Women Being Controlled in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Paper is a symbolic story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is a disheartening tale of a woman struggling to free herself from postpartum depression. This story gives an account of an emotionally and intellectual deteriorated woman who is a wife and a mother who is struggling to break free from her metal prison and find peace. The post-partum depression forced her to look for a neurologist doctor who gives a rest cure. She was supposed to have a strict bed rest.

Her husband decided to force her to have a strict bed rest by separating her from her only child. He took her to recuperate in an isolated country estate all alone. The bed rest her husband forced into made her mental state develop from bad to worst. The Yellow Paper is a story that warns the readers about the consequences of fixed gender roles in a male-dominated world. In The Yellow Paper, a woman’s role was to be a dutiful wife and she should not question her husband’s authority and even whereabouts.

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story that surrounds many different topics. The narrator is living in a time period where women were looked down upon and mental illnesses were misunderstood. The narrator of the story suffers from post-partum depression and is recording her journey in a journal. Her husband, the typical man at the time, put her on “the rest cure,” as he believed that mental illnesses should be treated like physical illnesses. He brings her to a house far away from other people and makes her stay in the nursery.

Studies in Short Fiction 30.2 (Spring 1993): 127-133. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J.

Once they arrive in the summer house, he orders her to stay in bed. At the beginning of the story, Jane was not sick as her husband said, all she had was postpartum depression. She was in a big house away from the others, unable to see or care for her child, in a room with ugly walls, windows with railings, without doing anything and alone, that led her to madness. Jane began to observe all objects in the room, specifically the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the way women were perceived in the 19th century by society.

The narrator has recently had a child and is suffering from post-partum depression. When her husband moves her to a new home for the summer, he thinks it is best to keep her alone in an upstairs room for the sake of h... ... middle of paper ... ... woman suppressed by her doctor husband. We can all learn something from “The Yellow Wallpaper” – it always gets worse before it gets better, but once at the bottom, there is only one way to go – up. It is always worth fighting for your rights as a human being. Works Cited Cangialosi, Kristin E. ""The Yellow Wallpaper"" Plot Summary.

Deconstructionist criticism rejects the traditional assumption that language can accurately represent reality. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writes this piece in such a way that the reader must read between the lines to get the true meaning of the story. For example, the main character peels back the wallpaper every night in her room not only because she is depressed but because she sees the woman as being trapped. All she wants to do is free her from her captivity. This resembles and shows imagery of the woman and her life.

"Gilman's Gothic Allegory: Rage and Redemption in 'The Yellow Wallpaper."' Studies in Short Fiction 26 (1989): 521-530.

Once her husband, John, realizes the deepness of depression that his wife is in due to her birth of their child he decides to take action. He decides to isolate his wife from the world for her own betterment. Once arriving in her newfound place of isolation where there is no stimulation, except for her journal, the narrator is placed within a room that is lined with yellow wallpaper. This yellow room is meant to free her from any stresses, but her dislike for the wallpaper concerns her. The pattern of yellow begins to become more of an obsession, being this is her only stimulation due to her confinement.

Self-destructive Self-expression in The Yellow Wallpaper In "The Yellow Wallpaper", a story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the conflict centers around the protagonist's inability to maintain her sanity in a society that does not recognize her as an individual. Her husband and brother both exert their own will over hers, forcing her to conform to their pre-set impression an appropriate code of behavior for a sick woman. She has been given a "schedule prescription for each hour in the day; [John] takes all care from me" (155). This code of behavior involves virtually no exertion of her own free-will. Rather, she is expected to passively accept the fact that her own ideas are mere fancy, and only the opinions of the men in her life can be trusted.