Imprisoned Women in the late 19th century were treated and valued as subordinates. The abilities of women in Charlotte Gilman’s time were limited without the resources to learn and explore. Their inability to make decisions for themselves often led to a restricted and unhappy life. This is true with the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. She is a doctor’s wife and a mother who suffers from post-partum depression. Her abilities fail to develop as she is forced by her husband to suppress her strengths. The narrator is imprisoned in her own life and is obviously unhappy. “The Yellow Wallpaper” expresses the theme of confinement and imprisonment as the narrator describes how her illness helps her husband imprison her with the house, the bedroom, …show more content…
Johnson’s article about Gilman’s gothic allegory claims the story is “drawing on Gilman’s experience of post-partum depression” (523). Gilman writes “The Yellow Wallpaper” based on her own experience dealing with post-partum depression in the late 19th century. John, her husband and doctor, cannot diagnose her properly because he “is practical in the extreme” and refuses to believe there is anything mentally wrong with his wife, the narrator (Gilman 655). John begs the narrator to “never for one instant let that idea enter your mind” (Gilman 661). He does not want the narrator to think her problem is mental, as he only considers her physical symptoms in her treatment. Instead of diagnosing the narrator’s real problem, depression, John attempts to treat her problems with fresh air, rest, and many limitations. This setting imprisons the narrator as she is under her husband’s …show more content…
She claims, “I don’t like our room one bit. I wanted one downstairs” (Gilman 656). The fact that John refuses to allow her this shows how powerless the narrator is, just like most women of her time. She has no control over her life, John is her dictator. The room is just like a prison for her. The narrator does not want to live in it, but she must listen to her husband because he is her doctor and husband. The theme of imprisonment is obvious in the line, “the windows are barred” (Gilman 656). The bars represent the narrator’s confinement, and her separation from civilization. It represents her
disorder by taking her away for the summer and placing her in an old house
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was a groundbreaking piece for its time. It not only expressed feministic views through the defiance of a male but also discussed mental illness and the inefficacy of medical treatment at the time. This fictional piece questioned and challenged the submissive role forced upon women of the 19th century and disclosed some of the mental struggles one might go through during this time of questing. Gilman shows however that even in the most horrific struggle to overcome male dominance, it is possible. She herself escapes which again shows a feminist empowerment to end the
The main character (a sort of parallel to Gilman herself) experiences post-partem depression, and at this point in time, there was no knowledge of this condition. It was generally thought that the nervous condition suffered by women after birth was caused by a weak moral/mental state. The narrator's husband, John takes her to an old, gothic house, away from all the care and stress of the world. This is supposed to be for her own good. To get some rest and to heal her "weak" mind, she lies in bed, almost locked in her room, left to stare at this ugly, yellow wallpaper. The ugliness of the wallpaper begins to consume her mind as the room turns more into a prison than a place of healing. The main character's though processes become apparent as the story progresses. When she first talks of the pattern, she only describes the pattern and the color briefly: "I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling, flamboyant pattern committing every artistic sin... The color is repellent, almost revolting..." But the pattern becomes more detailed-- in a sense, she has given the pattern life: "Looked at in one way, each breadth stands alone; the bloated curves and flourishes- a kind of 'debased Romanesque' with delirium tremens- go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity." As she begins to pay more attention to detail, her mind starts becoming more and more unstable. However, with this deterioration comes her realization of the situation she is in. At the end of the story, it is evident that the woman trapped in the wallpaper represents the main character-- she has started to talk in first person: "'I've got out at last,' said I, 'in spite of you and Jane.
