Decoded Wallpaper

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Decoded Wallpaper

In analyzing the work of Melissa Barth it is clear that she decoded The Yellow Paper as a significant piece of literature to stand for something larger than women’s rights. Melissa Barth’s essay was published in the Salem Press in a work analysis named, Masterplots II: Short Story Series, in January 2004. The essay states that the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as partly autobiographical and she classifies the work as a story advocating a women’s right to act and speak for herself. She also goes on to dissect the book strategically using two classifications, Themes and Meanings and Style and Technique. Some of the work may be debatable but I like her strong stance.

The Story
The writer begins …show more content…

By allowing readers to see only what Jane sees as she sees it, Gilman duplicates as closely as possible the feelings of entrapment, isolation, and unreality that Jane experiences. (Barth, 2004) This is probably the best observation in Melissa Barth’s essay. Charlotte Perkins Gilman used strategy in her writing to create immersion. Her technique was genius because it was subtle, as Barth explains, “her voice remains level-headed“ to capture the audience.
The next technique the author used to create immediate and realistic depictions of the women and room. In the essay Melissa Barth pointed out that Gilman tricks the reader into seeing Jane as simultaneously mad and in the grips of some haunting supernatural specters. This ambiguity increases the shock that readers experience when they realize that Jane has been talking in metaphors throughout her narrative, that she has been recounting her own sense of intellectual and emotional oppression, rather than seeing actual women crawling about on the ground in the gardens or moving behind her room’s wallpaper. (Barth 2004) Both of these techniques required a through analysis of the book and I did not capture either technique on my initial reading of the book. Finally, Charlotte Perkin Gillman forces the reader to rethink the entire narrative with the odd

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