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The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1742 Words7 Pages

In the 19th century, society leaned more into a patriarchy, where women were commonly treated as second-class in every aspect compared to men, including when it pertains to an individual’s physical or mental health. The main character of the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is introduced as a genial young woman who seemingly has no underlying problems of her own. As the story progresses, it eventually evolves to portray the main character as this person with a substantial disconnect from her own sanity. She is self-diagnosed with this certain illness, and her physician husband prescribes her with 3 months of uninterrupted rest. He fails to acknowledge that this remedy brings no relief to the main character and her symptoms, and …show more content…

From the beginning, John insisted the main character practice an absolute absence of any form of labor, and it began to wear on her. At first, she proclaimed her defiance and discontent with this method, stating she believes “congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good,”, but because of the patriarchal environment she resides in, she had no choice but to obey it in hopes of recovering from her illness. In her time period, even those acknowledged as astute in the medical field were oblivious to how their “rest cure” affected those prescribed with it. Developing farther into the story, she explicitly expressed how her appetite is faltering and her sleep schedule is all out of proportion. Furthermore, this all takes place during her time in the nursery room coated in the yellow wallpaper. The reader is able to observe her initial fascination with the yellow wallpaper and how it twists into an unhealthy obsession, symbolizing her cross over to insanity. She verbally expresses her concerns regarding her physical health to John, stating, "I don't weigh a bit more," said I, "nor as much; and my appetite may be better in the evening when you are here, but it is worse in the morning when you are away!" (Stenton …show more content…

This dilemma continues to the point where they’re flipped on their head and all of a sudden she supposedly feels much better, stating “I’m feeling so much better! I don't sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime.” (Stenton 654). Her overall health has deteriorated from a lack of physical activity, and as a result the main character loses the last shrouds of her sanity to the yellow

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The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is suffering severe depression and it only gets worse within time. She is a new mother, a newlywed, and is being plagued as having post-partum depression by her readers. Her husband keeps her confined for the “rest cure” from family and friends so that she cannot be influenced by anyone. His solution and the other physician’s solution to her sickness is to place her in isolation, and because he is a prestige physician, everyone assumes he knows what is best for her.

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Since she has stayed in the room for such a long time, the yellow wallpaper soon become too much for her to handle which leads to her mental health slowly

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveals the medical community's mistakes of generalizing treatment and unfair treatment of women. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who has been assigned the “rest cure” by her husband who is a doctor. Her brother, who is also a doctor, agreed with her husband’s decision. This cure is supposed to deal with her postpartum depression.

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As was common of the treatment of women during the nineteenth century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is one of oppression as John, the protagonist's physician husband, tries to cure her mental illness with a treatment plan of solitude and rest after moving in hopes his wife will regain her health. While critics have debated what causes the character's eventual insanity, María Teresa González Mínguez suggests that lack of a creative outlet lends to the woman's rapid regression. The protagonist's lack of a creative outlet combined with isolation ensures a downward spiral for the woman as symptoms of her mental illness ultimately consume her. While John hopes monitoring his wife's behaviors will cure her, his efforts only worsen her mental state.

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John had been especially proficient at diverting certain topics that which he will not speak with his wife about. When dear “John is away all day, and even some nights, when his cases are serious” (377) the narrator may not be concerned if John might take the opportunity to be away from his marriage or if he is indeed working with other patients late in the night. She just accepts her lot in life to be alone, vulnerable and totally dependent at the same

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Furthermore, John insists that in addition to the rest-cure treatment, she needs to refrain from activities that require mental or physical stimulation. Even though the narrator told him she would feel

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A Woman's Mental Health in Symbolism For a long period of time, women in the literary world have been denigrated and treated as inferiors. Women were held to the domestic views of society that their feelings and mental health are not significant. Despite this, Charlotte Perkins Gilman expressed her radical viewpoints in her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," which was published in January 1892. “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses multiple examples of symbolism to convey the mental and physical decline of the female protagonist, Jane, who suffers from postpartum depression.

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In The Yellow Wallpaper, it is apparent that the narrator has not gotten any better. However, it seems that her husband, who is supposed to be improving her health as both a doctor and a husband is not doing so. In fact, his treatment is making her worse. During the short story the narrator reports that, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself—before him, at least, and that makes me very tired”. This confirms the fact that John is not treating her condition, but her symptoms so that she has “proper self-control”.

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I never saw a worse paper in my life.” This shows that John is treated her as a child by putting her in a nursery thinking it could help her get better. Many women’s mental problems were not seen as a big deal during this period. Furthermore this led to mental problems getting worse. Lastly, “The front pattern does move—and no wonder!

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This leads me to believe that the narrator felt trapped in her own body and her own identity even. This is because her being a woman does not give her the freedom to seek help elsewhere. Especially because John is a physician lets him take control of her not only in their relationship but as a patient. Due to the fact, John does not believe she is truly sick and only has a nervous condition her credibility is almost non-existent if she were to try to explain herself to anyone because John has already discredited her as a husband, doctor, and

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Throughout the story, Jane completely disagrees with John’s prognosis and form of treatment. This is shown when Jane says, “So I take phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas.” (page ) As the story continues Jane makes suggestions to John about what she thinks would improve her health.

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How she describes her surroundings and her interactions with her family evolves as her condition worsens. By the end, the reader can truly see just how far gone the narrator has gone. The narrator’s fixation on the yellow wallpaper had gone from a slight obsession to full mental breakdown. As it is with most good stories, the presence of strong symbolism and detailed settings is a very important aspect of the story that helps to draw the reader into the story.

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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.

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Enclosed to the four wall of this “big” room, the narrator says “the paint and paper look as if a boy’s school had used it” because “it is stripped off” indicating that males have attempted to distort women’s truth but somehow did not accomplish distorting the entire truth (Perkins Gilman, 43). When the narrator finally looked at the wall and the paint and paper on it, she was disgusted at the sight. The yellow wallpaper, she penned, secretly against the will of men, committed artistic sin and had lame uncertain curves that suddenly committed suicide when you followed them for a little distance. The narrator is forced to express her discomfort with the image to her husband, he sees it as an “excited fancy” that is provoked by the “imaginative power and habit of story making” by “a nervous weakness” like hers (Perkins Gilman, 46). Essentially, he believes that her sickness is worsening and the depth of her disease is the cause of the unexpected paranoia.

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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.

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