Together the themes of manipulation and mental illness will trigger a series of events that change their lives. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the protagonist becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom and seclusion from human contact. This was a cure that her husband John prescribed that proved detrimental to her mental health. As she spends more time alone in the room, she becomes fixated on the patterns and images, slowly becoming convinced there is a woman behind the wall that is trapped and that she must free, "The front pattern does move—and no wonder!
Since her husband, a physician of high standard, has prescribed a "rest cure" for her nervous condition, the protagonist is forced to suppress her creative urges and conform to societal expectations of a submissive and passive wife who is to remain still in a room with “the yellow wallpaper.” This suppression ultimately leads to her descent into madness as she struggles to reconcile her own desires with the expectations placed upon her. While the lady narrates the entire story, it is interesting to note that she is not in control of her own life and decisions. Rather, she is a victim of societal norms and gender roles that restrict her agency and
Jane writes that her journal is dead paper, which is an odd way of describing it. Coupled with the way that she quickly personifies the wallpaper, it highlights that the wallpaper is symbolic and it represents things that are present in her life and the culture around her. Jane sees the wallpaper as having three parts, the color and the two patterns. The color yellow is symbolic of happiness and hope.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is treated for depression by “rest cure,” isolation from society, which affects her mentality causing her to become secretive, withdrawn, and insane. With the treatment
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is staying at a summer home while her husband renovated their house. This house was also used to be an old nursery. In the nursery she was not allowed to go inside some of the rooms, however the room she stayed in had this yellow wallpaper that she disliked for a while. Her husband, John, also thought it would be a good idea to bring her to this summer house because she was ill. She had postpartum depression and it progressively got worse throughout her two month stay at the summer home.
As someone who suffers from depression, it is easy to relate to the main character of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The difference though, is that I am able to talk about my problems, and express my feelings to my significant other. She, however, is not allowed to. She has to push her problems aside and is forced to deal with the problems on her own.
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.
She has no choice but to examine the yellow wallpaper in the room. She began to trace the pattern of the wallpaper. She spend most of the time crying in the room which made John threaten her by sending
Just like Gilman’s treatment, the narrator was told a “rest cure” would be able to help her illness. Both were to stay in bed and not use their brain or body for any work. This treatment for both causes them to become a little insane because of the lack of stimulation. “The Yellow Wallpaper” heavily references Gilman’s life since this short story is considered “merely as a Poe-like rebuke to the neurologist who had mishandled Gilman's own illness several years earlier” (“Charlotte Perkins Gilman’’ Authors). Gilman mimicked Poe’s gothic style of writing; starting of normal and slowly getting more and more disturbing until the end.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression. The narrator 's husband John, who also happens to be her physician, prescribes the rest cure to help lift his wife of her depressive state and ultimately heal her depression. However, the rest cure does not allow the narrator to experience any mental stimulation. Therefore, to manage her boredom the narrator begins obsessing over the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. After analyzing the pattern for awhile, the narrator witnesses a woman trapped behind bars.
In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author tells us about a woman that is suffering from an illness that was most likely postpartum depression. The woman of the story in the narrator and this story is written like it was her journal that she kept in secret. She is married to a man named John, who is also the physician that is treating her for her illness. He kept her locked in a room at the very top of the house that was once assumed to be a nursery. It had bars on the windows, scratches on the floor and dull yellow wallpaper.
In the short story “the Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator, Jane who has just given birth becomes progressively more ill and depressed. Her husband John, who is a physician prescribes that she get lots of rest and fresh air so Jane and John rent a colonial mansion for the summer. Throughout the story John is one of the main causes for Jane’s deepening depression.
The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 shows mental illness through the narrator first hand. The theme in this story is going insane verses loneliness as well as being trapped. These themes are shown through the main character (the narrator of the story) as she works through her own mind, life, and surroundings. First, the theme of the woman’s state of mind is the main focus in this story.
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.”
The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a brilliant piece of fictional literature. The tale involves a mentally ill woman who is kept in a hideous, yellow room under the orders of her husband, John, who is a physician. The ill woman is conflicted due to the fact that the horrifying yellow wallpaper in the room is trapping a woman who she must help escape, but the sick woman is aware that she must get better in order to leave the terrifying, yellow room. The setting and personification applied in the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, allows readers to develop an understanding of the sickness of the main character faces.
