The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Analysis

analytical Essay

867 words

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses symbolism to add to the mood of her short story. While being treated for depression by rest cure, the narrator is stuck in a room covered in horrible yellow wallpaper that she claims is revolting, “The color is repellent, almost revolting: a smoldering unclean yellow strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.” (Gilman 298). Her view on this wallpaper symbolizes that she is not an optimistic thinker and also immediately shows the reader that she is not emotionally stable, as she is obsessing over a simple color. This also begins to set an ominous and eerie mood to the short story. Secondly, as the story progresses she begins to see things in the …show more content…

I pulled and she shook. I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper.” (Gilman 307). This not only symbolizes that she has completely become unstable, but that she does not want to accept who she as become. She let the beast out of the wallpaper and symbolical out of herself. Gilman uses symbolism throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” to build upon the ominous and eerie mood and show the negative affects of rest cure. Paragraph Choice II: Irony in “The Necklace” In “The Necklace,” Maupassant uses irony to help amplify the mood and theme of the story. After getting a ticket to a gorgeous ball, Mathilde claims she needs a pretty dress and expensive jewelry. Living with a poor husband however causes her to have to borrow from a friend. Her friend presented her with some fine jewelry, but even that wasn’t enough for her, as she wanted something nicer, “All at once, in a box lined with black satin, she came upon a superb diamond necklace, and her

In this essay, the author

Analyzes how gilman uses symbolism to add to the mood of her short story, "the yellow wallpaper."
Analyzes how maupassant uses irony to help amplify the mood and theme of "the necklace."
Analyzes how maupassant uses situational irony in "the necklace" to amplify the vain and dreadful mood of the story.

Analyzes how gilman uses symbolism to add to the mood of her short story, "the yellow wallpaper."
Analyzes how maupassant uses irony to help amplify the mood and theme of "the necklace."
Analyzes how maupassant uses situational irony in "the necklace" to amplify the vain and dreadful mood of the story.

Click here to unlock this and over one million essays

Continue Reading Check Writing Quality

Harness the Power of AI to Boost Your Grades!

Haven't found what you were looking for? Talk to me, I can help!

Women and Fiction in The Yellow Wallpaper
analytical essay
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a deceptively simple story. It is easy to follow the thirteen pages of narrative and conclude the protagonist as insane. This is a fair judgement, after all no healthy minded individual becomes so caught up with "hideous" and "infuriating" wallpaper to lose sleep over it, much less lock herself in a room to tear the wallpaper down. To be able to imagine such things as "broken necks" and "bulbous eyes" in the wallpaper is understandable, irrational and erratic designs can form rational patterns in our minds, but to see a woman locked inside of the "bars" of the wallpaper and attempt to rescue her seems altogether crazy. Her fascination with the wallpaper does seem odd to us, but it easy to focus on the eccentricity of her interest with paper and lose sight of what the wallpaper institutes: her writing. It is her writing that keeps her sane, the wallpaper that makes her insane, and from these two very symbolic poles the short story rotates. Gilman's short story is not simply about a lonely woman's descent into madness, but is symbolic of previous and contemporary women writer's attempt to overcome the "madness" and bias of the established, male dominated literary society that surrounds them.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is a deceptively simple story. it is symbolic of previous and contemporary women writers' attempt to overcome the "madness" and bias of the established, male dominated literary society.
- Analyzes how the narrator is surrounded by objects that symbolize women writers' place in a male dominated society.
- Analyzes how the house is a metaphor for the biased literary world. john is an archetypal male writer who has his eyes on large, tangible topics such as death and war.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is a deceptively simple story. it is symbolic of previous and contemporary women writers' attempt to overcome the "madness" and bias of the established, male dominated literary society.
- Analyzes how the narrator is surrounded by objects that symbolize women writers' place in a male dominated society.
- Analyzes how the house is a metaphor for the biased literary world. john is an archetypal male writer who has his eyes on large, tangible topics such as death and war.
