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The Symbolic and beyond the Symbolic in 'The Yellow Wallpaper
Yellow wallpaper symbolism in the story
The Symbolic and beyond the Symbolic in 'The Yellow Wallpaper
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The Yellow Wallpaper and the Rest Cure In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which takes place at the end of the 19th century, an unnamed narrator’s mental state deteriorates from both a severe postpartum depression and the ‘rest cure’ prescribed to her by her husband, a doctor who believes she needs three months of absolute rest in order to gain her sanity back. In the late 19th century, the ‘rest cure” was a widely used method curated by neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell. It was a method of restricting all movement a woman did and putting her on strict bed rest until she was “cured”. The technique really demonstrated how women during this time period were treated and looked down upon compared to men. In spite the fact that the husbands of these women had their best interest at heart, they were doing more harm than good to their wives. While at the time it sounded like a good idea to take away all stress from a stressed woman and restrict her to little to no activities, it ends up driving the woman mad because she is no longer taken seriously and just looked at as a broken object. In her short story, Gilman uses …show more content…
Considering she has nothing else to do, she stares at the wallpaper in the room all day and begins to obsess over it and slowly but surely starts to loose her mind. The narrator states that she begins to “see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” (Gilman 6) on the wallpaper. When in reality, her dwindling mental state due to the ‘rest cure’ is causing her to see herself in the wallpaper and see the wallpaper come to life. The narrator also believes that “there is something else about that paper-- the smell!”. (Gilman 11). The hallucinations are all a result of the ‘rest cure’ meant to help
In Alan Brown’s article “The Yellow Wallpaper’: Another Diagnosis”; Brown discusses why Charolette Perkins Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper as well as another diagnosis on the character in The Yellow Wallpaper. In the article it is explained that Gilman published this short story as a reflection of her own life. Gilman battled depression and sought out help from expert neurologist. The neurologist had suggested that she rest and be confined to her room. This experience lead to the creation of The Yellow Wallpaper. Being confined to a room like the character in The Yellow Wallpaper is enough to drive anyone to insanity. Brown had a different idea on why the character lost her mind and began to believe she was seeing figures in the wallpaper.
In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story is a woman who is struggling with her mental health. Throughout the story, she progressively gets worse in her condition, due to the lack of mental health awareness, and her treatment plan. To start off, she is given the “rest” method of treatment.This is a treatment that focuses on letting the brain rest due to the thought that mental health issues were just a matter of an overactive or overstimulated mind. The narrator’s husband is the reason why her condition continued to get slowly worse, his main concerns were making her normal again, even if he hurt her in the process. Although this story can be interpreted many ways, through symbolism and
She was placed in this treatment called the “rest cure” that made her somewhat like a prisoner. She started to slowly decrease into psychosis due to her husband’s treatment, the environment, and the way society has treated her illness. The love the husband felt for his wife and the fear he had of losing her lead him to treat her in questionable ways. He placed her in environment that made her feel trapped and aided to her reduction in sanity. Ann Oakley in her article, “Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper” discusses how important this story truly is. Oakley talks about the gender differences and the harm that it can bring to a society. This treatment was acceptable and normal for the situation because society has taught him and her that it was normal. Even if the protagonist’s husband meant well the treatment she was placed in for depression lead her to have more psychological damage, increasing her insanity more each
Her mental state is again revealed a few pages later when she states, "It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight" (Gilman 430). Related to thought disorder is obsession, which the protagonist displays in her relentless thoughts about the yellow wallpaper which covers her bedroom walls. The narrator begins her obsession with the yellow wallpaper at the very beginning of the story. "I never saw a worse paper in my life," she says. "It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study" (Gilman 427)....
