While these attitudes, and the actions taken by the two doctors, seem to have certainly contributed to her breakdown, it seems that there is an underlying rebellious spirit in her. The narrator, speaking out against her husband states, “He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.” This demonstrates how John is not treating his wife for anything. He simply doesn’t believe there is a problem. This is one of her major motivations for keeping a journal; she thinks it helps her because she is afraid to speak out against her husband. Every time she thinks about writing in the journal, she relates how tired it makes her.
She accepted the environment that she was placed in but begin to slowly change it into what she wanted. Even though her husband really believed that he was helping her, he was actually hurting her. He was stuck in society's thinking that woman wanted to be taken care of and thought that, that's what he was doing. He could not understand why she began to react violently and angrily to the environment in which she was placed. Only by confronting her fears of what society and her husband would think about her, did she allow herself to become free.
When we don 't have a voice that is respected in society, but we want to say something, what do we do? We followed authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and write. She wrote the role of yellow tapestry in 1890 to eliminate the discrimination of women and the general ignorance about mental illness. On paper, we are going to see the madness of a woman because of the mistreatment of her husband and his lack of knowledge about the State of mind of women. Gilman uses entries in a journal to show us how the protagonist becomes crazy subtly and his manner of writing speak poorly of her husband, John.
“And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not.” (Chopin, 785) shows Mrs. Mallard's rethinking of her feelings towards her husband. The release of pressure caused by her husband death caused her to rethink and find her true feelings towards him. Mr. Mallard had unknowingly applied this pressure upon his wife because it was simply what he had always thought a woman should be which is learned from society. Meanwhile, Henry Allen consistently ridicules and rejects Elisa’s ideas of breaking free of the set standards of what a woman should be not knowing the effects it had on her.
John has control over her life so she does not understand why he feels the need to treat her right. She thinks his kindness and love is temporary, so she protects herself by pushing him away. Her sickness is making her feel paranoid about having the wallpaper to herself. The yellow wallpaper is the first thing she feels that John does not have control over. A part of her recognizes that John is changing and the other part of her tries to understand his
(172) While this may have been perceived as an act of kindness, it could more likely be considered an act of self-preservation. She granted her son one last wish so she wouldn 't have to live with the guilt of knowing she never caused him any pleasure. But the moment it seems as if David could live, she steals back the book he had asked her for because she doesn’t approve of it.
But she wasn't satisfied with just shifting it; she had to twist it and rearrange it until the blame was situated on me for something that had absolutely nothing to do with the initial argument. It was as if she thought she could confuse me into believing the whole thing was my fault. As if I would suddenly feel guilty for her trivial, self proclaimed plight. However, oftentimes this plan of hers would actually work. That was probably why she was still using it now.
What happens when one is stripped of their individuality and forced to live under the thumb of another? Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” depicts such a scenario in which the short story’s unnamed protagonist falls victim to such a crime. Upon first glance, the story appears to be a frightful account of a woman gone mad. However, through further analysis, it becomes clear that the story more specifically centers on the narrator’s journey of identity in spite of the intimidation of a male-dominated society. While it is apparent that the narrator is ill from the beginning of the short story, her mental state slowly deteriorates as her wishes and personal feelings are relentlessly ignored by her partner, John.
Many other things happen throughout The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and Eveline by James Joyce that can be analyze in the woman’s point of view. From the way the woman was treated to the choice they made for their life base on what was going on around them. Both women really had no opinion on how they could live their lives. Even when they had a chance to escape something happen to pull them back to that same cycle of life for women at the time both stories were written. Works Cited Chopin, Kate.
Written in the 19th century, the short story titled "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Stetson highlights how a mentally disturbed and misunderstood woman's condition degenerates into madness while under the care of her busy but caring husband. The story brings out pertinent issues in the care and treatment of mentally ill female patients during the 19th century. In a bid to comprehend the article thoroughly, the paper analyses the historical background of the short story by examining how isolation affects a person suffering from depression, and the role the wallpaper plays in worsening the condition of the woman in the story. The essay also analyses the treatment procedure of the mentally ill in the 19th century and discusses how