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After reading the short story “ The Yellow Wallpaper”, I find it safe to say most readers believe that Mrs. Gilman was a very ill woman. She was labeled as “crazy”, and based on the simple facts within the story it very much seems that way. After reading and digging deeper into the story and the actions of her husband John, I believe that Mrs. Gilman was in fact not crazy at all. Mrs. Gilman was once a well respected lady. She had a job, a husband, and a loving family. She lived a fairly normal life style, until she got sick. Once she got sick she was taken to a house far away from the rest of society. A place were her husband believed she could relax, get some rest, and get better. She knew she would not get better at this awful place though. …show more content…
She states “ That is one reason I don't get well”. This should open up many questions in our heads. Why would she feel this way if her husband had the best intentions for Justice 3 her? This is the first statement Mrs. Gilman gave in the story that made me believe maybe, just maybe she wasn't actually “crazy” like the story portrays her. With John being a physical this gives him extremely easy access to different medications. Medications that maybe make her symptoms worse, or maybe even are the cause of some of her actions. We already know that he is defiantly giving her medications when she states “I have a scheduled prescription for each hour of the day”. (Gilman 108) But she never states that she is aware of exactly what she is taking, this leads to many possibilities. It also leads us to the next question. Why would Mr. Gilman want to make his wife worse? Im not sure the answer to that question, as it never clearly states a reason but we do have some clues. Mrs. Gilman tells us at one point that Mr. Gilman is out late at night taking care of serious patients. This instantly leads me to think that he could be having an affair. She also says that they sleep in two
These thoughts always seem to be optimistic and minimizing of her symptoms. This reflects the standard view of mental illness in the 19th century, which assumed the condition, was just a temporary state of over expressed emotions within a woman. (Gilman. 956) Gilman herself however, used imagery and symbolism to express her ideas concerning her mental illness and the patriarchal ideals that surrounded them. The yellow wallpaper in the story symbolized Gilman’s state of mind. At first, like her depression, the wallpaper was simply an eye sore. It was not disabling to the room however, made it not as appealing as before. As the story progresses, Gilman forms an obsession with the wallpaper. This represents the declining of her mental state and the obsession she developed with her life conditions. We can see the mental illness is now fixated in her like she is fixated on the wallpaper. The wallpaper’s distracting features controlled her mind like her husband controlled her. She was mostly alone when staring vastly into the wallpaper. She begins to see humanly images in the paper. This becomes her sense of social stimulation that her husband forbids her to have. She becomes disgusted with the wallpaper as she is likely disgusted at her disease for disabling her and her husband for limiting her freedom. The humanly image soon develops into “a woman
In Alan Brown’s article “The Yellow Wallpaper’: Another Diagnosis”; Brown discusses why Charolette Perkins Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper as well as another diagnosis on the character in The Yellow Wallpaper. In the article it is explained that Gilman published this short story as a reflection of her own life. Gilman battled depression and sought out help from expert neurologist. The neurologist had suggested that she rest and be confined to her room. This experience lead to the creation of The Yellow Wallpaper. Being confined to a room like the character in The Yellow Wallpaper is enough to drive anyone to insanity. Brown had a different idea on why the character lost her mind and began to believe she was seeing figures in the wallpaper.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman’s gradual descent into insanity, after the birth of her child. The story was written in 1892 after the author herself suffered from a nervous breakdown, soon after the birth of her daughter in 1885. Gilman did spend a month in a sanitarium with the urging of her physician husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about herself, during the timeframe of when Gilman was in the asylum.
Gilman herself suffered from post-partum hysteria and was treated by a famous doctor of the era, one who prescribed his famous "rest cure", the same cure the female narrator cannot tolerate and defies in The Yellow Wallpaper. In this story the narrator remains nameless and there is good reason for it. She feels as if she has no identity or control over obtaining fulfillment and unity and satisfaction in life. Her husband is a doctor who also prescribes complete rest for her and is opposed to her doing the one thing that seems to give her a unique voice, writing. Thus, the narrator defies her...
