“The Yellow Wallpaper” A Feminist Stand Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist and a creative writer who wrote an eerie but moving short story entitled The Yellow Wallpaper. Originally published in The New England Magazine under her maiden name Stetson in 1892 this short story addresses feminism and individuality through dialogue and symbolism in a subtle way by taking the reader through the slow mental breakdown of the protagonist.
The story The Yellow Wallpaper is told in first person by our protagonist, who is an unknown female who is married to a well-respected physician named John. After being ordered to follow the steps of the “rest cure”, which required her to “live life as domestically as possible”, “have but two hours’ intellectual
This wallpaper will become the center of the protagonist’s obsession. The protagonist confides in her journal referring to it as “dead paper” since she could never tell a “living soul” of how true thoughts and feelings. She writes in secret because she realizes that only she can help herself and writing in this journal, against John’s wishes, brings her relief while also recording her impending
The protagonist relates to how the woman behind the patterns feels because her herself is a prisoner to her ‘treatment’ and responsibilities. The protagonist’s vivid imagination has created another world of creeping women behind the pattern and begins to see them everywhere she goes. These “creeping women” represent the growing number of women trying to escape from this patriarchal society. She describes how the woman crazily shakes the bars and how she tries to escape every chance she gets. The bars that imprison the woman in the wallpaper prevent their escape just like the women in society are repressed and can’t escape. The protagonist shares her suffering with the reader: feeling confined by the attic room and barred windows continually tortured by the metaphorical pattern of the wallpaper, or, expected roles in society. The more the protagonist get into her writing the more she starts to ignore her husband’s wishes and we see a direct correlation to the woman’s escape. Women were socially conditioned to control their imagination so when the protagonist rips down the wallpaper, she destroys her prison and merging herself with the woman in the wallpaper; finally releasing the controlled women in society. As soon as the protagonist tells John she is free; he faints leaving her to now ‘creep’ over him and be free of patriarchal and
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).
Until she sees a woman creeping behind the pattern one night tempting her to go see if the wallpaper is actually moving which is when her husband catches her. He always seems to talk down to her treating her like a child in this particular instance calling her “little girl”. In spite of this she sees this as an opportunity to talk to let him know her concerns informing him that she is not getting better as he so adamantly believes. Nevertheless, her attempts are futile for he dismisses her once more putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progress she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars. She begins to tear strips of the wallpaper and continues to all night by morning yards of the paper are stripped off. Her sister in law Jennie offers to help but at this point the narrator is territorially protective of the wallpaper. She locks herself in the room and is determined to strip the wall bare. As she is tearing the wallpaper apart she sees strangled heads in the pattern shrieking as the wallpaper is being torn off. At this point, she is furious and even
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator becomes more depressed throughout the story because of the recommendation of isolation that was made to her. In this short story the narrator is detained in a lonesome, drab room in an attempt to free herself of a nervous disorder. The narrator’s husband, a physician, adheres to this belief and forces his wife into a treatment of solitude. Rather than heal the narrator of her psychological disorder, the treatment only contributes to its effects, driving her into a severe depression. Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where in she is locked into an upstairs room.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" features an unnamed female narrator who serves to exemplify the expectations placed upon women of the time period. As we are told early on, she is suffering from a "nervous condition" (Gilman 1). While we are not told the specific nature of this condition, we do discover that the cure prescribed by John, the narrator's husband and doctor, entails taking "phosphates or phosphites--whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise" while intellectual "work" is "absolutely forbidden Ö until [she is] well again" (Gilman 1). This poses a particular problem for the narrator, due to her desire to write, which she continues to do "in spite of them," and causes her to hide her writing to avoid facing "heavy opposition" (Gilman 1). The treatment to which t...
All in all, the heart wrenching and goosebump producing story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman takes the reader on a psychological rollercoaster ride. Through the swift use of theme, Gilman ingeniously illustrates the struggles women faced during the nineteenth century.
