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What Happen To The Narrator In The Yellow Wallpaper

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What happens to the narrator is not pure fiction. Gilman uses an experience from her life as inspiration for this short story, that the reader can see referenced throughout the story. In commentaries of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman mentions a doctor with the exact same name as the one she visited when she first tried to overcome her depression. "John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don't want to go there at all. I had a friend once who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so" (Perkins Gilman “Yellow” 650). Weir Mitchell is the exact same name as the doctor she had who’s full title is Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. One could also argue too that the friend the narrator refers to could be Gilman …show more content…

S. Weir Mitchell. "Gilman undertook a cure which stipulated extended bed rest to be followed by a return to working as a wife and mother. She was never to read for more than two hours a day. Not surprisingly, the cure, far from enabling Gilman to recover her emotional equilibrium, further exacerbated her instability. She almost experienced a mental break down" (“Charlotte Perkins Gilman’’ Authors). 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. This was done to criticize the way her doctor handled her

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The narrator seems to be sane at the beginning of the story, but her husband’s attempts to cure her actually made the condition far worse. He confined her to a room and took away the one thing she loved to do; using her imagination as a writer. He stated that she should not be socially active, as it will worsen her condition, but being in isolation actually made things worse. She disagreed with his actions, but was unwilling to go against him. One example is when Charlotte said, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus -- but John says the very worst thing that I can do is think about my condition

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According to Loralee MacPike, in the article “Environment as Psychopathological Symbolism in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’,” which appeared in American Literary Realism 1870-1910 in 1975, “The story line is deceptively simple” (1). The diary-like entries provide a sense of comfort and familiarity in the beginning, eventually revealing the protagonist’s descent into madness. Gilman’s choice to present the story in a diary-like format creates a false sense of security for readers. By drawing them into the protagonist’s innermost thoughts and experiences, Gilman establishes an empathetic connection between readers and the protagonist. As the narrative unravels and the true nature of the protagonist’s situation is revealed, this sense of security is shattered, leaving readers to think about the unsettling conclusion.

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The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a wife and a mother who suffers symptoms of depression and anxiety. Although she does not believe that anything is wrong with her, John who is her physician husband makes her in the “rest cure”. Also, while she was isolated in the nursery in the rented summer home, the narrator is banned to write or do any creative activities. The narrator severely wants to make her husband happy and accept her role as an ideal mother and wife, but she could not satisfy her husband’s needs with her passion to show her creativity. While trying to achieve John’s wishes for the best, the narrator writes in her journal that peace from her extreme loneliness and inaction.

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Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short-story about a woman who has just moved into a rented mansion with her husband, John, for the summer so that she can ameliorate from the sort of postpartum depression she is suffering from. According to her, she’s completely fine but her husband is convinced that she is suffering from “neurasthenia” and prescribes the “rest cure” for her. She is encaged within a room and is prohibited to write and interact with people. The story is believed to be based on a period of Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s own life. In 1887, suffering from depression and fatigue for several years Gilman went to see the renowned physician Silas Wier Mitchell who diagnosed her with “neurasthenia” and prescribed the

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Like the narrator, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the story’s author, had suffered from post-partum depression and was prescribed the rest cure. The rest cure’s impact on Gilman was similar to the impact the treatment had on the narrator in which Gilman “came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin” (Gilman). However, unlike the narrator, Gilman was helped by a wise friend and went back to work “ultimately recovering some measure of power” (Gilman). With proper treatment and support, Gilman was able to pick herself back up from mental ruin and write “The Yellow Wallpaper” to share the adverse effects the rest cure had on women. Gilman states, the story “was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.”

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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.

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman establishes the main character’s mental state as progressively worsening and debilitating. At the beginning of the story narrator realizes that she is weak and cannot do certain things because of her illness. For example, she states that because of her weakened state of mind she can no longer work, “So I take phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is - and tonics, and air and exercise, and journeys, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again (Gilman 437).” Gilman describes the main character’s mental capabilities here as deteriorating. Since this was at the beginning of the story, we get to understand where her state of mind is before other elements of the story start to unfold.

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator writes and speaks in a journal entry format. This helps reveal to the narrator digression of sanity towards the end of the story when her husband faints at the sight of her breakdown and declaration of “I've pulled off most of the paper so you can't put me back”. Gilman also explores horror through the narrator’s progressive obsession with

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In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we are introduced to a female narrator who is married with a young child, and was recently diagnosed with neurasthenia. As all of these facts are mentioned early on, the name of the narrator is never revealed. As the story begins, the narrator is placed in a nursery by her husband John so that she can rest and “feel better”. However, the narrator does not see the problem within herself as she is stifled in the room alone, and unable to express her creativity. Throughout the story we see increasing instability from our narrator as she begins to express interest and comfort in this yellow wallpaper that covers a wall inside of the nursery.

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Silas Weir Mitchell first developed the rest cure(treatment). He developed the rest cure while he was an army surgeon in the Civil War. Evidence of the rest treatment working is mentioned in The Evolution of the Rest Treatment, Mitchell wrote how he helped Mrs. G. Mrs. G was his first successful case using the rest treatment. While it worked for Mrs. G, it failed for Gilman.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” is her best-known and important 19th century short-story dealing with the subject of madness. The story is believed to have been inspired from the real life experience of Gilman who suffered a severe depression during her decade-long marriage and “underwent a series of unusual treatments for it”. She was refused to perform any intellectual actions by her specialist Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and prescribed a complete bed rest “rest cure” for several weeks. She was prevented from pursuing her ambition as a writer and suggested to “live as domestic life as far as possible”, making her sick more than ever. Her sufferings, depression, mental trauma, and oppression, find its full eloquence in this very story where she uses madness as an agency to give voice to her mental sufferings and rebellion against the women oppression.

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