be any woman. On the very fist page of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Gilman illustrates the male dominated society and relationship. It was customary for men to assume that their gender knew what, when, how, and why to do things. John, the narrator's husband, is a prominent doctor and both his and his wife's words and actions reflect the aforementioned stereotype: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage," (9). This statement illustrates the blatant sexism of society at the time. John does not believe that his wife is sick, while she is really suffering from post-partum depression. He neglects to listen to his wife in regard to her thoughts, feelings, and health through this thought pattern. According to him, there is not anything wrong with his wife except for temporary nerve issues, which should not be serious.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, reveals John’s ‘superior wisdom’ and the effects it has on his wife. The narrator is a highly expressive and imaginative woman, however, her name is unknown to the readers. She is a young, upper-middle-class woman, newly married and a mother that suffers from depression. The narrator’s husband, John, is a physician with a practical and rational way; however, he belittles his wife’s illness and her thoughts. John believes that his wife will cure of depression if she follows the ‘resting cure”, which in reality, is a passive object treatment that ignores the concerns of the patients. The author, Charlotte Perkins
Even though her husband treats her with what seem at first as love, it becomes clear she is nothing more to him than a piece of property. Every time he talks to her, he asks her to get better for his sake and the children's, and only after mentions hers interests. He doesn't think that she has any normal human feelings or worries and attributes her behavior to minor nervous depression. He doesn't see her true suffering since he believes "there is no reason to suffer" (574). He could never understand that a woman can be unsatisfied with the role imposed on her by society. Even though the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than John's theory, she is too scared to voice her opinion.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a mentally troubled young woman who is undergoing care for depression. She is in a state of anxiety for much of the story, with alternating flashes of sarcasm, anger, and desperation. The story is told in the form of her secret diary, in which she jots down her thoughts as her obsession with the yellow wallpaper grows. She begins her story with a brief description of the house she and her husband are staying in for the summer and states, “that there is something queer about it.” (473). That leads her into a discussion about her illness in which she is suffering from nervous depression—and of her marriage. She complains that her husband John, who is also her doctor, does not take both her illness and her thoughts and concerns in general too serious because “he does not believe I (the narrator) am sick!” (473).
In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; a central conflict centers between the narrator and her husband, John. The husband uses his power as a doctor to control her; he forces her to behave how he thinks a sick woman should. The husband can be seen as a father figure who overprotects her and makes decisions for her.
John, the narrator's husband, represents society at large. Like society, John controls and determines much of what his wife should or should not do, leaving his wife incapable of making her own decisions. John's domineering nature can be accredited to the fact that John is male and also a "physician of high standing" (1). John is "practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of thi...
“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman who is trapped in a room covered in yellow wallpaper. The story is one that is perplexing in that the narrator is arguably both the protagonist as well as the antagonist. In the story, the woman, who is the main character, struggles with herself indirectly which results in her descent into madness. The main conflicts transpires between the narrator and her husband John who uses his power as a highly recognize male physician to control his wife by placing limitations on her, forcing her to behave as a sick woman. Hence he forced himself as the superior in their marriage and relationship being the sole decision make. Therefore it can be said what occurred externally resulted in the central conflict of” “The Yellow Wallpaper being internal. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a symbol of authenticy. Hence she internalizes her frustrations rather then openly discussing them.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story told from the first person point of view of a doctor's wife who has nervous condition. The first person standpoint gives the reader access only to the woman’s thoughts, and thus, is limited. The limited viewpoint of this story helps the reader to experience a feeling of isolation, just as the wife feels throughout the story. The point of view is also limited in that the story takes places in the present, and as a result the wife has no benefit of hindsight, and is never able to actually see that the men in her life are part of the reason she never gets well. This paper will discuss how Gilman’s choice of point of view helps communicate the central theme of the story- that women of the time were viewed as being subordinate to men. Also, the paper will discuss how ignoring oneself and one’s desires is self-destructive, as seen throughout the story as the woman’s condition worsens while she is in isolation, in the room with the yellow wallpaper, and her at the same time as her thoughts are being oppressed by her husband and brother.
Marriage sometimes refers to the happiest time for each couple. However, marriage can lead women to having depression. In the story “The yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, published in 1892, the author is giving out a point of view that women often get depression from their spouses. Gilman is a famous feminist, who believes that women should receive the same privileges as men. In the story, the woman was being controlled by her husband John. John was a doctor and he was educated enough to tell his wife what she needed to do for her sickness; however, she could not argue with her husband because she was not smart enough to reject his decision. Since the sickness has made this woman become a weak person, she also couldn’t fight against her husband in physical ways. The time period of this story was nearly 1800, so the woman in the story must have the idea of male domination. This traditional idea has made this woman afraid to stand up for herself. At the end of the story, the depression has made this woman become mentally insane and respect is one major theme of this story.
The wife always wants to please the husband and listen to his word as though it was law. She never wants to displease her husband or go against any of his advice. This is apparent when the wife quits writing, which calms her down, just because her husband feels that it would be better for her. The wife takes the man’s advice in this situation, because that is what society has trained her to do. In her mind she is not her own person, she is only John’s wife.