The Yellow Wallpaper

801 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman

“The Yellow Wallpaper”
“The Yellow Wallpaper’ was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story was written in the late 1800’s which took a focus on a distressed woman with no place to turn to. The narrator tells the story to give us readers an inside look at what she is feeling and what her reactions are to her surroundings. Her husband John who she has went to get help from is a doctor and as her husband he dismisses the notion of a mental illness as “slightly hysterical tendency” (pg. 316). He takes her to a secluded house with no contact to the outside with just himself and his sister. In which they both have the same conclusion and view her illness in the same way. Gilman makes a pretty convincing statement about the gender roles in this pacific time period. It was the debate between mental illness vs. physical ailment, and the concept of freedom in insanity in her story. By her focusing on the male dominance over the narrator, Gilman shows that a troubled mind, with no outlet to the outside world, has no defense but to only retreat to its inner sanctum.
In this era, male dominance was very prominent. Women were meant to be only seen, but not heard. Women could not defend their own opinions or beliefs by opposing their males regardless of the relationship they shared. The narrator realizes this from the very beginning of the story. She even says, in the beginning, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (pg.315). This definitely shows that she understands her submissive position in life and that, in general, men viewed women as senseless people.
During this time as typical as John was, Gilman shows the effect that of the gender roles play on the narrator’s psyche. John goes on to te...

... middle of paper ...

...e a choice or say in the matter but to only seek her freedom through insanity. It took her going mad just to be able to get out from under John and his controlling ways. Also, from all others who was in on agreeing with him on the matter of the once who refused to see that she had a problem. Now that John is no longer able to make decisions for her, she goes on to say “It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please” (pg. 327)! To the narrator she is now in her inner sanctum which is the “great room” and in the madness with in her, she is truly free now.

Works Cited

Work Sited
“The Yellow Wallpaper” (pg. 315-328), The Norton Introduction to Literature, Portable Tenth Edition, Alison Booth/Kelly J. Mays. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/yellowwallpaper/canalysis.html http://www.biography.com/people/charlotte-perkins-gilman-9311669

Show More
Related

  • How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Reveal About A Woman's Gradual Descent Into Insanity

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman’s gradual descent into insanity, after the birth of her child. The story was written in 1892 after the author herself suffered from a nervous breakdown, soon after the birth of her daughter in 1885. Gilman did spend a month in a sanitarium with the urging of her physician husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about herself, during the timeframe of when Gilman was in the asylum.

    Read More

  • Escape Through Dementia in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    John, the husband, serves as a metaphor for masculine views of the time, and for the masculine side of humans, the side of reason and logic. "John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horor of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures" (1658). His character is almost stereotypical in its adherence to reason and its attittude towards his wife. He negates her intuition; "there is something strange about the house - I can feel it. I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was a draught, and shut the window" (1658) He attributes her condition to "a slight hysterical tendency" (1658), which is, etymologically speaking, just a polite way of saying that she is instable due to being a woman. He is not interested in his wife's actual condition, rather in his diagnosis; "John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him" (1659). His best advice is to not use her imagination (though trapped in an ugly room), but to become more reasonable and to resist her condition through willpower. When he does put her to bed and asks her to get well, he asks, not for her own self, but with him as the motivation; "He said [. . .] that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well" (1663).

    Read More

  • Madness in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Tell-Tale Heart

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gilman, 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.

    Read More

  • The Analysis of Jane’s Insanity

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” speaks of a woman who struggled of more than mere insanity, but also the pressures of life. Her life continuously seemed to weigh her down and she felt trapped by what was expected of her along with her mental disease. Her environment, marital relationship, and desire to escape her illness thrust Jane deeper into insanity. In the end Jane finds a way to truly escape her disease.

    Read More

  • The Deeper Meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.