- Analyzes how gilman shows that this cycle cannot change with only female initiative, men must also be involved.
- Analyzes how the wallpaper, like john and the house, is oppressive, but in a more abstract and personal manner.
- Analyzes how a woman writer, once she has conquered herself, can continue on and 'conquer' her husband. once the dogmatic wallpaper no longer corrupts her, she must battle the male.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is a symbolic story of the woman writer who wishes to free herself from the conventions of male dominated literary world.
1322 words
Read More
The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis
analytical essay
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
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins-gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which often led to their confinement.
- Analyzes how uses imagery to vividly describe her home and many of her other privileges. the narrator is never assigned a name so it can be assumed that this story is speaking for all the women who have had their freedom limited during the nineteenth century.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" illustrates the gender roles in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of women’s freedom and voice.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins-gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which often led to their confinement.
- Analyzes how uses imagery to vividly describe her home and many of her other privileges. the narrator is never assigned a name so it can be assumed that this story is speaking for all the women who have had their freedom limited during the nineteenth century.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" illustrates the gender roles in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of women’s freedom and voice.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" illustrates a horrific and creepy tone by using words such as "creep" to hide the message behind the supernatural elements and psychological problems that the narrator developed.
- Analyzes how "the yellow wallpaper" uses imagery to describe the home of the narrator and gives the reader a clear image of how the wallpaper looks and the meaning behind the color.
1370 words
Read More
The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Essay
analytical essay
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
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes charlotte perkins gilman's short story, "the yellow wall-paper", which depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to.
- Analyzes how the narrator, a married woman suffering from postpartum depression, becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper within her room.
- Analyzes the symbolism of "the yellow wall-paper": the barred windows, the room, and the yellow wallpaper.
- Analyzes charlotte perkins gilman's short story, "the yellow wall-paper", which depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to.
- Analyzes how the narrator, a married woman suffering from postpartum depression, becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper within her room.
- Analyzes the symbolism of "the yellow wall-paper": the barred windows, the room, and the yellow wallpaper.
862 words
Read More
Symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
analytical essay
The wallpaper in Gilman's story represents the unnamed narrator's repressed and trapped self. The side that is not liberated by insanity. It represents everything that she detests about her life; not being allowed to write, having to be a mother, and needing to be someone who John expects her to be. In this way, her immediate hatred of the wallpaper is fitting. The old saying that says a person always hates others for the things they hate about themselves applies to her hatred of the wallpaper. The yellowness of the wallpaper reminds her of her sickness because yellow is the color of jaundice and generally symbolizes inferiority, strangeness, cowardice, ugliness, and backwardness. Therefore, because she sees these things in herself, she hates t...
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman wrote "the yellow wallpaper" to defy and mock the norm of woman characterization and the demeaning mindsets about women.
- Analyzes how gilman's wallpaper represents her repressed and trapped self, which is not liberated by insanity. the yellowness of the wallpaper reminds her of her sickness.
- Analyzes how the narrator sees a creeping woman moving under the wallpaper, which she loathes. the creepy woman embodies her feeling of being trapped under all of the things that wallpaper represents.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman wrote "the yellow wallpaper" to defy and mock the norm of woman characterization and the demeaning mindsets about women.
- Analyzes how gilman's wallpaper represents her repressed and trapped self, which is not liberated by insanity. the yellowness of the wallpaper reminds her of her sickness.
- Analyzes how the narrator sees a creeping woman moving under the wallpaper, which she loathes. the creepy woman embodies her feeling of being trapped under all of the things that wallpaper represents.
- Analyzes how the narrator's sickness is symbolic of women breaking free from society’s stereotypes and expectations.
- Analyzes how the men in the story symbolize wallpaper and society. they are the power over the woman and tell her what she can and cannot do.
- Analyzes how the narrator's two different personalities are represented by the moonlight and sunlight.
- Analyzes how the pattern of the wallpaper in the room signifies the expression of her imagination and creativity. the wallpaper displays designs and patterns that are unruly and aggressive.
