ipl-logo

Symbolism In A Madman's Diary

770 Words4 Pages

It 's interesting how the English language has 26 letters in its alphabet, and writers can turn them into lengthy and twisted, warm, emotional, or even a symbolic work of fiction. More than a great imagination is needed to created a compelling fictional story. It 's the way words are used to pull in readers, push them away, or bring them together. A story 's ability to he discussed is what makes it a good work of fiction.

In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" author Charlotte Perkins Gillman chooses to make the main character, Jane, a dynamic character. This choice is what makes "The Yellow Wallpaper" a constantly changing story. Towards the beginning of the story, Jane 's attitude is somewhat calm and orderly, even though her stated in …show more content…

The author of "A Madman 's Diary", Lu Xun, makes the story so interesting by his uses of symbolism throughout the story. In entry six of the diary the madman writes "The fierceness of a lion, the timidity of a rabbit, the craftiness of a fox..." This quote symbolizes how the government, or society, was like in the time period of the story. The madman perceived his government as bold and courageous, but also slightly fearful and sly. The symbolism in the quote "I have only just realized that I have been living all these years in a place where for four thousand years they have been eating human flesh," does not mean literal eating of human flesh. Instead, the author uses cannibalism to symbolize how the government of the story 's time period basically devoured, or brainwashed, their peoples ' minds. This same message is expressed in the last line of the story to make the symbolism have a bigger impact. "Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children..." This quote symbolizes how even children in the story 's society brainwash others. The madman is considering that maybe some children haven 't eaten, or brainwashed, others so save them before they do. Lu Xun 's use of symbolism in this story makes it have a deeper meaning, having the reader uncover it

Show More
Related

Progressivism DBQ

641 Words | 3 Pages

The passage explains how the meat productions were handling their meat at very low sanitation levels (Doc.D). These meat companies were letting rats

Read More

Examples Of Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

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.”

Read More

Personification In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

779 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

What Is The Cause Of Jane's Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

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.

Read More

Examples Of Realism In The Yellow Wallpaper

665 Words | 3 Pages

It is a story that could actually happen. In the story, Jane expresses concerns about her mental health to her husband, John, a doctor, who through good intentions and believing that he is doing the right thing, requires that his wife stays in bed all the time, and not do any of the things she would normally or would like to do. Due to being bed ridden, Jane becomes worse until she reached the limit and goes crazy. John’s behavior and decisions at this time were considered to be completely normal. The Yellow Wallpaper is considered to fall in the genre of realism because it represents the way life was for women during the nineteenth century.

Read More

Analysis Of Heroine In The Yellow Wallpaper

1032 Words | 5 Pages

Analysis of the Insane Process of the Heroine in the Yellow Wallpaper The author of the Yellow Wallpaper is Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860—1935), an outstanding American feminist, writer, novelist and so on. During her life, Gilman has written so many poetry and short stories. She is a utopian feminist and is honored as a role model for future generations of females due to her odd concepts and lifestyle. The Yellow Wallpaper is not the first or the longest work of her, but it is a best-seller of all her works.

Read More

Comparing Story Of An Hour And The Yellow Wallpaper

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.

Read More

Oppression In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1232 Words | 5 Pages

Oppression is defined as prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control. Cruel and unjust punishment is just the beginning for the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Charlotte Gilman while writing the “The Yellow Wallpaper” deciding to make it into a series of diary entries from a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression. The narrator begins by describing this large home that she and her husband have rented for the summer. Their summer house stands away from the road and contains many locks and little houses.

Read More

Heart Of Darkness Greed Analysis

1025 Words | 5 Pages

(26) The simile “like a whiff from some corpse” can be interpreted to be a literal reference to the death of elephants and native people that result from the ivory trade. The sense of decay that is created by the simile also reflects the moral degradation that results from greed. Similarly, in Dante’s Inferno, the Master remarks that “the undiscerning life that made them filthy now renders them unrecognizable.” (VII.

Read More

Descent Into Madness In Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

1480 Words | 6 Pages

Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.

Read More

The Yellow Wallpaper Point Of View Analysis

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.

Read More

The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay

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.

Read More

Theme Of Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper

562 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Literary Criticism Of The Yellow Wallpaper

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.

Read More

The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis Essay

501 Words | 3 Pages

To be trapped in one's own mind may be the worst prison imaginable. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator of the story is constantly at battle with many different forces, such as John, her husband, the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room, and ultimately herself. Throughout the story the narrator further detaches herself from her life and becomes fixated on the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in her temporary home, slowly driving her mad. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a major and dynamic character as she is the main character of the story, and throughout the story her personality and ways of thinking change drastically.

Read More

More about Symbolism In A Madman's Diary

Related Topics

Open Document