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Examples Of Finding A Voice In The Yellow Wallpaper

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“Finding A Voice: In “The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story based on a woman shown to have a mental illness that keeps deteriorating that can be traced back to her complicated marriage. The story revolves around who she needs to be and what her role should be in this complicated marriage. The narrator describes this “yellow wallpaper” as frightening and represents something musty and rotten in a way. This color, which is “yellow”, is described to be “a smouldering unclean yellow” which is “strangely faded by slow-turning sunlight.” The way she described yellow was the same thing she thought of describing how her marriage was. What’s strange is in the story is that we never find out the narrator’s …show more content…

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 …show more content…

This book was published in 1892 showing the difference in status between a woman and a man. According to Asha Nadkarni, Jane is considered “A heroine who chooses to become mad rather than assume her proper place in the patriarchal order” (Reproducing Feminism). For example, in the quote earlier when John was telling Jane to stop her foolishness that it was affecting not only their relationship but their child’s as well. While saying this to Jane, John’s tone sounded as if he was referring to her as a child. This continues to support the idea that men had the upper hand whereas women had to live with restrictions and rules according to their husbands. Unfortunately during that time, Jane had to endure this type of treatment when she needed someone the most. For example, she had led this double life because she wasn’t satisfied in her relationship. To others she seemed happy in her marriage, but in reality she felt alone and empty inside. Even though Jane had everything she wanted, but she still yearned for something that didn’t

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Jane was raised by two significant women: Mrs. Reed and Miss Temple. It is evident from these relationships that it is imperative to have respect and affection for a connection to flourish. Although Mrs. Reed does not have Jane's best interest at heart, Miss Temple shows her the opposite remark. Mrs. Reed is abusive and harsh towards Jane, depriving her of the love and care that she deserves. She treats Jane as inferior, excludes her from family events, and makes her feel insignificant.

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850 Words | 4 Pages

In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the emotional state of the narrator and feelings toward her husband are reflected in her description of the setting through the use of first person narration, imagery to portray feelings of oppression and figurative language to create a consistent tone of isolation and cynical irony. The narrator uses symbolism to portray her connection with her observations and the yellow wallpaper. From the moment they moved into their house, the narrator felt like her husband treated her like a child which was shown when he forces her stay in a nursery. John forces the narrator to repress her imagination. While her "habit of story-making" might have found a healthy outlet in writing,

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1167 Words | 5 Pages

The Oppression of Women Rosa Parks once said, “There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take... The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” Literature often reflects such oppression and how it can lead to despair in the characters’ lives. For example, the lives of Jane in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour,” and Miss Emily in “A Rose for Emily,” prove that an overwhelming amount of oppression can affect a person’s mental state.

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2007 Words | 9 Pages

Jane’s view of others is internalized on how she originally is seen and constraints of those that weigh her down. They even say that no one “really cannot care for such a little toad as” her, which illustrates how her character is pushed around by those around her (p. 63). Aunt Reed doesn 't treat Jane as one of her own and instead acts like Jane is a slave. John Reed, her cousin even torments her by mentioning her differences: “You have no business to take out books, you are a dependent... you have no money; your father left you

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991 Words | 4 Pages

First, Jane Eyre’s attributes displays women in our society who are still in search for meaning and love in their lives. Just like Jane’s spirit of passion despite abuse, these women continue to search for respect from other

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540 Words | 3 Pages

During this time, it was expected of people to not have achievements beyond their destined class (Joshi). However, Jane rejected the fate of being considered poor or to “learn to speak like them, adopt their manners, [and] to be uneducated,” (Bronte 30). If she had been obedient, then she would have not been an independent woman and attended “a boarding-school [for] eight years,” (Bronte 393). Her rebellious personality allowed her to be part of the Upper Working Class with the job of a governess (Joshi). It also allowed her to be a lady who experienced the ideal living

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1071 Words | 5 Pages

Jane compares herself at a young age to her cousins and automatically notices differences. Jane considers herself plain and inferior to them. This idea in Jane’s head is confirmed when Miss Abbott says “you ought not think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed” (12). Considering Jane grew up in this environment, she eventually became “accustomed to John Reed’s abuse” (9) and according to social class, she has no reason to act any better than a servant in this home she is not welcome. Bronte juxtaposes Jane’s master, John Reed, with a tough, powerful character to Jane in order to highlight the essence of Jane’s shyness and how this quality is a direct result of her isolation and mistreatment.