    Read More

  • Yellow Wallpaper: Beyond The Wall

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 354-65. Print.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Life In The Iron Mills And The Yellow Wallpaper

    1374 Words  | 3 Pages

    Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper was written in 1892. The story takes place in the late nineteenth century. The story is told from a first person narrator, a young woman of upper class status who is suffering from post partum depression after she gives birth to their child. The Yellow Wallpaper seeks to invoke sympathy from the reader by allowing us an inside view of the narrator’s life as she tells it. We are witness to her struggles right from the very beginning of the story.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper

    339 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Free Yellow Wallpaper Essays: Oppression of Women

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    By closing her off from the rest of the world, he is taking her away from things that important to her mental state; such as her ability to read and write, her need for human interaction, her need to make her own decisions. All of these are important to all people. This idea of forced rest and relaxation to cure temporary nervous problems was very common at the time. Many doctors prescribed it for their female patients. The narrators husband, brother, and their colleagues all feel that this is the correct way to fix her problem, which is practically nonexistent in their eyes. Throughout the beginning of the story, the narrator tends to buy into the idea that the man is always right and makes excuses for her feelings and his actions and words: "It is so hard to talk to John about my case, because he is so wise and because he loves me so," (23).

    Read More

  • A Feminist in Action in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1794 Words  | 4 Pages

    As the story begins, the narrator's compliance with her role as a submissive woman is easily seen.  She states, "John laughs at me, but one expects that in marriage" (Gilman 577).  These words clearly illustrate the male's position of power in a marriage t...

    Read More

  • A Women's Struggle for Control in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about control. In the late 1800's, women were looked upon as having no effect on society other than bearing children and keeping house. It was difficult for women to express themselves in a world dominated by males. The men held the jobs, the men held the knowledge, the men held the key to the lock known as society . . . or so they thought. The narrator in "The Wallpaper" is under this kind of control from her husband, John. Although most readers believe this story is about a woman who goes insane, it is actually about a woman’s quest for control of her life.

    Read More

  • Effect Of Oppression In Yellow Wallpaper

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though her husband treats her with what seem at first as love, it becomes clear she is nothing more to him than a piece of property. Every time he talks to her, he asks her to get better for his sake and the children's, and only after mentions hers interests. He doesn't think that she has any normal human feelings or worries and attributes her behavior to minor nervous depression. He doesn't see her true suffering since he believes "there is no reason to suffer" (574). He could never understand that a woman can be unsatisfied with the role imposed on her by society. Even though the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than John's theory, she is too scared to voice her opinion.

    Read More

  • Suppression of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...nd alarmed to see her behaving that way.  She has to keep "creeping" over John, even in the end, and it shows that a woman is not much different from a man, in the aspect of being a self-governing individual.  People need to have control over their own lives and the ability to make their own decisions, even women.  People cannot always make assumptions for what is best for others.  We have learned this from John:  John demonstrates that the best way to help someone is to have the patience to really listen and find out what that person truly wants, not simply making assumptions about what is right when its not in the other's best personal interest.  But until every woman is treated in this manner, she will be driven into her own world of insanity where she continues "creeping" over all who try to control her.

    Read More

  • Feminism and Individuality in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlottte Perkins Gillman

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is clear in the story that the narrator allows herself to be substandard to men, especially John. Because John was a doctor, he has special orders for him that he believes will help her. She has to stay in bed, subdue her imagination, and to stop her writing. However, she feels better when she writes, and feels it is helpful, she does not speak up. In her journal she writes, "Personally I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?"

    Read More

  • Patriarchy and the Yellow Wallpaper

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    The nineteenth century was a time of male domination and female suppression. Women faced economic social and freedom of rights barricades. Men's interests and efforts were towards the important people; themselves. We see this when the narrator is genuinely concerned about something strange in the house. John shows no empathy or support towards his own wife. Alternatively john responds by telling her it "was a draught, and shut the window" (Gilman 904). Perhaps this carelessness for women contributed to the mistreatment of the female illness by just giving them drugs to cope with sickness. The narrator continuously reminds us of the social expectations of the male in relation to females. The narrator uses phrases like "one expects that" and "John says..." to reinforce male's normal actions and treatment ...

    Read More

More about The Yellow Wallpaper

Open Document