- Analyzes how the symbolisms in gilman's story enforce the idea of a duality of the narrator’s life.
898 words
Read More
Diction In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
analytical essay
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
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how gilman uses diction, repetition, and vivid imagery to characterize the unnamed narrator in "the yellow wallpaper."
- Analyzes gilman's diction, which characterizes the narrator and provides the tone. she uses words like "atrocious", "dreadfully depressing" and "constant irritant" to create a distinct feeling in the reader.
- Analyzes how gilman's intense and expressive imagery stuns the reader by giving them a look into the narrator’s mind. the wallpaper represents society and the limits it imposed on women in the 19th century.
- Analyzes how gilman uses diction, repetition, and vivid imagery to characterize the unnamed narrator in "the yellow wallpaper."
- Analyzes gilman's diction, which characterizes the narrator and provides the tone. she uses words like "atrocious", "dreadfully depressing" and "constant irritant" to create a distinct feeling in the reader.
- Analyzes how gilman's intense and expressive imagery stuns the reader by giving them a look into the narrator’s mind. the wallpaper represents society and the limits it imposed on women in the 19th century.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman adds to the eerie feeling her reader gets by utilizing repetition.
- Analyzes how gilman's use of literary devices exemplifies the importance of the walls and characterizes the kind of person the narrator is.
1360 words
Read More
Setting, Symbolism and Oppression of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper
analytical essay
...chniques that Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses in "The Yellow Wallpaper" to suggest that a type of loneliness (in women) caused by imprisoning oppression can lead to the deadliest form of insanity. By using setting, Gilman shows how the barred windows intensifies the young woman's imprisoning oppression, the isolated summer home represents the loneliness the young woman feels, and her hallucinations of the wallpaper pattern indicates her transition to insanity. Wallpaper symbolism is used throughout the story the pattern representing the strangling nature of the imprisoning oppression, the fading yellow color showing the fading away of the young woman, and the hovering smell representing the deadly insanity to which she succumbs. Like the darkness that quickly consumes, the imprisoning loneliness of oppression swallows its victim down into the abyss of insanity.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" uses setting and symbolism to suggest that imprisoning oppression causes a type of loneliness (in women) that can lead to deadly insanity.
- Analyzes how gilman uses setting to suggest that imprisoning oppression causes a type of loneliness that can lead to insanity.
- Analyzes how gilman's effective setting descriptions are complimented by the wallpaper symbolism to suggest that imprisoning oppression can lead to a deadly form of insanity.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" uses setting and symbolism to suggest that imprisoning oppression causes a type of loneliness (in women) that can lead to deadly insanity.
- Analyzes how gilman uses setting to suggest that imprisoning oppression causes a type of loneliness that can lead to insanity.
- Analyzes how gilman's effective setting descriptions are complimented by the wallpaper symbolism to suggest that imprisoning oppression can lead to a deadly form of insanity.
- Analyzes how gilman uses setting and symbolism in "the yellow wallpaper" to suggest that a type of loneliness caused by imprisoning oppression can lead to the deadliest form of insanity.
787 words
Read More
Psychiatric Treatment: Mental Disorders, Schizophrenia, and The Yellow Paper
analytical essay
The Yellow Wallpaper is a popular book when discussing psychology in the late nineteenth century. The author, Charlotte Gilman, wrote her experience of mental illness through her narrator. Gilman suffered with depression after giving birth and she never fully recovered from it. (Gilman 95). The narrator is depicted as a woman who has been diagnosed with what was called a nervous disorder. Her husband, a psychologist, gave her several different tonics and other substances that are supposed to make her better. She was also put on bed rest meaning that she was not able to work or do anything that would tire her out. She is told to go and rest several times during the story and it is evident that her ‘psychosis’ gets worse when she is forced to stay in her room and rest for the majority of her days and all night. She begins to see women in the pattern of her wallpaper and she becomes obsessed with it. The narrator becomes very protective of her wallpaper and gets almost jealous when she sees her sister-in-law looking at it and touching it. She even says “no person touches this pa...
