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How Does The Narrator Change In The Yellow Wallpaper

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In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator is on bed rest for three months due to her “temporary nervous depression” or postpartum depression. The narrator's husband, John, and sister-in-law, Jennie, advise her to lie down all day. Due to this, she spirals and becomes insane. She also has a sense of guilt towards her husband throughout the story, but it slowly dies as she becomes crazier. The narrator feels trapped and is suppressed from doing what she desires. The narrator has a sense of guilt when it comes to her husband, John. The narrator describes this feeling when she says “he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.” Since she is in bed all day and is unable to take care of her child, she feels useless to him and …show more content…

The narrator's feelings toward her husband change as she becomes more ill. After countless hours, she cannot contain her emotions any longer. She rips off the wallpaper in an act of craziness and tells her husband she did it “in spite of you and Jane!” By the end of the story, the narrator had already spiraled and now opposes her husband for keeping her in a room for so long. Dominguez 2 The narrator enjoys writing but is not allowed to do so. She believes that being able to write will help satisfy her needs. Writing is her source of venting and it getting taken away from her adds to the resentment she feels toward her husband and sister-in-law. She expresses her feelings by saying “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.” John restricts the narrator so much that she begins to hide her writing. “There comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word. She feels as though she must hide the fact that she is writing but this is the only thing that she thinks will truly help her feel better. Her desire to write is suppressed against her will and she

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775 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the main character in the short novel. She is a young newly married mother in the upper middle class who is very imaginative. The narrator is going through a stage of depression and believes the house they have temporarily moved into is haunted. What the narrator is actually experiencing is called Postpartum depression, depression suffered by a mother following childbirth. This illness can arise from the combination of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

No one could see that the narrator is completely unstable because she is withdrawn from everyone as an effect of her depression. By the time the husband notices her state of mind, it is too late. The narrator is mentally gone and stuns the husband. As the husband faints, Jane is too withdrawn to respond; therefore, she continues her routine although her husband’s body is lying in the way. She loses her sanity because she has to find companionship in wallpaper since she could not associate with any living beings.

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517 Words | 3 Pages

An unreliable narrator is someone who we as the readers can’t fully trust, usually because of their personality, obvious bias, or in the case of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a mental illness. Any reason that would cause us to question the validity of a narrator's opinion within the context of the story might be filed under unreliable. We take what these narrators tell us with a grain of salt because we know their view of the world is influenced by something else. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines unreliable narrator as “a narrator whose accounts of events appears to be faulty, misleadingly biased, or otherwise distorted, so that it departs from the 'true' understanding of events shared between the reader and the implied author. The discrepancy between the unreliable narrator's view of events and the view that readers suspect to be more accurate creates a sense of irony”.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is being forced, by her husband John, to stay cooped up all day. The nameless narrator who will be called Jane is suffering from postpartum depression, and by her husband's orders, she is unwillingly trapped in the house, isolated from the rest of the world. Jane states, “When I get really well John says we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillowcase as to let me have those stimulating people about now”(Gilman 5). This quote is a prime example of how her husband did not allow her to see other people; John will not let her see her own family due to her condition. Likewise, in “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard’s husband is reported dead, and she feels that she is finally free from his control.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

Women were seen as mentally fragile and hysterical, with treatments such as “rest-cures” existing as a means of not “upsetting” the female patient. This sentiment can be seen throughout the story, from the narrator’s diagnosis to the treatment she receives as a result. For instance, the narrator was not properly diagnosed with postpartum depression, but rather what her brother and husband describe as “ temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency"(The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman). Despite saying that she is sick, her brother and husband quickly dismiss her concerns and tell her friends and family she is healthy.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

Then after this she kinda just went beyond crazy. “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And i’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can 't put me back.” She wanted the woman in the yellow wallpaper to escape so she helped her out. Because her husband traumatized her she was always nervous and emotional.

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1248 Words | 5 Pages

Therefore, John represents the bars of the wallpaper which confines the woman and doesn 't allow her to be free. First, we can observe the descriptions or feelings that the narrator expresses when speaking about John. Although these descriptions or feelings may seem positive at times, they slowly become more negative and judgmental throughout the story as she realizes that John doesn’t

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878 Words | 4 Pages

She feels strongly that she causes John to have an affair and that it is her fault. While she is suffering from post partum depression she turns away from her husband. He did not have to cheat on her had she not been so cold: “It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery” (Miller 1329). She feels bad for prompting the lechery her husband commits. She feels that had she not been cold, John would have had no reason to cheat on her.

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797 Words | 4 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story set in the 1890s about a female narrator who struggles with postpartum depression. She moves into a home for the summer with her husband, John. Since she has this sickness, John forbids her from doing any sort of activities other than some houes work. If she was doing anything, her husband would want her to rest to help with her illness. This was a common "cure" known at the rest cure back then.

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374 Words | 2 Pages

In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we are introduced to a female narrator who is married with a young child, and was recently diagnosed with neurasthenia. As all of these facts are mentioned early on, the name of the narrator is never revealed. As the story begins, the narrator is placed in a nursery by her husband John so that she can rest and “feel better”. However, the narrator does not see the problem within herself as she is stifled in the room alone, and unable to express her creativity. Throughout the story we see increasing instability from our narrator as she begins to express interest and comfort in this yellow wallpaper that covers a wall inside of the nursery.

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802 Words | 4 Pages

“The Yellow Wallpaper” Literary Analysis The “Yellow Wallpaper” is a iconic short story written by Charlotte Perkins, a famous feminist author. The novel takes place the 19th century and deals with the issue of how women dealt with mental health issues, specifically postpartum depression. Back in the 19th century the way physicians dealt with women 's mental health was much different then it is today, back then they believed that the cure for depression was solvable by isolation and rest. As a result many women suffering from postpartum depression were forced into isolation which only made their situation worse. Jane; the narrator of the short story, is one of these woman forced into the rest treatment by her physician husband.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

At the beginning of the short story Jane absolutely hates the wallpaper in her bedroom, but at the end Jane claims that she is “getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper.” (page ) At the beginning of the story Jane is aggravated at John and after John’s treatment she describes him as “so wise” (page ) and “loving [her] so.” (page ) Throughout the “Yellow Wallpaper” John consistently makes Jane’s condition worse and worse until she finally has a mental breakdown.

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359 Words | 2 Pages

The yellow wallpaper The short story The Yellow Wallpaper takes place in an old, decrepit house. It follows an ill woman, and writer, who is forced to not write. As she slowly goes insane being trapped inside a room with horrendous wallpaper. She's there because her husband believes it is best for her and will let her clear her mind and relax.

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story told through diary entries of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, becomes obsessed with the ugly yellow wallpaper in the summer home her husband rented for them. While at the home the Narrator studies the wallpaper and starts to believe there is a woman in the wallpaper. Her obsession with the wallpaper slowly makes her mental state deteriorate. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many literary devices such as symbolism, personification and imagery to help convey her message and get it across to the reader.

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687 Words | 3 Pages

Ever since she set foot in the house, she has hated the hideous yellow wallpaper. Then after looking at it for months, she realized there is a women barred inside the yellow wallpaper. She realized the woman inside the wallpaper is herself because she said “I’ve got out at last, “in spite of you and Jane? And I’ve pulled most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (320).

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