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 Yellow Wallpaper is a story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Although the work is short, it is one of the most interesting works in existence. Gilman uses literary techniques very well. The symbolism of The Yellow Wallpaper, can be seen and employed after some thought and make sense immediately. The views and ideals of society are often found in literary works. Whether the author is trying to show the ills of society of merely telling a story, culture is woven onto the words. The relationship between the narrator and her husband would be disagreeable to a modern woman's relationship. Today, most women crave equality with their partner. The reader never learns the name of the narrator, perhaps to give the illusion that she could be any woman. On the very fist page of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Gilman illustrates the male dominated society and relationship. It was customary for men to assume that their gender knew what, when, how, and why to do things. John, the narrator's husband, is a prominent doctor and both his and his wife's words and actions reflect the aforementioned stereotype: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage," (9). This statement illustrates the blatant sexism of society at the time. John does not believe that his wife is sick, while she is really suffering from post-partum depression. He neglects to listen to his wife in regard to her thoughts, feelings, and health through this thought pattern. According to him, there is not anything wrong with his wife except for temporary nerve issues, which should not be serious.
..., Gilman acknowledges the fact that much work is needed to overcome the years of injustice. Through the concluding scenes where the narrator goes into her mental illness rebellion, Gilman encourages women to do what they can to stand up for themselves.
The narrator claimed that there was a woman trapped by bars in the wallpaper. It is like a prison that she is stuck in and coincides with the narrator as she is also forced to sit inside a room alone. It is also symbolic of John and his wife’s relationship. As the narrator looks deeper and deeper into the wallpaper she is really just observing her life. The yellow wallpaper really changes the narrator and her mind and she begins to dislike John. The narrator is dealing with postpartum depression and many people that are depressed are usually stuck inside their own minds. It’s like your vision is just a window you can see out of, but cannot escape. The narrator is seeing herself in the wallpaper and trying to escape because she is also trying to escape her depression. Close to the end of the story John’s wife starts to rip apart the yellow wallpaper and when she is ripping it is like she is helping the woman inside the wallpaper which is really her, to
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman's descent into madness as a result of the "rest and ignore the problem cure" that is frequently prescribed to cure hysteria and nervous conditions in women. More importantly, the story is about control and attacks the role of women in society. The narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told. Since men are privileged enough to have education, they hold jobs and make all the decisions. Thus, women are cast into the prison of acquiescence because they live in a world dominated by men. Since men suppress women, John, the narrator's husband, is presumed to have control over the protagonist. Gilman, however, suggests otherwise. She implies that it is a combination of society's control as well as the woman's personal weakness that contribute to the suppression of women. These two factors result in the woman's inability to make her own decisions and voice opposition to men.
Have you ever been locked in a dark closet? You grope about trying to feel the doorknob, straining to see a thin beam of light coming from underneath the door. As the darkness consumes you, you feel as if you will suffocate. There is a sensation of helplessness and hopelessness. Loneliness, caused by oppression, is like the same darkness that overtakes its victim. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in "The Yellow Wallpaper," recounts the story of a young mother who travels to a summer home to "rest" from her nervous condition. Her bedroom is an old nursery covered with ugly, yellow wallpaper. The more time she spends alone, the more she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper's patterns. She begins to imagine a woman behind bars in the paper. Finally, she loses her sanity and believes that she is the woman in the wallpaper, trying to escape. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses setting and symbolism to suggest that imprisoning oppression causes a type of loneliness (in women) that can lead to a deadly form of insanity.
...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century.
The Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a “rest cure”. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageous imaginations towards the wallpaper. Gilman’s story depicts women’s struggle of independence and individuality at the rise of feminism, as well as a reflection of her own life and experiences.
The narrator becomes obsessed with the wallpaper which causes her to believe the paper is moving. She states, “The front pattern does move – and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” The narrator believes there are many women behind the yellow wallpaper, but only one can crawl around, the woman strangles to climb through the yellow paper due to the pattern of it. Sh...
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.