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The Yellow Wallpaper: What Causes Someone To Lose Their Mind

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What causes someone to lose their mind? In, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane is the main character who is basically journaling her recovery for three months. Jane is misdiagnosed with hysteria by her husband, who is a physician, even though she has postpartum depression, and is forced to rest to get better; which ultimately drives her insane. Jane has a vivid imagination, and is a very expressive woman who isn’t allowed to express herself due to her treatment; is this the driving factor for her insanity towards the end? I mean for goodness sakes she was not even aloud to be writing! The relationship of Jane and John is that he is her husband and her doctor. He does not listen or comply to any of her request throughout the short story because he believes that this will make her sickness worsen. Jane mentions wanting to go outdoors, walk around freely, see family and friends, and perhaps moving to one of the more appealing bedrooms downstairs in the summer house. John doesn’t let her do any of those things, so she is trapped, and never stands up for herself. In the room that Jane stays in there are bars on all the windows, ugly yellow wallpaper that is peeling, and a big bulky bed that is nailed to the floor. Jane is not allowed to read, write, or even think, John thinks she needs rest. Despite knowing that …show more content…

Writing was not aloud but she did sneak; which was not to hard because she was always alone. Jane grew a strong hatred for the yellow wallpaper describing it as revolting, and she even asked her husband if they could take it down; he said no. So, Jane stared at the ugly layers of pealing wallpaper day and night. Jane begins tracing the patterns and shapes until she starts to see a woman that seems to be trapped in a prison. She tells know one because she wants it all for herself, and the yellow wallpaper becomes her only way of expressing how she feels; like a

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Within The Yellow Wallpaper Jane is confined in a building at the top, which they call a nursery. Jane is confined by her husband who is a Doctor, and her caretaker. During the Victorian Era it was quite common for the husband to take care of their wife, while their wife took care of the house. However, Jane is having a dilemma where she does not believe she is ill, as her husband does not believe her and has her kept in the nursery. Eventually, she starts to hallucinate and starts to see things, perhaps by the hideous yellow wallpaper in the nursery.

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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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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.

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During the day, the wallpaper makes very little “movement”; it is almost as if the shadowy figure is being still and silent. The figures movements represent the protagonists movements, during the day she is prim and proper, trying to make her husband believe she is doing exactly what he wants by “sleeping”; at night the woman is alive, trying to discover herself and the things that she likes, realizing how trapped she is against her husband’s wishes, trying to break free from the bars that are holding her back. One can see the negative effects of John’s (and society’s) treatment of the narrator in her response to the rest cure. At first, she tries to fight against the growing lethargy that controls her. She even challenges John’s treatment

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Jane being ignored is a reason why she has some mental issues. She feels ashamed of what she is feeling and society makes it hard for her to want to talk about this with anyone. Not being able to talk about it, causes Jane’s depression to get worse with

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This differs greatly from Jane, who begins to sympathize with the plight of all domestic women through her experience with the woman behind the yellow wallpaper. Although she initially frowned upon the woman’s efforts to escape, the more her mental health deteriorated, the more she began to relate her plight to that of the trapped woman, both prisoners desperate for escape. With her newfound revelation, she sought to save the trapped woman from her prison, subconsciously freeing herself in the process. “As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her…I wonder if they all came out of that wallpaper as I did?… “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane!

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Her husband treating her like a child is messing with her mind and is causing her to get even sicker in madness. The madness in the aspect of Jane being alone all day and her husband treating her like a child show effect of her madness in “The Yellow

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This leads to her losing touch with reality and it makes her slowly go crazy throughout the story. This shows that when you are locked in a room with nothing to do you will go crazy, it shows how inhumane it is to lock someone in a room so they can try and “fix their problems.” This may seem crazy how Jane was locked in a room and it lead to her becoming insane. But, this was surprisingly very common and a realistic thing in the 1800s and many women were treated in unfair, inhumane ways. This shows realism because lots of how many women used to be locked in a room with just their thoughts, and most of the time it just made their mental state and problems

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Madness often occurs when somebody desires something that is not accessible to them. When somebody cannot have what they want most, they can go insane yearning for it. For example, if an individual struggling with alcoholism attempts to go sober, they will likely experience withdrawal symptoms because their body is so used to having alcohol that it has forgotten how to function without it. During this withdrawal period, the individual may crave alcohol to the point that their psychological instincts take over and they will do absolutely anything for a drink. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator goes insane in her longing for freedom.

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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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The narrator believes that to do so would actually benefit her so she secretly writes behind his back and starts feeling much better. The topic of her journal is largely the house. She hates the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom. As times passes on she continues to write. She wishes the wallpaper would be changed but John rebuffs her.

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Psychoanalytic reading of The Yellow Wallpaper In Charlotte Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the speaker seems to be suffering from postpartum depression or "temporary nervous depression." (648). Accordingly, her husband makes the decision for her and takes her to a country house because he believes that it would be good for her. The narrator is not allowed to take care of her own child as she was imprisoned in her room where she should do nothing but "rest."

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The dual roles however prevent him from fully understanding Jane. Due to his authority, he prevents Jane from expressing her feelings. He continuously condescends her, calling her a “blessed little goose” and “little girl”, similar to Rochester patronizing Antoinette. It is clear that he does not understand Jane’s true identity because he only sees the surface of her personality. Their relationship conclusively destroys Jane due to John dehumanizing

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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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John constantly tries to "fix" the narrator by giving her "phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics, and journey's, and air, and exercise" as well as forbidding her to work until she is well again. The narrator feels depressed and alone, especially since her child has been taken away from her and everybody is too focused on "fixing" her to see the problems she is dealing with. This causes her to form an attachment to the yellow wallpaper plastered around her room as her mental state deteriorates. As her state of mind worsens, she begins to think that she is seeing a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The narrator believes that the wallpaper pattern changes because the trapped woman shakes the walls and creeps around the room over and over, when in reality, it is the narrator who is continuously crawling around the room, scraping the wallpaper from the walls.

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