Imprisoned by Society in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In this essay, the author

• Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is the story of a woman’s descent into madness as the result of being isolated and suffering from postpartum depression.
• Analyzes how the narrator, whose name is never divulged, has been brought to an isolated country estate in order to recuperate from "a slight hysterical tendency" by her husband, john.
• Analyzes how john isolates the narrator from society and orders her to rest. he even becomes upset when she wishes to write, causing the story to be composed of writings she manages to do in secret.
• Analyzes the rigid pattern of complete subjugation to men that women of gilman's day were expected to follow.
• Analyzes the fate of foolhardy women who strayed from the path society had dictated to them. if not already married, she risked physical punishment, the loss of her family, or was even considered mad.
• Analyzes how the narrator sees bars on the wallpaper which are, in fact, shadows from the bars in the window. she also begins to see the form of a woman behind those bars.
• Analyzes how the narrator's mind slips deeper into mental illness as time goes on. she becomes increasingly paranoid about john and jennie, the housekeeper.
• Analyzes the symbolic reference to the fate of women that tried to escape the path society has prescribed for them.
• Analyzes how the narrator becomes determined to help the woman from the wallpaper escape.
• Analyzes how the narrator's name is jane and, in her madness, believes she has become the woman from the wallpaper and finally escaped.
• Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is a fascinating look into the mind of one woman slipping deeper and deeper into mental illness.