The Character of John in The Yellow Wallpaper
analytical Essay
2044 words
The Character of John in The Yellow Wallpaper
John's fascination with observing his wife can be attributed to a physician's distorted interest in the body. We can certainly speculate that, as physicians at the turn of the century were beginning to explore the female body assisted by "developments" in gynecology, John may have been equally interested in these new techniques of viewing the female body. More so than ever, the patient and her body became subject to the physician's privilege to intimately observe and diagnose her.
Ostensibly, the narrator's illness is not physiological, but mental. John concludes that his wife is well except for a "temporary nervous depression--a slight hysterical tendency," a diagnosis that is confirmed by the narrator's own physician-brother (Gilman 10). John's profession, and moreover his diagnosis, is a license to closely observe, scrutinize, watch, gaze upon, seek out, and investigate his wife and her ailments, which consequently permits him to deploy seemingly inexhaustible (medical, scientific) means for (re)formulating and (re)presenting the hysteric female--not only for the purpose of giving her discursive representation, but in order to "de-mystify" her mystery and reassure himself that she is, finally, calculable, harmless, and non-threatening. To speak of John in psychoanalytic terms, his preoccupation with his wife, her body, and her confinement, reveals unspoken anxieties: the fear of castration and the "lack" the female body represents.
There are, as Mulvey explains, two ways a man can potentially escape castration anxiety. One is a voyeuristic route in which the man is concerned with re-enacting the "original trauma." Here the man is concerned with asc...
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...ican Fiction. 17 (1989): 193-201.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" Women's Studies. 12 (1986): 113-128.
Kasmer, Lisa. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper': A Symptomatic Reading." Literature and Psychology. 36, (1990): 1-15.
Jordanova, Ludmilla. Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the 18th and 20th Centuries. London: Harrester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
Mulvey, Laura. "Pandora: Topographies of the Mask and Curiosity." Sexuality and Space. Ed. Beatriz Colomina. Princeton: Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992. 53-71.
------. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen. 16 (1975): 6-18.
Wigley, Mark. "Untitled: The Housing of Pleasure." Sexuality and Space. Ed. Beatriz Colomina. Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992. 327-389.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the narrator turns to her journal to escape john's codes of propriety. john makes discovery eminent and ensures what material will be penned into the journal.
- Analyzes how the narrator invites john inside, but in a manner that seeks to efface the antinomy between inside and outside, interior and exterior.
- Analyzes how john enters the bedroom, but is unable to abandon the conventions that separate him from his wife. he finds in the attic a woman who has refigured herself somewhere between the real and the not real, between place and placelessness.
- Describes wigley, mark, and beatriz colomina's "untitled: the housing of pleasure."
- Analyzes how john's fascination with observing his wife, her body, and her confinement, reveals unspoken anxieties about castration and the "lack" the female body represents.
- Analyzes how the bedroom in "the yellow wallpaper" generates tension between the desire to know and the fear of knowing.
- Narrates how they said the key was down by the front door under a plantain leaf. they repeated it several times, gently and slowly, and said it so often that he had to go and see.
- Analyzes how john finds the narrator in a mad state, reduplicating herself in the yellow papered walls, and "out at last."
- Cites bak, john s. and colomina, beatriz. the split wall: domestic voyeurism.
- Cites golden, catherine, and jordanova, ludmilla, in the captive imagination: a casebook on "the yellow wallpaper."
Related
- analytical
- The Yellow Wallpaper Summaryanalytical essayHaney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes haney-peritz, janice, "monumental feminism and literature's ancestral house: another look at 'the yellow wallpaper'."
- Analyzes how haney-peritz focused on the aspect of feminism in the yellow wallpaper. he used a social-historical method to illustrate how males felt concerning gilman’s critique to men dominating women.
- Explains that web.gwen hunnicutt's article illustrates the various patriarchy social systems, and its association to the violence against women in general.
- Explains that barbara suess's journal analyzes the language, images, and symbols used in the short story "the yellow wallpaper" and points towards her theory of how gilman is making a feminist statement.
- Analyzes how ms. wright's article is concerned with gender equality and the advocacy and promotion of equal rights for both men and women.
- Explains that lise fortier's article focuses on patriarchy and its influence on women, and sex.
