Confession in The Yellow Wallpaper In Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator struggles to confess her thoughts and feelings to her husband causing her to withhold emotions and turn to writing for proper confession. The physically and mentally isolated woman uses writing as a way to cope with the immoral treatment she is undergoing. The belittled wife confesses her worries to her journal rather than being mocked spouse. Her distant husband is using the Rest Cure treatment on his wife, and remains detached treating her as a patient rather than his wife. The treatment that led the main character to confession through writing is called the Rest Cure.
The simple act of writing about these shocks is possibly her greatest pleasure. Although Virginia Woolf s Moments of Being begins with concern for her reader, she eventually gets caught up in her writing and writes on a more personal level. Rather than writing her autobiography to convince the reader of something, she writes a heartfelt, introspective work. In writing her autobiography, she is not searching for reader empathy; instead she is coming to terms with her past.
She has to rest all day long and personally disagree with what she has to do; she would rather spend her time writing, but her husband and other family members think it is not a good idea. She also described the house in her journal, as mostly positive, but some disturbing elements such as the wallpaper; she also becomes better at hiding her journal from John to continue writing. She complains about Johns controlling ways and how he discourages her from fantasizing of people walking the walkways. She has a wonderful time during the fourth of July with her family, then here obsession grows with the sub-pattern of the wallpaper; John started to think her conditions is improving, but she is sleeping less and less. The sub-pattern sees a woman creeping around and shaking the bars and sh... ... middle of paper ... ...ectual activities a day; also to never touch a pen, brush or pencil again (Martin).
Every time she thinks about writing in the journal, she relates how tired it makes her. Throughout the story, John speaks out against her writing, because he feels that it contributes to her depression but she writes anyway, feeling that she is getting away with something. John treats her as if she were ill not depressed. John being a physician, not a psychologist, prescribes her medication that is for someone who is physically ill, not experiencing psychological distress. The journal becomes an outlet for her true feelings that she believes would get her incarcerated if anyone else heard them.
"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... ... middle of paper ... ...Mitchell, seems all the more plausible.
This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings. "The Yellow Wallpaper" became significant not only in literature, but also socially, it was a current issue that Gilman was relating to at the time. Gilman sought medical help from the famous neurologist S. W. Mitchell for her slight depression. Mitchell, who prescribed his famous "rest cure", that restricted women from doing anything that labored and taxed their minds, and for Gilman, her writing. More than just a psychological study of postpartum depression, Gilman's "The Yellow... ... middle of paper ... ...f John, the husband, seems eerily inappropriate and restrictive, but was considered quite normal in the 19th century.
Reading served as morphine allowing them to escape the pain of everyday life, but reading like morphine closed them off from the rest of the world preventing them from making rational decisions. It was Anna and Emma's loss of reasoning and isolation that propelled them toward their downfall. Emma at the beginning of the novel was someone who made active decisions about what she wanted. She saw herself as the master of her destiny. Her affair with Rudolphe was made after her decision to live out her fantasies and escape the ordinariness of her life and her marriage to Charles.
Through the voice of the narrator, it is evident that women are viewed as inferior to the men and the theme of the subordination of women is easily delivered through the narrator’s thoughts. The narrator believes that if her husband, John, was not her doctor, her condition would improve, and even states, “You see, he does not believe I am sick,” (Gilman 655). She continues to discuss how she disagrees with her husband’s opinions on her wellbeing, but there are not any other actions for her to pursue. Although the narrator enjoys writing and she feels better afterwards, she is not allowed to write due to her illness, despite her opinions that it would be helpful (656). Moreover, her husband does not truly listen to her when she talks about what she prefers about her treatment or the home, even when she simply asks to change bedrooms (657).
Gilman's emphasis on the complex symbolism of the wallpaper illustrates the narrator's depression and the adverse affects of limited intellectual activity which, in this case, leads to insanity. At the beginning of the story, the narrator confides that she may not be well, but she disagrees with the prescribed treatment for her "nervous depression" when she states: Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. B... ... middle of paper ... ...ted to, the wallpaper. The focus of her surroundings is narrowed to the point that she exists only in the bedroom, fearing the outdoors and limiting her contact with other people.
Satrapi illustrated ... ... middle of paper ... ...le they feel that the images draw them into the story, most readers feel that the lack of detail creates a certain aloofness that pushes them away from it. The simplicity and minimal detail makes it easier to comprehend and process what is going on in the story, but doesn’t allow for any connections to be made. Usually when authors are writing books, they want to be able to make the reader feel as if they are connected with the story. But Marjane Satrapi wrote Persepolis in a way that makes the reader detached. Persepolis is considered her memoir since she wrote it about herself.