In the "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes her postpartum depression through the character of Jane. Jane was locked up for bed rest and was not able to go outside to help alleviate her nervous condition. Jane develops an attachment to the wallpaper and discovers a woman in the wallpaper. This shows that her physical treatment is only leading her to madness. The background of postpartum depression can be summarized by the symptoms of postpartum depression, the current treatment, and its prevention. Many people ask themselves what happens if postpartum depression gets really bad or what increases their chances. Jane's treatment can show what can happen if it is not treated correctly. If Jane would have had different treatment, then she would not have gone insane.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper is partly autobiographical and it illustrates the fight for selfhood by a women in an oppressed and oppressive environment. In the story, the narrator is not allowed to write or think, basically becoming more dysfunctional as she is entrapped in a former nursery room where bars adorn the windows and the bed is nailed to the floor. In this story there is an obstinacy on behalf of the narrator as she tries to go around her husband's and physician's restrictions, however, there is no resisting the oppressive nature of her environment and she finally surrenders to madness even though it represents some kind of selfhood and resistance because it allows her to escape her oppression, "She obsesses about the yellow wallpaper, in which she sees frightful patterns and an imprisoned female figure trying to emerge. The narrator finally escapes from her controlling husband and the intolerable confines of her existence by a final descent into insanity as she peels the wallpaper off and bars her husband from the room" (Gilman, 1999, 1).
The “Yellow Wall Paper “ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
In a female oppressive story about a woman driven from postpartum depression to insanity, Charlotte Gilman uses great elements of literature in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Her use of feminism and realism demonstrates how woman's thoughts and opinions were considered in the early 1900?s.
In literature, women are often depicted as weak, compliant, and inferior to men. The nineteenth century was a time period where women were repressed and controlled by their husband and other male figures. Charlotte Gilman, wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper," showing her disagreement with the limitations that society placed on women during the nineteenth century. According to Edsitement, the story is based on an event in Gilman’s life. Gilman suffered from depression, and she went to see a physician name, Silas Weir Mitchell. He prescribed the rest cure, which then drove her into insanity. She then rebelled against his advice, and moved to California to continue writing. She then wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is inflated version of her experience. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is going through depression and she is being oppressed by her husband and she represents the oppression that many women in society face. Gilman illustrates this effect through the use of symbols such as the yellow wallpaper, the nursery room, and the barred windows.
"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.
When first reading the gothic feminist tale, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one might assume this is a short story about a women trying to save her sanity while undergoing treatment for postpartum depression. Gilman herself had suffered post-natal depression and was encouraged to undergo the “rest cure” to cure her hysteria. The treatment prescribed to Gilman resulted in her having a very similar experience as the narrator in the short story. The “perfect rest” (648), which consisted of forced bed rest and isolation sparked the inspiration for “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story involving an unreliable narrator, became an allegory for repression of women. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman illustrates the seclusion and oppression of women in the nineteenth century society by connecting the female imprisonment, social and mental state, and isolation to the objects in and around the room.
The Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a “rest cure”. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageous imaginations towards the wallpaper. Gilman’s story depicts women’s struggle of independence and individuality at the rise of feminism, as well as a reflection of her own life and experiences.
"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.
Advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men, Charlotte Perkins Gilman speaks to the “female condition” in her 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by writing about the life of a woman and what caused her to lose her sanity. The narrator goes crazy due partially to her prescribed role as a woman in 1892 being severely limited. One example is her being forbidden by her husband to “work” which includes working and writing. This restricts her from begin able to express how she truly feels. While she is forbidden to work her husband on the other hand is still able to do his job as a physician. This makes the narrator inferior to her husband and males in general. The narrator is unable to be who she wants, do what she wants, and say what she wants without her husband’s permission. This causes the narrator to feel trapped and have no way out, except through the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom.
The Disturbed female Perspective in The Yellow Wall-Paper The Yellow Wall-Paper can be said to be told from a female perspective, but I would say that it is told from a disturbed wife's eye since there is another female character in the story. The story's distortion from the pure, female perspective, into the disturbed woman's eye changes what the reader sees. The entire story is told from the mind of the disturbed wife, the narrator: A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house,and reach the height of romantic felicity--but that would be asking too much of fate! Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it....John laughs at me, of course, but onee expects that in marriage.....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 things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures... This passage describes the distinct point of view of the narrator when she describes the house, with nothing except a feeling, a discomfort. Her husband laughs at her opinions on the house and her feelings towards the area. John does not approve of these feelings or beliefs, because he is not a superstitious person. He,in that era and being a medical doctor, does not believe anything unless it has been documented. As it is written in the previous passage, John is being explained to the reader from the wife's point of view.