1002 wordsRead More - The Fight for Sanity in The Yellow Wallpaperanalytical essayThe Fight for Sanity in The Yellow Wallpaper 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.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's the yellow wallpaper illustrates the fight for selfhood by a woman in an oppressed and oppressive environment.
- Analyzes how gilman suffered from post-partum hysteria and was treated by a famous doctor of the era, one who prescribed his famous "rest cure".
- Analyzes how the narrator in the yellow wallpaper retreats to the one world left open to her, her inner self. many psychologists and educators believe that individuals are mentally broken when robbed of the organic holistic nature of self-education.
- Analyzes how the narrator in the yellow wallpaper is mentally broken to a degree. she is unable to use her own insights, perceptions, i.e., her unique capacities to develop to herself fully because the process by which this occurs is held from her.
- Analyzes how the narrator in "the yellow wallpaper" frees the trapped part of herself, a part she must hide because her role is defined by her husband or others.
- Analyzes how the narrator's constant oppression of her true self drives her into madness. her ripping down of the wallpaper is her victory, but it must be guarded so as not to become entrapped once more by others' definitions of herself
- Analyzes how gilman's story depicts the downward spiral of depression accompanied by a loss of control, feelings of incompetence and worthlessness, and final madness.
- Concludes that the narrator in the yellow wallpaper is unable to save her sanity. she suffers from thought disorders, paranoia, and hallucinations.
- Describes the works of charlotte perkins gilman's the yellow wallpaper.
1752 wordsRead More - 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...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte gillman's "the yellow wallpaper" describes attitudes in which men thought about women and the overall oppression of women in the early 20th century.
- Analyzes how the narrator introduces the character of john as an authoritative figure in that he is both her husband and her physician, which makes for a bad combination.
- Analyzes how the narrator subconsciously wants to break free and not be confined mentally by her husband's restraint.
- Analyzes how gillman speaks about the difference of the wallpaper by day and night. the narrator's breakthrough moment is when she proclaims her freedom from her husband.
- Analyzes how gilman uses various symbols to show how men dominated society, and the continuing oppression women struggle to escape.
881 wordsRead More - Yellow Wallpaper: Beyond The Wallanalytical essayFord, Karen. “The Yellow Wallpaper and Women’s Discourse.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 4.2 (1985): 309-14. JSTOR. Web. 6 April 2011.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte gilman's "yellow wallpaper" was analyzed by many perspective readers and writers. ann oakley and karen ford had similar but yet different arguments.
- Analyzes how ann oakley's literary review interpreted health care as being given medical attention by a medical professional. health care isn't necessarily provided by medical professionals.
- Analyzes oakley's review of the three unsolved problems with women and health. she listed production, reproduction, and medicalization of psychological costs of women’s mental diseases.
- Analyzes how oakley discusses economic and employment issues with women when she talks about production. once women started working, men started resenting it and making it harder on them.
- Explains that reproduction was a hindrance only because it kept women from doing their jobs at home. medical professionals started coming up with options to prevent pregnancy and help keep women in the workforce.
- Opines that the last unsolved problem is regarding women's mental diseases resulting in psychological medicalization and the costs for such treatment.
- Analyzes oakley's research on health vs. social product. she said it was harder for women to express their feelings and emotions. many women choose to hide behind their work.
- Analyzes karen ford's literary review, where she defended the fact that women can do anything that men are capable of doing. she was convinced that her husband and everyone around her assumed she was ill and severely depressed.
- Analyzes how the unknown narrator of the story had recently had a baby and was suffering from severe depression.
- Analyzes how the narrator was very insecure in the room with the yellow wallpaper. the image worried her severely which caused her disease to worsen over time.
- Concludes that the story and review analysis helped them understand what individuals believe women's roles in society and in the household are.
- Describes the contents of citedgilman, charlotte perkins, booth, alison, and kelly j. mays' norton introduction to literature.
1031 wordsRead More - A Feminist in Action in The Yellow Wallpaperanalytical essayGilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. “A Feminist Reading of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” The Story and Its Writer. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband.
- Analyzes how the narrator's compliance with her role as a submissive woman is easily seen. the quote epitomizes the inability of women in previous centuries to express their thoughts.
