In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, through expressive word choice and descriptions, allows the reader to grasp the concepts she portrays and understand the way her unnamed narrator feels as the character draws herself nearer and nearer to insanity. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator writing in a journal about the summer home she and her husband have rented while their home is being remodeled. In the second entry, she mentions their bedroom which contains the horrendous yellow wallpaper. After this, not one day goes by when she doesn’t write about the wallpaper. She talks about the twisting, never-ending pattern; the heads she can see hanging upside-down as if strangled by it; and most importantly the …show more content…
One of the first jarring uses of such harsh, blunt diction is in her third entry when she talks about the pattern and says the lines “suddenly commit suicide” (Gilman). She then goes on to discuss the color, calling it “repellent” and “revolting” (Gilman). She uses words similar to this throughout every entry: “atrocious”, “dreadfully depressing”, “constant irritant”, “torturing”, and “infuriating” are just a few examples (Gilman). Each one of those examples described the wallpaper. Gilman’s staggering word choice allows the reader to be able to understand and even begin to feel the same way her unnamed narrator does. She creates a disturbingly ominous mood which rattles the reader to the core. The reader doesn’t understand fully what is happening, receiving only hints from a very limited viewpoint, until the end when the pieces suddenly begin to fit together. Even then, the reader is left with an unsettling feeling and an uncertainty of what had just happened. Not only does Gilman’s word choice create a distinct feeling in the reader, but it characterizes the narrator as well. The narrator is supposedly writing all of this in a journal which means the words are her own, not the author’s. Creating an environment using such blunt, harsh language, forms an image in the reader’s mind of what type of person the narrator is. By making the narrator use this …show more content…
It is not simple repetition of single words, but discussions she has over and over again. On almost every page the unnamed narrator mentions the horrid color of the wallpaper. Once she notices the woman for the first time it is almost all she talks about. Gilman first mentions the woman on page six then again on seven, the entirety of nine, ten, and suddenly becomes the woman on page eleven. The narrator doesn’t seem as if the wallpaper means so much in the beginning; it is just a minor annoyance, but throughout the story she becomes more and more infatuated with the wallpaper. The wallpaper is first mentioned on page two when the narrator first describes the room. Since then, there is not a single entry that does not mention the wallpaper. By entry four, the wallpaper suddenly knows it’s having an influence on her, then entry five is almost entirely about the wallpaper. As an example of how obsessed the narrator becomes, entry twelve contains 41 lines and 28 of those lines are directly discussing the wallpaper or a characteristic of it and nine discuss the woman in the wallpaper which means a mere four lines do not speak of the wallpaper. She will veer off track every now and then to talk about something else, but she always goes right back to the wallpaper until it is the only thing her entries are about. By providing the reader with this slow descent into
The story begins with the narrator explaining the recommendations for treatment of her nervous depression given by her husband John, a physician. John brings the narrator to a secluded home for the summer, and orders her to rest in a bedroom with yellow wallpaper for the vast majority of her stay. The narrator quickly develops an obsession with the wallpaper and insists that there are “things in the wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will” (302). Here Gilman hints that the narrator’s logic is flawed and separate from her pragmatic husband rationale. Then, the narrator begins to see women trapped behind the wallpaper and is determined to free them. She creeps along the edges of room like the women she sees in the wallpaper waiting for the opportunity to free them. The climax of the story begins when the narrator is able to lock herself in the room to tear down the wallpaper in the absence of John. She starts tearing apart the wallpaper freeing all the women and believing she too has been freed she is pleased with her new ability to freely creep around the great room (308). Just as this takes place John opens the door and faints while the narrator “kept on creeping just the same” (308). This sequence of events, told from the narrator’s point of view, allows readers to infer that the narrator is an unreliable source of information. The reader is lead to disregard the narrator’s conception of reality, as her behavior is so shocking that it causes her husband to lose consciousness. Therefore, Gilman effectively utilized an unreliable narrator to accentuate her narrator’s mental
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 wallpaper, the center of the story, the perceived reason for her madness, was simply just wallpaper that she disliked. Every time she would describe it, her delusions would continually get worse. "I never saw a worse paper in my life." (Gilman) is her first observation of the paper. She strongly believed that there was a woman, "A strange, provoking, formless sort of figure." (Gilman) behind that paper who was creeping outside and around her room. She strongly believed that she needed to help this woman be free of the wretched wallpaper. She strongly believed that the wallpaper had a "yellow smell" (Gilman). No one could possibly make her disbelieve for one second that the woman didn't move about and yearn to be free of the strangling pattern. She believes that she is the only person who understands and can get the woman out of her
...he impression that Gilman was “trying to drive people crazy,” But rather the intension that the author had set out to give her readers. I would have to agree with Seuss that the wallpaper was a form of language, it was how she was able to express how she was feeling.
