Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses this story to make strong-minded statements about feminism and individuality. Gilman does this by taking us through the terrors of the narrator’s neurosis. Her state of mind seems characterized by her encounters with the yellow wallpaper in her room.
The narrator gives eerie descriptions of the yellow wallpaper; she was obsessed with it. She started to see things in the wallpaper that others did not see. “Behind the outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder - I begin to think - I wish John would take me away from here!”
It is clear in the story that the narrator allows herself to be substandard to men, especially John. Because John was a doctor, he has special orders for him that he believes will help her. She has to stay in bed, subdue her imagination, and to stop her writing. However, she feels better when she writes, and feels it is helpful, she does not speak up. In her journal she writes, "Personally I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?"
The narrator shows her lack of confidence and her feelings of inferiority when she askes “But what is one to do?” This writing shows that she does not feel as if her opinions count much and she accepts this. She demeans herself throughout the story. "I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already."
The narrator does not give herself enough credit to herself. We could compare her situation with those of today when it comes t...
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...she stops caring what anyone thinks of her. She absolutely and unreservedly gives in lets her feelings be expressed. "Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. IT sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it." The narrator is finally doing what she wants and destroys what has been limiting her. People may contend that she has gone completely senseless, and advanced her illness, but maybe Gilman’s but I believe Gilman's intent her is to show a tribute to herself. The narrator tells her husband, "I've got out at last in spite of you and Jane. And I've pushed off most of the paper so you can't put me back.” At this time, John faints. “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” Now the woman who is creeping over him finally sees herself in control.
John comes home to discover his wife circling the room removing the wallpaper. John faints at the sight of his, clearly, insane wife. It is notably; interesting that Gilman has John faint. Other literally works of that time often describe females fainting. It was a stereotypical “female” behavior. As John’s unconscious body lay on the floor, the narrator is forced “to creep over him every time” (Gilman. 803) She is quite, literally stepping over John and all his patriarchal ideals; as a woman she has finally freed herself. She explains at the end that she came out of the paper (Gilman. 803).
It is clear that in their marriage, her husband makes her decisions on her behalf and she is expected to simply follow blindly. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. The narrator’s feelings of powerlessness and submissive attitudes toward her husband are revealing of the negative effects of gender roles. John’s decision to treat the narrator with rest cure leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her descent into madness is at its peak when she grows tears the wallpaper and is convinced that “[she’s] got out at last, in spite of [John] and Jennie… and [they] can’t put her back!”
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator weaves a tale of a woman with deep seeded feelings of depression. Her husband, a physician, takes her to a house for a span of three months where he puts her in a room to recuperate. That “recuperation” becomes her nemesis. She is so fixated on the “yellow wallpaper” that it seems to serve as the definition of her bondage. She gradually over time begins to realize what the wallpaper seems to represents and goes about plotting ways to overcome it. In a discussion concerning the wallpaper she states, “If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one! I mean to try it, little by little.” “There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I believe John is beginning to notice. I don’t like the look in his eyes.”
Treating the narrator as though she is incompetent and not capable of taking care of herself, John does not care
...lack of understanding between John and the narrator’s true feelings and emotions, hiding any values they consider themselves to have in their relationship; the narrator is not receiving the care and attention a wife deserves from a husband in a marriage. Due to the novel being written through the narrative voice of the protagonist a false empathy between John and the speaker may be being presented, making it seem that her illness is unnecessary and a plea of attention rather than one of needed attention. The one-sided narrative voice in which Gilman uses throughout her short novel allows the reader to understand the emotions being felt of the narrator but tarnishes John’s viewpoint. The use of the passive voice in this novel emphasizes only one side of the, something Gilman may have intended to stress the tension and strain in the relationships felt by the narrator.
“John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him."(162). She feels that she should be "a good girl" and appreciate the protective love John offers to her.
Gilman has stated in multiple papers that the main reason for her writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” was to shed light on her awful experience with this ‘rest cure’. However, she also managed to inject her own feminist agenda into the piece. Charlotte Perkins Gilman chose to include certain subtle, but alarming details regarding the narrator’s life as a representation of how women were treated at the time. She wants us to understand why the narrator ends up being driven to madness, or in her case, freedom. There are untold layers to this truly simple, short story just like there were many layers to Gilman
The narrator then truly drops into the realm of insanity. She starts to be untrusting of John, stating, “He asked me all sorts of questions too, pretending to be very loving and kind. As if I couldn’t see through him” (235). Her distrust reveals that her mind has truly discovered how oppressed she is. She then viciously begins ripping the wallpaper from the wall (236).
All sense of individuality and self worth is taken way from the narrator when her name is never revealed to the audience. Furthermore, John continues to belittle his wife by giving her the command to not walk around at night. Although the John thinks in his mind that he is looking out for the best interest of his wife, in actuality, he is taking away his wife’s abilities to make choices for herself. There is a possibility that John’s controlling personality is one of the factors that led to his wife’s psychosis. Such a controlling life style more than likely limited the narrator’s ability to live any life outside of the home.
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.
The narrator is trying to get better from her illness but her husband “He laughs at me so about this wallpaper” (515). He puts her down and her insecurities do not make it any better. She is treated like a child. John says to his wife “What is it little girl” (518)? Since he is taking care of her she must obey him “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”. The narrator thinks John is the reason why she cannot get better because he wants her to stay in a room instead of communicating with the world and working outside the house.
Even though her husband treats her with what seem at first as love, it becomes clear she is nothing more to him than a piece of property. Every time he talks to her, he asks her to get better for his sake and the children's, and only after mentions hers interests. He doesn't think that she has any normal human feelings or worries and attributes her behavior to minor nervous depression. He doesn't see her true suffering since he believes "there is no reason to suffer" (574). He could never understand that a woman can be unsatisfied with the role imposed on her by society. Even though the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than John's theory, she is too scared to voice her opinion.
...ges portrayed within it, and releasing the woman from behind the pattern, occurs when she allows herself to surrender to her disease, "'I've got out at last,' said I, 'in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!'" (803). It is apparent the narrator has succumbed fully to her illness when she speaks of herself in the third person.
The woman suffers from depression and is prescribed a rest cure. John believes that she is not sick, but she is just fatigued and needs some rest. John took her to a summer home and placed her in a room upstairs. He then instructs her to rest and not to do any writing. John's views as a doctor forbid any type of activity, even writing, for he feels it will only worsen her already fragile condition. The woman believes she would feel better if she could write: "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (470). The woman did not like the room that John put her in: "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it" (470).
There are multiple possible causes for the internal conflict the narrator faces. The first being nervous depression and the other is the fact that her life is being controlled by her husband. Her husband is in full control because in the beginning of the story, John, her husband, influences how she should act. He decides the actions that should be taken in regards to her health and sanctity. Although she finds herself disagreeing with his synopsis, she is confined and does not admit how she feels to him. This also brings about another a major conflict that occurred in the 19th century, men being dominant and woman being categorized as inferior. Evidence can be found when the narrator states, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the matter with o...