- Analyzes how the inability of the narrator to communicate her wishes and feelings plays a key role in the worsening of her illness.
- Analyzes how gilman portrays the concept of propriety through an inconspicuous observation by the narrator.
- Analyzes how the narrator despises the wallpaper in her room and describes the pattern of the paper. under her husband's authoritarian rule, she spirals downward into the depths of a serious mental illness.
- Analyzes how the wallpaper mystifies the narrator as she spends more time in the confines of the room. as the reader progresses through the passage, she plunges into insanity.
- Analyzes how the narrator's fascination with the wallpaper escalates into an obsession. the "bulbous eyes" develop into a woman trapped inside.
- Analyzes how the narrator observes a distinct odor coming from wallpaper, which translates into the "stench" of male domination and chauvinism.
- Concludes that the wallpaper represents the evils of the male dominated world for gilman and the narrator.
- Analyzes how the narrator's "temporary nervous depression" escalates into paranoia and hysteria. the mental illness that she displays near the end of the story symbolizes something more for her.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's short story, "the yellow wallpaper," addresses the issues facing women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Analyzes how gilman acknowledges that much work is needed to overcome the years of injustice and encourages women to do what they can to stand up for themselves.
- Explains that michael j. mahin's the awakening and the yellow wallpaper: an intertextual comparison of the "conventional" connotations of marriage and propriety.
1794 wordsRead More - Behind The Yellow Wallpaper Analysisanalytical essayTo begin with, the most important theme that comes into play is the role of women during this decade. Men were thought of as the ones to always do the hard labor and make the decisions. Women however, were the ones to raise their children, cook and clean around the house. The narrator’s husband, John, was a doctor who believed that he was helping his wife by preventing her from getting out of bed or even writing in her journal. However by doing the exact opposite and making everything off limits; she could only use her imagination while inside becoming obsessive. She was unable to speak of her thoughts and feelings. This forced her to keep everything inside since she was unable to stand up to her husband. It became too late before anyone realized that this was the wrong method of treatment for women during this time.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the narrator of "the yellow wallpaper" was driven mad by the yellow wallpaper that surrounded her in this room.
- Analyzes how the narrator's husband, john, was a doctor who believed that he was helping his wife by preventing her from getting out of bed or writing in her journal.
- Analyzes how the doctors ignored the best interests of the patient and ignored what society wanted. being restrained from any kind of activity led to depression and anxiety.
- Analyzes how the yellow wallpaper gave the narrator a merciless feeling. she was disturbed by the unclean yellow, which confused the eye and irritated and provoked study.
- Analyzes how the woman secretly kept her journal from her husband to keep her from thinking about her condition, but when she got the chance to write in the journal she did, as it was the only part of her life she had left.
- Concludes that john should have taken different actions that were in the best interest of his wife. not allowing her to do anything, not even write in a journal, constrained her.
669 wordsRead More - Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental feminism and literature's ancestral house: Another look at The Yellow Wallpaper". Women's Studies. 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the women of rappaccini's daughter, the yellow wallpaper, and sethe are viewed by society as crazy, evil, or both.
- Analyzes how beatrice's father caused her to be poisonous and dependant upon a poisoned flower. giovanni, who was her only real link to the outside world, misunderstood her.
- Analyzes how luedtke's use of the words "pleasure-place" suggests that the poisonous garden was not the real problem or prison for beatrice.
- Analyzes how haney-peritz capitalizes on the woman's discomfort in ancestral halls, stating that revisionary reading and madness are creditable ways for a woman to find and free herself.
- Analyzes how the woman's reaction to her prison was unique. she acted of her own free will in tying herself up, but the results were painful.
- Analyzes how the haunting of 124 became sethe's prison, even after she found freedom on one level.
- Analyzes how sethe and the other former slaves pushed away the oppressing memories of slavery because there was simply a limit to their capacity to be haunted.
- Explains that the three women discussed represent a wide variety of social and cultural backgrounds, and their histories span over centuries.
- Analyzes how beatrice's father devised a system of protection, while the unnamed woman of the yellow wallpaper fought against it.
- Analyzes how beatrice, the simplest and happiest of the prisoners, lived in a simple prison constructed by one man. the unnamed woman's prison was more miserable than her.