Gilman expressed the roles of women through a concept of patriarchy. The narrator’s job was that of attending to her husband and fulfilling his expectations and requests. The concept of family belonging to the man is a large aspect of the storyline and its symbolism. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” The woman is sharing her arrogance pertaining to her husband’s view of her. He treats her as if she has entirely lost her awareness and considers her a belonging. John shows no understanding or backing towards his wife. Instead, John retorts by telling her it "was a draught, and shut the window". He disregarded her belief of her condition and vowed that it really was not anything worth discussing.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is set in the 18th century, and this specific time era helps substantiate Gilman’s view. During the 18th century women did not have a lot of rights and were often considered a lesser being to man. Women often had their opinions
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman's point of view is expressed through first person narration, which provides her readers with brief glimpses into the other characters' perception of her and her perceptions of them (which essentially enlightens readers), as well as the main character's active dissemination of what is occurring in her mind. First person narration can at times be considered biased or naive within the context of their perceptions and projections of other characters. Not so with the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper." She seems to offer an almost unbiased perspective of husband John, which the reader notes from the beginning as she goes back and forth from justifying his attitude and behavior towards her--"Dear John! He loves me dearly, and hates to have me sick" (324)--to eventually becoming mistrustful of him: "The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John" (326). One ends up viewing John as completely oblivious yet superior in his lackadaisical attitude and treatment of his wife. Therefore one has little sympathy for John in the end (which I believe is also intended), when he finally realize...
It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don’t sleep. And that cultivates deceit, for I don’t tell them I’m awake-oh, no!” (Gilman). The narrator’s husband John is depicted as superior to the narrator in someway. He essentially created a “habit” for the woman, and she basically had no say over it.
She published “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892. This story was like her life. She was able to grasp what had happened to her and put it in a story. Mrs. Gilman followed the tradition of her family and married a man named Walter Stetson. She was afraid that by getting married, her hopes of having a career would end. She then later on had a kid which motherhood consumed her entire time. This caused her to go into depression. Mrs. Gilman went into a treatment called rest cure. Little by little she came to understand her role as a mother. She got a divorce with her husband and remarried another man. This man she married gave her everything and had best of both worlds. Then it turned out to be she had breast cancer and she committed suicide. Yet, she came to have many great stories
"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 society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria.
There are multiple possible causes for the internal conflict the narrator faces. The first being nervous depression and the other is the fact that her life is being controlled by her husband. Her husband is in full control because in the beginning of the story, John, her husband, influences how she should act. He decides the actions that should be taken in regards to her health and sanctity. Although she finds herself disagreeing with his synopsis, she is confined and does not admit how she feels to him. This also brings about another a major conflict that occurred in the 19th century, men being dominant and woman being categorized as inferior. Evidence can be found when the narrator states, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the matter with o...
Charlotte Gilman was a renowned feminist author who published most of her work in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Her works, of which "The Yellow Wallpaper" is most famous, reflect her feminist views. Gilman used her writings as a way of expressing these views to the public. At the time "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written, the attitude in colonial America towards feminists was not one of tolerance or acceptance. In the mid-1880s, Gilman suffered a nervous breakdown and eventually was referred to a specialist in neurological disorders. The doctor's diagnosis was such: Gilman was perfectly healthy. The doctor ordered Gilman to domesticate her life and to immediately stop her writings. Gilman went by the doctor's orders, and nearly went mad. Now although "Yellow Wallpaper" is a fictional story, it becomes clear that the story was significantly influenced by Gilman's life experiences. Gilman seems to be exploring the depths of mental illness through her writing.
Gilman creates a horrific tone that helps explore the idea of freedom and confinement within a certain place. The story is created to follow the situation of the narrator and how slowly she begins to deteriorate psychologically due to the wallpaper. The narrator is never assigned a name, therefore it can be assumed that the story is suppose to serve as a voice for the women who have been in a similar situation and have lost their freedom and say on their own lives. However, the narrator appears to come from a wealthy family with privilege so there cannot be this idea that all women who have been through this form of depression and inequalities have experienced it in the same form. Through the use of imagery, the reader was able to understand and clearly visualize the situation in which the narrator is in and see how she has begun to slowly deteriorate, even though she is finally freed in the end of the story, or at least that is what is assumed. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is indeed a very profound image of what it was like to be a female during the 19th century while emphasizing the themes of freedom and confinement. Even though it illustrates the impact that confinement can have on a person, it restricts the situation to fit only women who had similar social backgrounds as the narrator, which is
Gilman’s narration advocates the slow development into insanity and growing frustration that accompanies it. With each entry the woman writes, it was apparent as to how her mental pain she endured was taking over her mind and behavior as the days passed. “This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then. But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a stra...
The Yellow Wallpaper is not just a short story. It was written from Gilman’s perspective with the purpose of telling people that being confined will only make a person more insane. But there’s got to be someone to blame, right? Well, seeing as Gilman was a feminist, it is only logical to blame the person that put her in the sanitarium, right? There’s a deeper meaning to The Yellow Wallpaper and she used symbolism, setting, and character to help the reader better understand this short piece.