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.
Gilman uses alliteration (Neill defines alliteration as the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words), and personification, attribution of human characteristics to non-human entities (Neill), to describe the wallpaper. Jane uses alliteration to describe the wallpaper. Jane states the, “ paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it [...] the paper in great patches all around the head of my bed.. .” (Gilman, emphasis mine). Gilman uses the letter “p” to emphasize Jane’s imaginative attention to the quality of the wallpaper’s paint and the amount of wallpaper present. In addition, Jane dislikes the colour; she claims the wallpaper is, “a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by [...] slow-turning sunlight [...] in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. ” (Gilman, emphasis mine). Gilman uses the letter “s” to emphasize the state of the wallpaper. Finally, Jane personifies the wallpaper. As Jane analyzes the wallpaper, she notes that the wallpaper, “... sticketh closer than a brother—they must have had perseverance as well as hatred” (Gilman). Only humans can feel perseverance, hatred and have siblings; wallpapers do not feel or have blood-ties. In addition, Jane imagines that the “pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you […] and waddling fungus growths just shriek with
Gilman is very particular about her usage of words in describing the yellow wallpaper. The use of words like “creepy”, “repellent”, “smoldering”, “atrocious”, and “foul” convey a clear picture to the reader how the narrator may be feeling. The strips of yellow wallpaper are plastered unevenly around her room, and she is eventually led to tear apart bits of the paper. The narrator describes the wallpaper as “bloated”, in that it is on the verge of exploding. The reader can assume that the narrator feels bloated in a similar sense. She also describes the pattern as one that “flourishes – a kind of
The women had fallen into a deep place of postpartum depression after her child had been born and was placed into what she had been told “a nursery” to the people placing her there it had been a nursery for mentally ill patients as the readers had the first impression of it resembling a children 's nursery. The nursery had no resemblance of a children 's room in any way but it did have a nasty yellow wallpaper decorating the walls. During the story the wallpaper was used both ironically and a way to hide many of the stories symbols. The narrator spent most of her day in the yellow lines room and had became a liking towards the pattern and finding things in the pattern. At points the narrator had become so trapped by the wallpaper she had said “I don 't want to go out, and I don 't want to have anybody come in.” (Gilman 12) showing to the readers that she had developed a longing and a protective feature over the wallpaper. She has been captured by the pattern being the only thing that she will worry about and knows that if the women that watch her during the day saw her studying the paper she 'd be forced to move away from the wallpaper, so she studied it at night, “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard.” (Gilman 13) because she knew the lack of privacy during the day. The wallpaper and her reacted towards it had an increase of worsening, in the student paper they described it as “That pain “a constant dragging weariness” would eventually lead to a nervous breakdown. As the days passed into months, the depression began to consume her.” (Denise D. Knight 470) The depression was taking control of her life so much as instead of seeing the increasing improvements in the beginning of the story with pride and encouragement changing to a trapped women inside of the
Charlotte Perkins Gilman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” develops the themes of Insanity through the use of a woman character who forcefully struggle during the late 1800’s. Insanity plays a significant role in this short story where Gilman tries to portray the women’s situation at that time. This story is based on a women’s life and she believes she is sick. She expects better mediation and treatment from her doctor husband. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell recommends her to choose a silent place to take complete bed rest that helps her to get well soon from her illness. But at the same time she wants proper treatment from her husband because she believe if her husband pay attention, she can get well soon. Gilman had own experienced with the same illness.