In this essay, the author
- Explains that more than one percent of people in the world have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
- Analyzes how charlotte gilman wrote her experience of mental illness through her narrator. she suffered with depression after giving birth and never fully recovered from it.
- Describes schizophrenia as a mental disorder that scares people. schizophrenia is characterized by poor psychosocial functioning, difficulties in activities of daily living, and high unemployment rates.
- Explains that more than one percent of people in the world have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
- Analyzes how charlotte gilman wrote her experience of mental illness through her narrator. she suffered with depression after giving birth and never fully recovered from it.
- Describes schizophrenia as a mental disorder that scares people. schizophrenia is characterized by poor psychosocial functioning, difficulties in activities of daily living, and high unemployment rates.
- Opines that it is important to treat people with mental disorders so that things like this do not happen.
- Explains that asylums were a popular form of treatment in the 1800's, but not all people with disorders were sent there. psychiatry and psychology had just become popular.
- Explains that in the early nineteen hundreds there were several new psychotherapies invented and used on patients. after a while it became evident that their methods were unethical and did not produce the results that everyone wanted.
- Explains the flaws in the treatment methods used today to treat psych patients. antipsychotic medication can perform wonders for many people with schizophrenia, but it can lead many others down a difficult and painful road to addiction.
- Explains that psychology has made immense developments over the years. people have realized that overcrowded and cramped asylums are not effective in treating patients and the evolution of medications has helped to stop the symptoms of many disorders.
- Analyzes the empirically driven definitions of “good,” “modern” and “poor” levels of functioning in the treatment of schizophrenia.
- Introduces the national institute of mental health1 and explains how mental health medications was introduced.
- Explains schildkrout, barbara, and john wiley & sons' unmasking psychological symptoms: how therapists can learn to recognize the mental presentation of medical disorders.
- Describes webb, wilse's history of psychology. theoretical & philosophical psychology 9.1 (1989): 44-45.
- Explains that people were diagnosed with 'nervous disorders' when the yellow wallpaper was written, but today's psychologists have a hard time figuring out what it was. there is no cure for schizophrenia but there are several ways to keep it in control.
- Explains that society and its pressures might have some influence on an outbreak of schizophrenia, but sociocultural factors do appear to affect the course of the disorder.
- Explains gilman, charlotte perkins, and gellene, denise. "a widespread stigma." kellogg school of management at northwestern university, 1 apr 2011.
- Summarizes kirkcaldy, bruce david, and rainer georg siefen's perspective on subjective models of psychological disorders.
- Explains nelson-gray, rosemery o., "treatment utility of psychological assessment" and phillips, j. g.
2076 words
Read More
Symbolism Inherent in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
analytical essay
Upon first reading Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", it appears to be consecutive journal entries written by a flighty woman-plagued with bouts of depression-about her stay at a vacation home. Though upon closer inspection, the double entendre of this cleverly written story reveals itself.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the woman despises the wallpaper, which is confusing, disorienting, and unappealing. the paper becomes her inner antagonist, a dingy yellow menace.
- Analyzes the double entendre of gilman's "the yellow wallpaper." symbolism is the element that plays the starring role in this production, coyly divulging clues necessary to illuminate the reality of her psychosis.
- Analyzes how the symbolism of a scratched and gouged "floor" supports the idea that she is not utterly repulsed at first glance.
- Analyzes how the woman despises the wallpaper, which is confusing, disorienting, and unappealing. the paper becomes her inner antagonist, a dingy yellow menace.
- Analyzes the double entendre of gilman's "the yellow wallpaper." symbolism is the element that plays the starring role in this production, coyly divulging clues necessary to illuminate the reality of her psychosis.
- Analyzes how the symbolism of a scratched and gouged "floor" supports the idea that she is not utterly repulsed at first glance.
- Analyzes how the woman's boredom, paired with her emerging mental illness, denotes a change in her self-perception. the climax is illustrated and clarified through the symbolic tearing.
