Hysteria, a state or situation in which women have “uncontrollable fear[s] or outburst[s] of emotion” (Merriam-Webster 2013, 613) Due to lack of technological advances in the twentieth century, many doctors were unable to explain the disorder now known as hysteria in females. “Located on the problematic border that separated psychosomatic from somatic disorders, hysteria repeatedly defied medical expertise and threatened the specialist’s authority.” (Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris, 36) Doctors, at that point did not know how to address this bizarre state; therefore, multiple treatments and measurements were taken to cure this problem. However, Cladius Galen, a Greek philosopher, physician, and surgeon, known to be one of the greatest medical minds believed that the most effective treatments consisted of “getting married or repressing stimuli that could excite a young women” aside from purges, herbs and natural treatments. (Women And Hysteria In the History of Mental Health, Article 3) In the interim, the Greek notion of hysteria was that it, at the time “was particular to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus” (Merriam-Webster 2013, 613) Many doctors at the time believed that the most efficacious treatment was marriage and changes within sexual health.
The Yellow Wallpaper, a feminist piece of gothic fiction which depicts the life of a young married woman who is struck with the symptoms of hysteria and is placed in a yellow room of a country home. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of this work is able to combine and express her ideas and personal experiences of female hysteria in the twentieth century. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman claimed that she wrote the story in order ‘to save people from being driv...
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... him over my shoulder. ‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane.’...” (The Yellow Wallpaper) When she pulls off the wallpaper she believes that she has set the woman in the paper free; however, she herself is free as well because she is the woman in the yellow wallpaper. Trapped by the paper as though Jane is trapped by the room, and both unable to do as they please. When she tears off that wallpaper, she is free from not only the pain she has experienced in the mansion, she is also free from her marriage and her controlling husband. When she states she is liberated “in spite of you and Jane” she means that it was her husband, John, and her husband’s sister, Jennie, who have kept her encaged in the bedroom with the yellow wallpaper. Gilman believed that the ending to her novel was able to help free women with mental illness in the twentieth century.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
She finally escapes her life of depression and divorces her husband. The imagery the narrator gives this story lets you see how this woman uses the yellow wallpaper to show that not only was the narrator going through the imprisonment of her marriage and the psychological struggles in the late 1800’s but other women also was faced the same issues. “I 've got out at last ... in spite of you.... And I 've pulled off most of the paper so you can 't put me back!” (“The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 53). The narrator uses metaphor in comparison of the wallpaper to the bars that held her captive in the room. One would say that the resolution of “The Yellow Wall paper” established a victory for women in the early twentieth century. After reading The Yellow Wallpaper Mitchell changed his treatment on women with and Gilman advocated for women
Gilman has stated in multiple papers that the main reason for her writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” was to shed light on her awful experience with this ‘rest cure’. However, she also managed to inject her own feminist agenda into the piece. Charlotte Perkins Gilman chose to include certain subtle, but alarming details regarding the narrator’s life as a representation of how women were treated at the time. She wants us to understand why the narrator ends up being driven to madness, or in her case, freedom. There are untold layers to this truly simple, short story just like there were many layers to Gilman
“The Yellow Wallpaper:” a Symbol for Women As the narrator presents a dangerous and startling view into the world of depression, Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces a completely revitalized way of storytelling using the classic elements of fiction. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” combines a multitude of story elements that cannot be replicated. Her vast use of adjectives and horrifying descriptions of the wallpaper bring together a story that is both frightening and intensely well told. Using the story’s few characters and remote setting, Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the wallpaper as both a representation of the narrator and the story’s theme, as well as a symbol for her descent into the abyss of insanity. As the story opens, the suspiciously unnamed narrator and her husband, John, temporarily move into a new home (226).
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be perceived in a few different ways. Greg Johnson wrote an article describing his own perception of what he believed the short story meant. In doing so, it can be noticed that his writing aligns well with what can be perceived from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story. The narrator Jane, experiences many things throughout Gilman’s story, which Johnson describes thoroughly. It is because of these descriptive points that allow Johnsons article to be a convincing argument. The main ideas that Johnson depicts that are supported and I agree with from the story include Janes developing imaginative insight, her husband and sister-in-law’s belief on domestic control, and her gained power through unconsciousness.
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.
"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 “yellow wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which was written 1892, is a feminist story that has many interesting themes. In this story, there is a sense of insanity as the story continues due to the continued exposure to the wallpaper. This story is protesting a method called the rest cure, which the author herself was subjected to, and can cause people to be driven insane, but also protest the treatment of woman in a time when they did not have any agency. This cure, which was almost always given to women, was not just for women who actually had an illness it was also given to women who were different. The women who did not abide by the social norms of the time.
Evelyn Cunningham once said “women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors.” While this may not be true today, it was for the narrator in the “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story by Charlotte Gilman is considered one of the best in feminist literature. It tells the story of a woman who struggles with mental illness and her role in society. However unfortunate, this story provides the reader with a good insight of the roles of women during this time period. Through the story we see how gender roles affect each character. In particular, the author shows how the roles of women in the nineteenth century only serve to restrict and oppress women.
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells her readers the story of a woman desperate to be free. Gilman’s use of symbolism is nothing short of brilliant in telling the story of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression and fighting her way through societies ideas of what a woman should be. When her husband, John, also known as her physician, tells her nothing is wrong with her mind, at first she believes him because she knows that society tells her she should. However, with her husband’s misdiagnosis, or attempt to keep his wife sane for the sake of their reputation, comes a short journey into madness for his wife, Jane. Jane’s downward spiral, as one may call it, turns out to be not so downward when the reader
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.
Author Charlotte P. Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a complex short story that discusses the thoughts and feelings of a woman who is kept confined in a small upstairs bedroom by her husband. The woman suffers from depression and anxiety, yet her spouse whom is a physician claims that she is not terribly ill. Despite all the strange thoughts she acquires, she continues to force herself to accept her new life style and awkward place of living. As she comes to find herself overwhelmed with her personal bedroom, we soon discover that the room’s yellow wallpaper is what affects her directly and is the reason for her many interpretations. The symbols in the story take a great part in the overall plot and leads to the various connections between the imagery and the woman herself.
In Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author takes the reader through the terrors of a woman’s psychosis. The story convey to understatements pertaining to feminism and individuality that at the time was only idealized. Gillman illustrates her chronological descent into insanity. The narrators husband John, who is also her physician diagnosed her with “nervous depression” and therefore ordered her to isolate until she recuperates. She is not only deprived of outside contact but also of her passion to write, since it could deteriorate her condition. The central conflict of the story is person versus society; the healthy part of her, in touch with herself clashing with her internalized thoughts of her society’s expectations. In a feminist point of view the central idea pertains to the social confinement that woman undergo due to their society.
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.