- Explains that appelabum, stanley, ed., nathaniel hawthorne: young goodman brown and other short stories.
- Describes barna, mark richard, "nathaniel hawthorne and the unpardonable sin."
- Explains that bell, michael davitt, "the death of the spirit: nathaniel hawthorne." the development of american romance, the sacrifice of relation.
- Explains casill, r.v., "the birthmark by nathaniel hawthorne, 1846." a reference guide to short fiction.
- Cites eckstein, barbara, "hawthorne's 'the birthmark': science and romance as belief."
- Describes ellis' observations about hawthorne's women. the women in literature and life association 2(1993):13-18.
- Explains that idol, john l, and melinda h. ponder, eds., "selected bibliography".
- Analyzes miller, john n., "fideism vs. allegory in 'rappaccini's daughter'."
- Explains moss, sidney p., "a reading of rappaccini's daughter." studies in short fiction 2: 145-56.
- Analyzes rosenburg's "the best the earth could offer: 'the birthmark,' a newlywed’s story."
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- Analyzes shakinovsky, lynn, and hawthorne's 'the birthmark': illiteracy and the death of the narrative.
- Cites stallman, laura, and nathaniel hawthorne's survey of criticism of 'rappaccini’s daughter'.
- Explains stoehr, taylor, and weinstein, cindy. "the invisible hand made visible: 'the birthmark'."
- Analyzes haney-peritz, janice, "monumental feminism and literature's ancestral house: another look at the yellow wallpaper".
2746 wordsRead More - Literary Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"analytical essayIn 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.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the yellow wallpaper symbolizes women's sanity in the nineteenth century. the narrator describes the wallpaper as dull, infuriating, and torturing.
- Analyzes how charlotte gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" shows her disagreement with the limitations that society placed on women during the nineteenth century.
- Analyzes how charlotte gilman's use of symbolism in the story "the yellow wallpaper," demonstrates the oppression that women had to face in society during the nineteenth century.
- Analyzes gilman's "the yellow wall-paper"—writing women. edsitement: the best of the humanities on the web.
861 wordsRead More - Through John's interference he turned what was considered a minor case of a chemical imbalance into to full blown schizophrenia. During the turn of the century, which is when this story took place, what scientists knew of the human mind wouldn't fill the inside of a matchbook. This was for certain the case when it was a woman who was the patient. If there was any deviation in the accepted behavior of a woman as deemed by society, the woman was considered hysterical. When dealing with these patients, instead of seriously considering the consequences of their actions, they went along with obscenely stupid notions on how to deal with problems of the mind.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that women's notions were discounted on the basis of the preconception that men were not meant for such enlightened thoughts.
- Analyzes how john's interference turned a minor chemical imbalance into full-blown schizophrenia. scientists knew that the human mind wouldn't fill the inside of the matchbook.
- Explains that the narrator was considered hysterical and slightly depressed and there was only one course of action for such symptoms. the main character of the yellow wallpaper was set apart from all activity.
- Analyzes how the woman can't object to convention and obsess over the hideous wallpaper in her room.
- Explains that it is probably the worst thing to give an unstable mind a teasingly, unstable object to focus upon. the narrator seems to be getting worse, not better.
- Analyzes how john was being a bit stuborn on the subject, probably just out of self-centeredness. he doesn't know what his wife's condition is.
- Analyzes how john, who was her physician and her husband, didn't have enough sense to see how his wife was suffering.
- Analyzes how the man's incompetence led him to leave his wife in a room with an obsession that proved to be too much.
1225 wordsRead More - Madness in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Tell-Tale Heartanalytical essayGilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction To Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th Ed. New York, Norton, 1998. 2: 630-642.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that if you still think me mad, you will think so no.
- Analyzes how assures the reader: "how, then am i mad?"
- Narrates how they can't lock the door when they creep by daylight. they cannot do it at night.
- Analyzes how the man talks about being ill and how he knows people use his illness.
- Analyzes how an old man's eye haunted them day and night. he had the eye of a ghost.
- Opines that she had to creep over him every time.
- Analyzes how the creepy creep creeps around the side of the room.
- Introduces edgar allan poe's "the tell-tale heart" in literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama.
1673 wordsRead More