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The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

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Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Writer and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut. Gilman was a writer and social activist during the late 1800s and early 1900s. She had a difficult childhood. Gilman married artist Charles Stetson in 1884. At some time during her marriage, Gilman developed a severe depression. This experience is believed to have inspired her best-known short story "The Yellow Wall-Paper" The Yellow Wallpaper tells of a woman who fees "trapped" by the man in her life. The narrator loses touch with the outer world as her husband isolates her completely, she comes to a greater understanding of the inner …show more content…

The characters emotions, descriptions and obsessions with the wallpaper as viewed from her perspective, draw readers into her downward spiral to insanity. The readers follow the character in her mind from a nervous condition to her mild pleadings for an alternative treatment for her condition to eventually "creeping" through the wallpaper with her. These experiences allow the readers to grasp her condition. Through her point of view readers clearly knew how she felt at the end when she says, "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!" Her husband then faints. This reveals that the other characters weren’t aware of the extent of her condition, but the readers …show more content…

In the Yellow Wallpaper, the wallpaper plays an essential role in the deteriatian of the woman’s state of mind. The limited viewpoint of this story helps the reader to experience a feeling of isolation, just as the wife feels throughout the story. She is prohibited from working and not allowed to contribute to the household as a proper wife. The narrator begins to feel helpless: "So I… am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas". She is given a "scheduled prescription for each hour in the day ". She is forced to understand that to society, her opinions are less important than men. The fact that she is not allowed to think for herself is narrowing the extent of her authority in her life. References "Psychoanalytical Critique Of The Yellow Wallpaper". Owlcation, 2018, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Psychoanalytical-Critique-of-The-Yellow-Wallpaper. Accessed 6 Apr 2018. The Yellow Wallpaper. 2018, Accessed 6 Apr 2018. Hochman, Barbara. "The Reading Habit And "The Yellow Wallpaper"". Muse.Jhu.Edu, 2018, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/1779/summary. Accessed 6 Apr 2018. "Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper". Writing On Women Writers, 2018, https://writingonwomenwriters.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/postpartum-depression-in-the-yellow-wallpaper/. Accessed 6 Apr 2018. "Imagery/Symbolism". The Yellow Wallpaper, 2018, https://anahuerta.weebly.com/imagerysymbolism.html.

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