Running Head: The Yellow Wall Paper The Yellow Wall Paper Ingrid Avila Keiser University The Yellow Wall Paper was full of intimacy and immediacy. This story was written in first-person narrator. In the beginning of the story, the narrator appears to be same and believable. This story is about an unknown female and husband “John” who was a physician trying to cure his wife. It seems that intellectual stimulation was no good for his spouse physically and psychologically. John rented a house for the summer while he worked in the city. The female narrator is immediately astonished by how beautiful the house was but was still to find “something queer” of the house. John hoped that the female narrator would recover and change from “slight hysterical tendency” John who was an ordinary man did not believe his spouse was sick. So he thought the best thing to cure her was to put her in “rest cure” for her nervousness. John began her treatment by giving his spouse medicine to help with her recovery. The theory …show more content…
The woman trapped in the wall paper symbolizes the narrator who is trapped in a marriage from which she cannot escape. To show there is no means for self-expression as a woman, Gilman writes, and “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over window, and such pretty old fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it”. It is obvious that women’s opinions and feelings were merely regarded by their husbands. From this “The Yellow Wall Paper”, I also see the author’s expert manipulation of narrative viewpoint through using irony, and symbolism to give the reader an make-believe view of how women had to struggle to live their lives in accordance to men through passive natures, compliant attitudes, and horrified
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
The narrator introduces the character John as an authoritative figure, in that he is both her husband and her physician, which makes for a bad combination. His treatment of her so called a “ temporary nervous depression” is an underlining subdues to control her. John believes his methods of treatment are so sure work that he has on her on a set schedule. Gillman writes “So I take phosphates or phosphites ---whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again. His treat of her condition is that of a child as if say the she is not capable of taking care of one’s...
At the time Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” she was considered a prominent feminist writer. This piece of background information allows the readers to see Gilman’s views on women’s rights and roles in the 18th century; “The Yellow Wallpaper” suggests that women in the 18th century were suppressed into society’s marital gender roles. Gilman uses the setting and figurative language, such as symbolism, imagery, and metaphors to convey the theme across.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about an anonymous female narrator and her husband John who is a physician who has rented a colonial manner in the summer. Living in that house, the narrator felt odd living there. Her husband, john who is a physician and also a doctor to his wife felt that the narrator is under nervous depression. He further mentions that when a person is under depression, every feeling is an odd feeling. Therefore, the narrator was not given permission by John to work but just to take medication and get well fast. This made the narrator to become so fixated with the yellow wallpaper in the former nursery in which she located. She was depressed for a long time and became even more depressed. This ha...
"The Yellow Wallpaper" features an unnamed female narrator who serves to exemplify the expectations placed upon women of the time period. As we are told early on, she is suffering from a "nervous condition" (Gilman 1). While we are not told the specific nature of this condition, we do discover that the cure prescribed by John, the narrator's husband and doctor, entails taking "phosphates or phosphites--whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise" while intellectual "work" is "absolutely forbidden Ö until [she is] well again" (Gilman 1). This poses a particular problem for the narrator, due to her desire to write, which she continues to do "in spite of them," and causes her to hide her writing to avoid facing "heavy opposition" (Gilman 1). The treatment to which t...
One of the main strategies for the resting cure is having the patient be in almost complete isolation from the rest of normal, functioning society. In the passage, the speaker is not only shut away in an secluded house, but she is also only allowed the company of her husband, John, and her husband’s sister, Jennie. A lot of the time, John “is kept in town very often,” and Jennie “lets [the speaker] alone,” therefore isolating her even further. Because the speaker spends so much time o...
In Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, the narrator represents how women were treated in this time period by the theme and symbolism presented in the story. This is shown in three distinct ways: stereotypical social conventions displayed by each major character, dialogue, and the symbolism of the wallpaper.
The character of the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is introduced as a respected physician and a caring husband who strives to improve the mental health of his wife, the narrator, who is diagnosed with temporary nervous condition. John tries throughout the story to apply professional treatment methods and medications in his approach to helping his wife gain strength. However, his patient, his wife, seems to disregard John’s professional opinions and act as if she is following his advices only during his awakening presence with her. The narrator seems to be in need of John’s positive opinion about the status of her mental condition in order to avoid the criticism even though she disagrees with his treatment methodology. John, without doubt, cares for his wife and her wellbeing, but he does not realize how his treatment method negatively impacts their relationship his wife’s progress towards gaining strength. Although John was portrayed as a caring and a loving physician and husband to the narrator through out most of the story, he was also suggested as being intrusive and directive to a provoking level in the mind of the narrator.
The ideas expressed by Gilman are femininity, socialization, individuality and freedom in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman uses these ideas to help readers understand what women lost during the 1900’s. She also let her readers understand how her character Jane escaped the wrath of her husband. She uses her own mind over the matter. She expresses these ideas in the form of the character Jane. Gilman uses an assortment of ways to convey how women and men of the 1900’s have rules pertaining to their marriages. Women are the homemakers while the husbands are the breadwinners. Men treated women as objects, as a result not giving them their own sound mind.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a self-told story about a woman who approaches insanity. The story examines the change in the protagonist's character over three months of her seclusion in a room with yellow wallpaper and examines how she deals with her "disease." Since the story is written from a feminist perspective, it becomes evident that the story focuses on the effect of the society's structure on women and how society's values destruct women's individuality. In "Yellow Wallpaper," heroine's attempt to free her own individuality leads to mental breakdown.
The woman suffers from depression and is prescribed a rest cure. John believes that she is not sick, but she is just fatigued and needs some rest. John took her to a summer home and placed her in a room upstairs. He then instructs her to rest and not to do any writing. John's views as a doctor forbid any type of activity, even writing, for he feels it will only worsen her already fragile condition. The woman believes she would feel better if she could write: "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (470). The woman did not like the room that John put her in: "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it" (470).
“The Yellow Wall Paper” is the story about a journey of a woman who is suffering from a nervous breakdown, descending into madness through her “rest cure” treatment. Basically, the woman is not allowed to read, write or to see her new-born baby. Charlotte Perkins Gilman captures the essence of this journey into madness by using the first person narration. The story plot’s is by taking the reader through the horrors of one woman’s neurosis to make strong statements about the oppression faced by women in their marriage roles. The narrator’s mental condition is characterized by her meeting with the wallpaper in her room. In addition to the story’s plot, the use of symbolism and irony throughout her story also show how males dominate during her time.
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
The “Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in a house in which the main character and her husband are spending their summer vacation. It is a short story of a woman who is suffering from a nervous condition. Her condition results in her having a lack of energy and prevents her from carrying out basic duties that she would be able to if she was not ill. The woman is given the rest cure. She is forbidden from doing any type of work or writing. Her husband, John is a physician and he constantly urges her to rest so that she can overcome her illness. The woman however, does not agree with the rest cure and feels that she must write and work in order to get better. Her illness sets the stage for the multiple types of conflicts that were depicted in the story.
In the story The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman uses personal experience with a vivid fictional ending to accomplish her goal of informing her readers of feminist and social issues. Characters within the story are the narrator, who becomes known as Jane at the end; John, the narrator’s husband and physician; Jennie, John’s sister who becomes the typical housewife in that time to allow the narrator to rest; and Mary, who takes care of the baby. The narrator and John rent an estate in the country, which could also be looked upon as “a haunted house” (2) in the narrator’s eyes. Ever since the birth of their child, the narrator has developed a temporary nervous depression. John, being a high standing physician, feels the “rest cure” is exactly what she needs to help with her newfound depression, which restricts her emotions and does not allow expression, ultimately making it worse. However, with her husbands esteemed profession she blindly accepts what John recommends.