The medical profession’s godlike attitude in “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates this arrogance. The Rest cure that Dr. Weir Mitchell prescribed, which is mentioned in Gilman’s work, reflects men’s disparaging attitudes. His Rest cure calls for complete rest, coerced feeding and isolation. Mitchell, a neurosurgeon specializing in women’s nervous ailments, expounded upon his belief for women’s nervous conditions when he said,
Ever since she has been entrapped in her room, the narrator’s vivid imagination has crafted fictional explanations for the presence of inconsistencies in the wallpaper. She explains them by saying “The front pattern does move! And no wonder! The woman behind shakes it” (Gilman 9). In the story, the narrator explains the woman mentioned creeps in and about the old house she and her husband reside in. Venturing towards the conclusion, the narrator becomes hysterical when thinking about the wallpaper, explaining to her husband’s sister Jennie how she would very much like to tear the wallpaper down. Jennie offers to do it herself, but the narrator is persistent in her desire-”But I am here, and nobody touches that paper but me-not ALIVE”(Gilman 10)! The narrator has realized the apex of her mental instability as the story
In her, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman, goes into depth about her experience with the rest of the cure invented by, Weir Mitchell. Gilman claims she, “.went home and obeyed [the treatment] for some three months, and [she] came so near the border line of utter mental ruin.” (258). With this being said, Gilman, writes her short story to aid women in similar situations and even to prevent women from falling into the same demise. Our main character, Jane, moves into an ancestral hall for the summer under the care of her physician, who is also her husband.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has fabricated that includes a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The narrator of this story grows obsessed with the wallpaper in her room because her husband minimizes her exposure to the outside world and maximizes her rest. Academic essayists such as Susan M. Gilbert, Susan Gubar, and Elaine Showalter have a feminist reading of the story, however, this is not the most important reading. The author experienced the turmoil of the rest cure personally, which means that the story is most likely a comment on the great mistreatment of depression, hysteria and mental disorders in general. Despite the claims of Gilbert, Gubar, and Showalter that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is solely feminist propaganda, their analysis is often unnecessarily deep and their claims are often unwarranted, resulting in an inaccurate description of a story that is most importantly about the general mistreatment of psychosis and the descent into insanity regardless of gender.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tantalizing short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the horrifying tale of a nineteenth century woman whose husband condemns her to a rest cure, a popular approach during the era to treat post-partum depression. Although John, the unnamed narrator’s husband, does not truly believe his wife is ill, he ultimately condemns her to mental insanity through his treatment. The story somewhat resembles Gilman’s shocking personal biography, namely the rest cure she underwent under the watchful eye of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, two years after the birth of her daughter, Katherine. Superficially, the rest cure the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" endures loosely replicates Gilman’s personal anguish as she underwent such a treatment. More complexly, however, the story both accentuates and indirectly criticizes the oppression women faced in both marriage and motherhood.
The narrator has been prescribed the rest cure as a treatment for her hysteria, which in reality is probably postpartum depression. She is not allowed to have any physical stimulation and, as such, only observes details of her environment. The wallpaper, in the beginning of the story, is described as "flamboyant" and "the color revolting" (793). This is little more than a minute detail in the narrator's description of the home in which the family is vacationing.
When first reading the gothic feminist tale, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one might assume this is a short story about a women trying to save her sanity while undergoing treatment for postpartum depression. Gilman herself had suffered post-natal depression and was encouraged to undergo the “rest cure” to cure her hysteria. The treatment prescribed to Gilman resulted in her having a very similar experience as the narrator in the short story. The “perfect rest” (648), which consisted of forced bed rest and isolation sparked the inspiration for “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story involving an unreliable narrator, became an allegory for repression of women. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman illustrates the seclusion and oppression of women in the nineteenth century society by connecting the female imprisonment, social and mental state, and isolation to the objects in and around the room.
"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. 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.
However, it is important to first fully understand the act of prescribing the resting cure and its intentions and mannerisms. The story states that the husband is a physician, and that he doesn’t believe that his wife is truly sick, only sick with a “temporary nervous depression”, and therefore she must rest for the majority of the day (Gilman 237). This was a common diagnosis of the time period, first given by a physician called Dr. Silas Mitchell (Feluga). The administration of this treatment began with Dr. Mitchell’s time as a contract surgeon during the Civil War where he gave men who were injured and suffering from signs of hysteria a strict regimen of rest and nutrition, involving “rest, a fattening diet, massage, and electricity”(Feluga). This led to him to taking this treatment to his patients, who were typically…”nervous women, who as a rule [were] thin, and lack[ed] blood” (Mitchell 9). The treatment received by his patients was forceful, sometimes involving force-feeding through other orifices if they refused to comply with the heavy diet (Poirier). Judging by the nature of the treatment and the number of first-hand accounts about the horrors of the treatments, it can be inferred that the resting cure was not only a falsely believed treatment, but also a method of controlling those diagnosed with ‘hysteria’, or any number of nervous diseases. Having to lay in
Home, in contemporary literature, often plays an integral role often symbolizing security, unison, and support; although, things were not always this way. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts the all-too-real struggle many women faced in the nineteenth century and earlier. This short passage portrays the narrative of female intellectual oppression – an examination of nineteenth century social mores. The passage voices the common practice of diagnosing women with “rest cure” who displayed symptoms of depression and anxiety with a supposed treatment of lying in bed for several weeks, allowing no more than twenty minutes of intellectual application per day. Women, at this time, were considered to be the second sex – weaker and more fragile, unable to grapple the same daily activities as men – and such the “rest cure” prevents women from using any form of thinking, trusting the notion that naturally the female mind is empty. Not even were