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Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper's Impact Then And Now

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The Yellow Wallpaper’s Impact Then And Now. Society’s judgments for men and women and their expectations are constantly changing, but there are certain ideals that are deeply rooted in our history. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman which is regarded as important feminist literary work which commentates on women's mental and physical health. Written from a first person narrative, the main protagonist Jane takes the reader through her descent into insanity after her husband isolates her from a nursery room to cure her “nervous disorder”. Jane becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper of the room as she is deprived of any companionship, exercise, and intellectual stimulation. This …show more content…

Demonstrated in this story, Jane has a desire to be more than the constraint of her role as a mother, but her aspirations are diminished by her husband's treatment prescribed to her. Rather than women working alongside the men in family businesses, the 19th century saw an increase in men commuting away to their places of work, leaving the women home all day to oversee the household (Social Life in Victorian England | British Literature Wiki). Society’s pressure for women to do domestic work is still occurring in areas of today's society. In the domestic viewpoints of women, they are expected to provide health care by attending to the physical needs of those with whom they live. They obtain food, provide and dispose of the remains of meals, clean the home, buy or make and wash and repair clothing, and take personal care of those who are too young or too old, or too sick or too busy to take care of their own physical needs (Ann Oakley 30). By placing Jane under the rest of her treatment, her husband John is providing Jane with a way to “heal” so that she can return to her domestic duties as a mother. Her frustration from the isolation and dependence on others drives her to the insanity levels Jane reaches. Society still to this day has a deep rooted

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What Is John's Use Of Escapism In The Yellow Wallpaper

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While the diary functions as the narrator’s form of escapism, John still influences the way the narrator treats her own breakdown. In her article “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper,” scholar Paula A. Treichler discusses how even the narrator’s personal diary entries are affected by her husband’s expectations of her. Treichler mentions, “At first, she expresses her views … [with] repetition of the impotent refrain, ‘What is one to do?’ The journal entries at this early stage are very tentative and clearly shaped under the stern eye of male judgement” (Treichler 62). In the beginning of the story, the narrator tries to trust her husband’s diagnosis, however, she still admits to feeling nervous and depressed.

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She is not allowed to leave her room, she cannot write or draw let alone function as a human all because her husband is a famous physician, and he tells her that if she rests enough it will go away. Gilman writes, “John is a physician, and perhaps-(I would not say this to a living soul.)-perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (330). The narrator picks up on her husband's reluctance to trust her illness but she is so afraid to speak out against him because the repercussions would be horrifying. He effectively traps the narrator and keeps her held captive in a room-(which would truly turn anyone who set eyes upon it insane)-where she eventually loses herself to her mental illness and destroys the room.

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How Does Withington Treat Women In The 19th Century?

717 Words | 3 Pages

She slowly starts to fear her Husband, she notes how there is an odd smell that accumulates in her room, and she always references the yellow wallpaper, in that it changes in certain ways. She began to comment on how some parts of the wallpaper was torn, then she progressed to how there were bouts of fungus growing on the walls until she begins to speak of how the pattern on the wallpaper shakes because of the “woman behind it.” “Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over,” this is when her sanity is clearly broken. She moves on from talking about her husband, the daylight, and the room itself to only speaking of the women and how she moves around. This clear descent into madness is a byproduct of how she is often dismissed by her husband and brother concerning her

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Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1117 Words | 5 Pages

Jane's hallucinations involved women being trapped in the pattern of the wallpaper just as she has felt enclosed in the room she so much despised. The women that she visualizes within the paper are helpless and cannot leave just as she cannot leave that room. "It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked" (Gilman). After writing this story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" was seen more of a scary tale then a cry out for mental illness awareness. At the time, it was published many people were not aware of incidents such as this and it was scary to think that this could happen.

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1019 Words | 5 Pages

What’s surprising is that she has no intention of freeing herself from this controlling relationship she has with her husband John, but she has this unknown courage to tear the wallpaper off these walls to free this woman. By doing this she has this relief that she is free from John and his possessive ways, but unfortunately doing this has cost her, her sanity. We see that Jane while describing this woman is in fact talking about herself which makes us to believe that she has a split personality that she hides from the world. According to Judy Murray, “She begins to see women trapped behind the interlocking pattern and slips into psychosis” (The Yellow Wallpaper). This shows how she finally loses her sanity after having such disturbing

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267 Words | 2 Pages

During the three month stay at the mansion, Jane constantly debates her inner thoughts; the need to be the woman she was expected to be, versus having the freedom she longs for. Jane begins to hallucinate about a woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room and subsequently has a mental breakdown. One can conclude, that the cause of Jane’s breakdown was the oppression she suffered at the hands of her husband.

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1703 Words | 7 Pages

but in reality, he is just making her worse because the treatment doesn’t really make women feel better. The article “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Paula Treichler would agree with my argument about how her husband’s treatment is causing her to go insane. In the beginning of the article, Treichler talks about how the narrator is forbidden from any sort of activity and how her husband isolates her from talking or seeing other people. In the story, the narrator states “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus – but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad” which she is talking about how her husband has cut her off and isolated her from the outside world (Gilman 527). That’s why I believe that the rest-cure started her journey of insanity because she was trapped in a creepy

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784 Words | 4 Pages

She was robbed her of passion for writing, so she had to deceive her husband into her being able to write because he wouldn’t let her. She was in need of that release and usually when one is in need of a certain release and they are told that they can’t get that, they’ll deceive a person into getting that very thing they are told they cannot have. Jane was also suffered depression because her husband only wanted her to rest. She was locked up in bed and was not let outside to help allivate her nervous condition. Jane delevops an attachment to the wallpaper and this shows us that her condition is only leading her to a mess.

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2166 Words | 9 Pages

She begins to go insane, and sees figures in the walls, further leading her to tear off all of the wallpaper with her teeth. In the article “Marking her territory: feline behavior in "The Yellow Wall-Paper”, written by Catherine J. Golden, she explains the cat-like predator mindset that takes over Jane, as she begins to adapt to animalistic tendencies while trapped inside the room. The isolation she feels from being trapped gives her the independence aspect of a feline, as well as the aggression, such as the scratching and biting of the objects inside the metaphorical cage. Catherine Golden states that “ideas about the cat intensifies the narrator's rejection of John and patriarchy, even as she embraces the physical space of her confinement.” (Golden 4), Which causes the audience to picture Jane as some sort of cat, which determines why she feels the confinement in the room.

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518 Words | 3 Pages

Jane has become so insane that she thinks the yellow wallpaper in the room that she is locked in has a woman trapped inside it who is moving around. “The front pattern does move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Perkins 654). Over the time that Jane has been in the room the women trapped inside the yellow wallpaper that keeps moving drives her more and more insane.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

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480 Words | 2 Pages

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570 Words | 3 Pages

Back when The Yellow wall-paper was first introduced by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it was known as a chilling tale between a woman and her husband and how he treats her as his own patient. The story continues to go on as the woman begins to have a battle in her own mind as she is confined in an upstairs room. As time went on, the story became more known as playing gender specific roles. The Yellow Wallpaper is a strong symbol in the story of how women should not be any less dominant than the man in any relationship.

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810 Words | 4 Pages

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not just an author but a great feminist. Gillam inspired countless women to seek indecency with her work like "The Yellow Wallpaper. " The story is a fictionalized short story of a woman who is descending into madness while dealing with her mental illness and cannot heal due to her husband 's lack of belief. At the same time, the woman also known as the narrator feels imprisoned in her marriage. The story takes place during a time were women and had no independence and were not able to voice their own opinion.

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