716 words
Read More
How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism
analytical essay
In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper," it shows very explicit symbols rather than very detailed characters. This vague description shown in this text about the author gives the overall idea of the treatment of women in the late 1800s. The representation of the symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper," connects to women with mental illness during this time period. These symbols become essential to the story and the feminist ideas it was portraying. Symbols such as the wallpaper, John, the author, her journal, and her baby are what creates a sense of origin in her illness and how it was developed in
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how john's treatment makes feel less human or less intact in the real world.
- Analyzes how feels a sense of guilt because she cannot be or raise her own child due to the illness she has. the child symbolizes the female expectation in the late 1800s.
- Analyzes how "the yellow wallpaper" depicts the struggle of being a woman with mental illness in the 1800s. the symbols help the overall message the writer was portraying in this text.
- Analyzes how john's treatment makes feel less human or less intact in the real world.
- Analyzes how feels a sense of guilt because she cannot be or raise her own child due to the illness she has. the child symbolizes the female expectation in the late 1800s.
- Analyzes how "the yellow wallpaper" depicts the struggle of being a woman with mental illness in the 1800s. the symbols help the overall message the writer was portraying in this text.
- Analyzes how the depiction of explicit symbols in "the yellow wallpaper" connects to women with mental illness during the late 1800s.
1574 words
Read More
Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism
analytical essay
“The Yellow Wallpaper” contain many symbols in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman develops the idea that society at the time of the story presumed certain things “proper” - without knowing that they were indeed harmful. In the author’s time, woman had no power, worth, or opportunities, and that could have been enough to drive woman of the time, including the narrator, into madness. Women were not apart of the workforce, could not vote, or have a say in anything. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she uses numerous symbols to show the many restrictions upon women, lack of public interaction, and the struggle for equality.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman develops the idea that society presumed certain things "proper" without knowing that they were harmful. she wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century.
- Analyzes how the woman behind the yellow wallpaper is trapped behind unworldly patterns, a reflection of the narrator's life.
- Compares the narrator of "the yellow wallpaper" to bianca in shakespeare's "taming of the shrew".
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman develops the idea that society presumed certain things "proper" without knowing that they were harmful. she wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century.
- Analyzes how the woman behind the yellow wallpaper is trapped behind unworldly patterns, a reflection of the narrator's life.
- Compares the narrator of "the yellow wallpaper" to bianca in shakespeare's "taming of the shrew".
- Analyzes how the pattern of day meaning immobility and night meaning movement is a reflection of the narrator's day to day life.
- Analyzes how the narrator is a mirror of the house, isolated from the rest of mainstream society. the story is written in the 19th century where women were viewed as lacking all abilities
- Concludes that wallpaper, bed, moonlight, and house are connected to the theme statement that society at the time presumed certain things "proper" - without knowing that they were indeed harmful.
- Analyzes how the bed is a symbol of female sexuality in the victorian era.
1397 words
Read More
Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
analytical essay
In "The Yellow Wallpaper" Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses writing, first person point of view, and symbolism to show how the yellow wallpaper and family have confined her to her emotional condition. The narrator 's obsession with the wallpaper shows us how she projects her feelings into the wallpaper.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that postpartum depression is an illness like heart disease. anyone can get it, no matter how smart, successful or religious they are.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman uses writing, first-person point of view, and symbolism to show how the yellow wallpaper and family have confined her to her emotional condition.
- Analyzes how gilman wants to express how she feels and believes comfort will come from it. her husband suggests it's a poor idea to even think about her condition.
- Explains that postpartum depression is an illness like heart disease. anyone can get it, no matter how smart, successful or religious they are.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman uses writing, first-person point of view, and symbolism to show how the yellow wallpaper and family have confined her to her emotional condition.
- Analyzes how gilman wants to express how she feels and believes comfort will come from it. her husband suggests it's a poor idea to even think about her condition.
