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Examples Of Patriarchal Society In The Yellow Wallpaper

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A Analysis on Patriarchal Society in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Hysteria is a term that means uncontrollable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. It was a common misdiagnosis for women in the nineteenth century who were struggling with depression. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” describes how the narrator slowly drives into insanity as her mental state worsens when living in a "rest cure" mental institution on a country estate with her family. The story illustrates a mind that is already plagued with anxiety and depression deteriorates as it gets constantly taken away from performing healthy activities. Although mental illness is a condition where many could not feel. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she uses personification and symbolism in her story to represent how the narrator's mental health …show more content…

The narrator constantly depicts the wallpaper as a living creature and presents it with living characteristics such as being able to physically harm someone. One instance when she used personification is ''It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you.” (146) Forms of violence are often intensely connected in societies to the point of being perceived in common living organisms. She continues using this circumstance with “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.” (67) Obviously a wallpaper is unable to have a broken neck and eyes but it creates a very unsettling feeling when reading this quote. A broken neck is a way of threatening to hurt someone brutally because they are hostile with said person and two eyes staring are defined as omniscience or a gateway into a person’s soul. There are quite a few gruesome details about the wallpaper to set a very ominous tone to the point of paranoia and

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The first instance of the protagonist in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” where one can see her internalizing her feelings is in the line “You see, he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?”. This shows that she is downplaying her mental health, that because someone she loves is telling her she ’s okay, she’s not validating the feelings she is experiencing.

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Symbolism and Imagery in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In “The Yellow Wallpaper” author Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives a fictionalized account of a woman’s descent into madness which is based on her mental breakdown resulting from a failing marriage. Born in Hartford, Connecticut and raised by her mother, Charlotte became a prominent American feminist, sociologist, writer and advocate for social reform. Her declining mental health became such a concern to her husband, Charlotte had herself committed to a mental asylum. She entrusted her care to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell who prescribed isolation and rest.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 is a short story that explores the effects of challenging patriarchal and social oppression on a woman’s mental health. The story’s protagonist is an unnamed woman who is prescribed a rest cure by her physician husband, John, to help her recover from what he describes to be a “nervous depression”. The woman is confined to a room in their summer home decorated with yellow wallpaper. As the days pass, she becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper and begins to lose touch with reality. In the final moments of the story, the woman descends into madness, and her husband passes out after discovering the states she is in.

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In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she uses multiple literary analyses such as situational irony, dramatic irony, symbolism, and imagery. The Yellow Wallpaper is a powerful symbol that signifies the protagonist's imprisonment within the constraints of societal expectations and the repressive power of her mind, against the backdrop of patriarchal society traditions. Gilman creates a psychological landscape that’s revealed through complex narratives and vivid imagery. The yellow Wallpaper mirrors the narrator's journey toward insanity, her fight for independence, and her eventual downfall. As the story progresses, the imagery, symbolism, and ironies combine to create an eerie atmosphere that entices readers to consider the complexities of mental illness, gender roles, and desire for self-expression.

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She begins to see strangles heads in the wallpaper, which can be a symbolic representation of the patriarchal order that stifled women. The bars on the wallpaper that cage the imaginary women are a reflection of her own situation where she is confined in the old mansion. Even the smell of the wallpaper, which she describes as being ‘yellow’ and present throughout the house, is a reflection of the mental repression that is always present in her life. She is so consumed by the smell that she thinks about burning the old mansion just to cover it

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In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman represents how wretchedness is overlooked and changed into blended sentiments that eventually result in a significantly more profound enduring incongruity. The Yellow Wallpaper utilizes striking mental and psychoanalytical symbolism and an effective women's activist message to present a topic of women' have to escape from detainment by their male centric culture. In the story, the narrator's better half adds to the generalization individuals put on the rationally sick as he confines his significant other from social circumstances and keeps her in an isolated house. The narrator it's made out to trust that something isn't right with her and is informed that she experiences some illness by her own significant other John.

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(678) in this statement she is challenging herself and this shows the reader she is facing some confusion. The yellow wallpaper in the main characters (the narrator) bedroom is a major point in the story. The yellow wallpaper plays a major role in the woman’s insanity. The woman’s obsession with the wallpaper creates her problem and affects her mind and judgment. This is shown in, “It dwells on my mind so!”

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The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

848 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator is alone most of the time and says that she has become almost fond of the wallpaper and that attempting to figure out its pattern for example she says “I lie her on this great immovable bed, it is nailed down, I believe and follow’s that pattern about the hour it is as good ad gymnastics I assure you I start we’ll say, at the bottom, down the corner over there it has not been touched and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow the pointless pattern to sort some conclusion.” (Gilman) As her obsession grows, the pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer. It begins to resemble a woman trapped by bars trying to escape the wallpaper. In my opinion, the wallpaper represents her feeling trapped clearly by her

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658 Words | 3 Pages

From the beginning of the story, the narrator claims there is something queer about the house (Perkins 380). Throughout the story, she voices her concerns about the house. She claims she can “feel” something strange about the house (Perkins 380). The narrator believes that the paper looks at her with viciousness (Perkins 382) and says that it has eyes everywhere. She also infers that there are things about the wallpaper that only she knows about and they come into focus more each day (Perkins 380).

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Nonetheless, the narrator continues to pen her ideas about the wallpaper as it transpired from being perplexing to gaining clarity each day. Amidst arriving at a full conclusion of what the wallpaper depicts, the narrator says she sees “a woman stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern” (Perkins Gilman, 50). As the days passed,

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