"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.
Gilman uses symbolism throughout the story to relate the woman’s mental condition to the oppression of women at the time of publication.The first and most important symbol Gilman uses is the Yellow Wallpaper itself. At first, the woman in the story is disgusted by the wallpaper, asking her husband to tear it down. As the story goes on, she becomes infatuated
The narrator finds herself stuck in a bedroom that she did not pick. In this bedroom there is yellow wallpaper and the narrator says about the wallpaper, “I have never seen a worst paper in my life,” (Gilman-Perkins 2). She also says, “Even when I go to ride, if I turn my head suddenly and surprise it—there is that smell!" (Gilman-Perkins 9). Clearly, the narrator does not find the wallpaper appealing when it comes down to sense like sight and aroma. She has a deep contempt for just the way the paper looks and it troubles her, setting her eyes upon it. The wallpaper also, disturbs her nasal sense. Something simple as odor from the wallpaper makes her unsteady and does not give her a positive reaction. Just at glance the speaker has conflict with the wallpaper but there is a further symbolic conflict she has that deals with the pattern of the wallpaper. For example she states, “One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.” (Gilman-Perkins 1) The relator of the story strongly unsteady about the pattern of this wallpaper. At first glance, one might think the narrator simply does not like the pattern due to personal taste and interest, but it may also be that there is a deeper conflictive meaning in the pattern. A pattern is similar to a code and a code can have secret information stored inside of it. Metaphorically speaking, the wallpaper’s pattern represents the conflictive, restricting life the narrator finds herself in. Trapped in a pattern that resembles the struggle many women faced at that time, the discrimination and inequality they received from men. The narrator acknowledges that she was stuck in this figurative wall by saying, “I wonder if they all come out of the wallpaper as I did." (Gilman-Perkins). Surely, she alludes that she came out of that
The narrator's detailed description of the wallpaper makes the reader understand the woman is well educated and has a keen eye for detail. The wallpaper evokes an emotional response from her, such as her statement, "It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study . . . " (793).
Evidence of Gilman's life experiences can be seen all throughout the story. The main character in the story, a slightly neurotic woman, is married to a prominent physician. This husband refuses to believe anything is wrong with his wife's health simply because her physical health is intact. Thus, he prescribes for his wife nothing more than relaxation and cessation of her writings. This character clearly correlates to the doctor who "treated" Gilman for her nervous breakdown. The description of the room and the wallpaper is clearly crucial to the story as a whole. The room itself is described as large and airy, with windows facing towards a "delicious garden." The wallpaper does not fit the room at all. It is a repulsive, pale yellow color. The description of the wallpaper seems to function metaphorically. The wallpaper becomes much more detailed and much more of a fixture in the main characters life as the story progresses. The wallpaper essentially takes on a life of its own. This progression seems to represent mental illness itself. As mental illness progresses, it becomes much more whole and enveloping. Gilman attempts to represent the depth of mental illness through the wallpaper. For example, the woman in the story comes to the conclusion that there is a woman in the wallpaper behind the pattern.
Through the lens of Post-Structuralism, literature is a system of signs with an impossibility of understanding their meaning due to the fact that language is unstable, arbitrary and ambiguous. The signifiers so familiar in Structuralism become floating signifiers in Post-Structuralism in that the function of a word, or phrase, is not concrete, i.e. it changes. Binary oppositions (male/female, good/bad, open/closed) represent an implied classification and as such, along with the reader/author relationship, are destabilized. Through this lens, “The Yellow Wallpaper” contains binary oppositions worthy of focus. The narrator could very well be insane as she isn’t intimately familiar with her illness, she speaks of the house as being hateful and even haunted, and she almost immediately begins to hallucinate once she moves in. On the flip side the narrator could very well be sane as she is able to write legibly and maintain her diary in a neat and orderly fashion and acts in an intelligent manner, with movements that can be considered carefully planned. This blurs the line between sanity and insanity. The short story appears to present a situation in where a woman has endured a situation designed to deliberately exclude any sort of enjoyment of activity or mental expression. As such, the