- Analyzes how gilman's husband provides her with a dull yet lurid orange room where she can be by herself. she writes how she feels and when she sees john she quickly puts it away.
- Analyzes how gilman's writing helps the narrator to cope with her depression. it gives her a feeling of mindfulness, where she can focus on one thing without distraction.
- Analyzes how gilman suffered early childhood trauma if she thought the walls were better than toys.
- Analyzes how the narrator becomes less mindful of herself as well as obsessed with the yellow wallpaper.
- Analyzes how using first-person narrative to convey the story helps us understand the narrator better.
- Analyzes how the woman's husband, and the yellow wallpaper, have left her in the room where she goes crazy. john thinks doing nothing will solve her problem because nothing is wrong with her.
- Analyzes how john tells the narrator that she is "his darling and comfort and all he had, and that i must take care of myself for his sake and keep well.
- Analyzes how john and john live in an era where domestic ideology is immense, especially the place of the woman. john doesn't know how to nurture his wife and give her the attention she needs.
- Analyzes how gilman finally broke free from her entrapment by the wallpaper. she's metaphorically and physically gotten rid of it.
- Analyzes how the narrator uses symbolism to give readers a detailed description of how her depression felt and the roles men and women played in society at that time.
- Analyzes how perception plays a big role in this short story. what the mind perceives, and how emotions can result in misconception, are huge factors. john's views on how his wife should be taken care of were incorrect.
- Describes how chemists experimented with different powders and pills that could calm imbalances inside the brain and deliver real relief to people who had mental illnesses.
- Concludes that postpartum depression during the early 1900's wasn't taken seriously, especially women, who were considered unstable due to anxiety, disobedience, menstruation related anger, etc.
- Analyzes how s use of social allegory and strong symbolic figures in this short story help communicate the big picture of women's rights. the narrator used writing to aid in her recovery from her depression.
1653 words
Read More
Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper
analytical essay
“This came directly from [my] personal experience” (Oakley 5), said Charlotte Perkins Gilman 20 years after she wrote the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. It is a story of a woman's demoted status by a man and how she was in a mental declining state and ended up going crazy because of the medication she was being treated with, which was mainly to lock her away in an isolated room until the problem vanished. The medicine that was prescribed to her was given repeatedly to women with “madness” and nervous conditions during like hers during the time. More importantly, the story is how the male controls her dominantly and throws strikes at her just like the rest of society did to women at the time. The narrator in the story is symbolic for all women during the time the story was written. During that time women were expected, unless otherwise told, to have children and take care of the home. Since only men were privileged with education, they were the ones that held all of the major occupations and make all the major decisions in the household as well. Therefore, women always ended up being tossed into the prison of submission to men, because they lived in a world where the men were far superior to women in the view of society as well as the household. Because of the time where men subdue women, John, who was the narrator's husband, is the one in total control of the narrator during the story. During the story the author also implies that it’s a mixture of social control from society, along with the weakness the woman has that adds to issue that men we superior over of women. These things in the story give women the disability to make their own decisions or any other opposition to men.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the narrator in "the yellow wallpaper" is symbolic for all women during the time the story was written.
- Analyzes how john, the husband, was a representation of society during the time period. he controlled everything in the household and determined what his wife could or could not do.
- Analyzes how the narrator is at a disadvantage because of the social unacceptance of writing by women.
- Analyzes how the narrator in "the yellow wallpaper" is symbolic for all women during the time the story was written.
- Analyzes how john, the husband, was a representation of society during the time period. he controlled everything in the household and determined what his wife could or could not do.
- Analyzes how the narrator is at a disadvantage because of the social unacceptance of writing by women.
- Analyzes how john tries to control what his wife does as well as what she thinks, which is an example of how women were treated in society.
- Analyzes how john makes decisions for his wife based on his assumptions on what is best for her, and ever considering what she really wants to do.
- Analyzes how the narrator's inability to communicate effectively and tell her opinion adds to her suppression.
- Analyzes how society's control over women adds to the suppression and dominance of women by not allowing them their own opinion or personal interests.