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1493 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the whole semester we have read novels and poems in which characters were escaping the reality by creating the imaginary world. Each character has a different story and a different reason to do that. In the novel “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, the main character, who is also the narrator of the story, is a young woman, who 's suffering from what in modern days is known as postpartum depression but back than was diagnosed as hysteria. Due to her illness her husband John, who is a physician, moves the whole family to a colonial mansion, and lock her up in what might have been an attic and described by her “big airy room (…) , with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore.

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697 Words | 3 Pages

Bertha is eliminated for being sexually deviant while Jane is brought to learn that to be a wife she needs to shed away her sexuality. The novel with its “fairy-tale logic” offers marriage and abandonment of female desire as the only way to confirm with the Victorian dictates (Baldellou, par.

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324 Words | 2 Pages

In the 1800s, this issue was still prevalent in society, although few acknowledged it at that point. Additionally, the fact that the narrator did not feel it was her place to tell her husband that his methods were not helping prove that women were not as independent as men and were expected to follow the orders of men. Furthermore, the roles of men and women in society clearly contrasted; while John was a physician and was free to roam around town, the narrator, John’s sister Jennie, and Mary were confined to the house as housekeepers and caretakers. Plus, John’s superiority to the narrator caused him to believe he was correct in his cure for his wife, when in reality, past experiences caused the narrator to have more knowledge on this subject. However, because she is a woman, the narrator could not do her husband’s

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814 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story full of imaginative symbolism and descriptive settings. However, without the narrator’s unique point of view and how it affects her perception of her environment, the story would fail to inform the reader of the narrator’s emotional plummet. The gothic function of the short story is to allow the reader to be with the narrator as she gradually loses her sanity and the point of view of the narrator is key in ensuring the reader has an understanding of the narrator’s emotional and mental state throughout the story. It’s clear from the beginning of the story that the narrator’s point of view greatly differs from that of her husband’s and other family in her life.

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1106 Words | 5 Pages

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator, Jane, has postpartum depression. In order to cure this depression, John, Jane’s husband and a doctor, administer the rest treatment on her. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” through her personal experience. Along with writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” she wrote an explanation for why she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

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1408 Words | 6 Pages

Authors write stories sometimes based on their beliefs, despite conflicting influences like society or normalities of time. Because of this, their themes can be quite straightforward and based on the time period. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Susan Glaspell's “A Jury of Her Peers,” the female protagonists have the craving for freedom from their state of living; this passion of freedom shapes their environment and influences on the people they love and on their own self. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” the main protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, suddenly realizes that she has the ability to be free after hearing the news of her husband’s death.

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740 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator display conflicts women faces in order to find freedom of thought in society back in the late 1800’s where man control everything. It is clear that this is a feminism piece of writing base on the behavior of John around the protagonist, the writing and thought of the protagonist and the environment around her. In combine, these events describe the isolation of women and their actions being controlled by men. John represent a perfect example of a husband back in the 1800’s who controls every movements and words of his wife.

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2100 Words | 9 Pages

Through her many stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, developed the notion of how being a strong independent woman can be inspirational to all. The expression of her personal feelings and opinions behind the guise of a seemingly fictional story brings new life to the story itself. During the nineteenth century, there were many stereotypes on what was expected from women. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman composes the story of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression and stares at yellow wallpaper. Seeing that Gilman herself has experienced this form of mental illness, we can analyze the context of the text and see the reflection of her own life and in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

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