1480 words
Read More
The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay
analytical essay
As human beings, we play the cards that are dealt to us in this world. In life, every person goes through their individual ups and downs and occasionally may break down to the extent of not knowing what to do with oneself. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” which takes place in the late 1800s, focuses on the first person narrator who is an infatuated woman. The disheartening story concentrates on a woman who is suffering from postpartum depression, and as well had mental breakdowns. The narrators husband John, moves her into a home isolated in the country where he wants her to “rest” and get better from her illness. During the course of being confined in the room with the wallpaper, she learns new things and finally may have an understanding
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" focuses on an infatuated woman suffering from postpartum depression and mental breakdowns.
- Analyzes how quawas offers honest insight and advice on "the yellow wallpaper" and its symbolic significance that is portrayed throughout the story.
- Analyzes how the narrator writes in her notebook throughout the story which she keeps hidden from her family. the notebook symbolizes some stableness in, what appears to be, an intensely oppressed life.
- Analyzes how charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" focuses on an infatuated woman suffering from postpartum depression and mental breakdowns.
- Analyzes how quawas offers honest insight and advice on "the yellow wallpaper" and its symbolic significance that is portrayed throughout the story.
- Analyzes how the narrator writes in her notebook throughout the story which she keeps hidden from her family. the notebook symbolizes some stableness in, what appears to be, an intensely oppressed life.
- Analyzes how the isolated room that the narrator stays in symbolizes a safe haven, giving the main character time to write and process internal and external things of herself as her family is away.
- Concludes that charlotte perkins gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" gives the reader an eye opening view of the repression women were under in the late 19th century.
946 words
Read More
Using Biographical and Historical Criticism in Critiquing The Yellow Wallpaper
analytical essay
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.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is a fictional story influenced by her life experiences.
- Analyzes how the description of the room and the wallpaper is crucial to the story as a whole.
- Analyzes how the time period in which gilman's story was written also plays a role. the stereotypical views of women as homemakers and men as breadwinners prevailed over society.
- Analyzes how gilman's "the yellow wallpaper" is a fictional story influenced by her life experiences.
- Analyzes how the description of the room and the wallpaper is crucial to the story as a whole.
- Analyzes how the time period in which gilman's story was written also plays a role. the stereotypical views of women as homemakers and men as breadwinners prevailed over society.
- Analyzes how gilman set out to express her feminist views and expose mental illness to the general public. both of these goals were not considered socially acceptable at the time this story was written.
441 words
Read More
Symbols and Symbolism Essay - Imagery and Symbolism in The Yellow Wallpaper
analytical essay
On my first reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", I found the short story extremely well done and the author, successful at getting her idea across. Gilman's use of imagery and symbolism only adds to the reality of the nameless main character's sheltered life and slow progression into insanity or some might say, out of insanity.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that gilman's use of imagery and symbolism adds to the reality of the nameless main character’s sheltered life and slow progression into insanity
- Analyzes how the short story is written in first-person and introduces the main characters to her world and her life. the outside world would have written about a crazy woman who goes mad for no reason.
- Analyzes how the story begins when the main character and her husband move into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. the wallpaper charges her mind and helps her break free from the dull and husband driven life she has been living.
- Opines that gilman's use of imagery and symbolism adds to the reality of the nameless main character’s sheltered life and slow progression into insanity
- Analyzes how the short story is written in first-person and introduces the main characters to her world and her life. the outside world would have written about a crazy woman who goes mad for no reason.
- Analyzes how the story begins when the main character and her husband move into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. the wallpaper charges her mind and helps her break free from the dull and husband driven life she has been living.
- Analyzes how the yellow consuming wallpaper becomes our storyteller's best enemy and best friend. the story progresses as the housekeeper deconstructs and analyses the wallpaper until the climax when the woman locks herself in
- Analyzes how gilman, in one fail swoop, described the feelings that women had in her time and what could happen if women were to be kept quiet and reserved to only live as a man saw fit.
734 words
Read More