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Women In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the protagonist struggles the realization that the perplexity of the woman in the wallpaper is a symbolic version of herself. The title itself suggests that the uncanny will be connected with objects, particularly with the house and the wallpaper: ‘Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it,’ and later: “I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. (Stetson 650)” Despite her initial dissatisfaction towards the room, the unhomely slowly becomes homely for the woman. Her feeling transitions from finding the room dull in the beginning to later being obsessed with the room. The definition of double is having two different …show more content…

The title and main subject of the story itself “the yellow wall-paper” plays a double role in the text. On one hand, the wallpaper traps the narrator’s mind to it with the intricacy of pattern that leads her to no satisfying end and towards the woman in the wallpaper. On the other hand it also sets her mind free. She describes the wallpaper as being the worst thing she has ever seen: "the color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sun” (Stetson 649). Within the wallpaper the narrator finds her hidden self and her eventual freedom. Her obsession with the paper begins subtly and then completely consumes the narrator’s mind.Since she is stuck in the dark room and the only form of escapism is the bright yellow wallpaper, she becomes absorbed in the pattern of the paper and tries to follow them to an end. She fantasizes her replica behind the paper and projects the reflection of inward herself, as the characteristics of the wallpaper are very similar to those of

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228 Words | 1 Pages

Finally, the yellow wallpaper plays the biggest role in the story. Not only for the reason that the narrator saw a woman behind it. But for the reason that the woman behind the yellow wallpaper was Perkins. According to the narrator "And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. "(Perkins 532),"I don't like it a bit"(Perkins 532), Trying to send out the moral of the story which was gender oppression.

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939 Words | 4 Pages

During her time in the room she felt the room “at night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!” (Gilman 304). The narrator of the yellow wallpaper descends into madness to escape the cruel dominance of her society. As the story progresses the yellow wallpaper becomes a constant companion. She first dislikes the color and despises the pattern, but after closely studying the pattern “a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” and after obsessing over the painting she finds bars hidden.

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922 Words | 4 Pages

These stories' realistic representation of human emotions and relationships enables a better understanding of the complexities of human nature as well as the influence of society's expectations on individuals. Consequently, Everyday Use is similar to Yellow Wallpaper in terms of female identity because they both portray how they are losing their reality within their own female identity. For example, in the story Yellow Wallpaper, it states, "Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly, and the pattern just enjoys it (Gilman 13). " I am inferring that the protagonist in this story, which is the female, is obsessed with the wallpaper because it is her tunnel of communication within and how she expresses herself and her identity in comparison to this wallpaper.

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480 Words | 2 Pages

In the story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The narrator develops an uncontrollable obsession with this yellow wallpaper as she is deemed crazy and is confined to a large nursery room where she is constantly being medicated and forced to rest. Throughout the story she writes in her secret journal where in each entry she describes her feelings towards both John and the yellow wallpaper. In the beginning she has a very negative attitude against the wallpaper and is constantly remarking it's horrible markings and it's very shade of color. Throughout the story however, her feelings dramatically change as she starts observing the wallpaper and each mark, and analysing everything from the odor that has spread throughout the house, to the hidden figure trapped behind the wall. Near the end of the story, she starts seeing more and more of the hidden figure and making out details of the trapped woman, but then goes crazy as she sees her crawling around the yard and then believes she is that

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552 Words | 3 Pages

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the symbols and figurative language leave a lasting image on what the story has to offer. Symbolism and figurative language convey abstract meaning, by creating imaginative connections between our ideas and our senses. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the symbolism is not the yellow wallpaper itself, but nearly the sub pattern behind it.

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1096 Words | 5 Pages

The narrator is a woman who is imaginative trying to make her mind think and realize the meaning of the yellow wallpaper. She describes the wallpaper as, “repellant, almost revolting; smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow turning sunlight” (Gilman 641). This specific wallpaper makes the narrator feel a certain way. At first, she does not like the color or how it looks. But then not having anything else to do in the room, she starts examining the wallpaper.

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493 Words | 2 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story where the main character is on a “search for self.” The woman in this story is trying to get ‘better”. She seems to be very disconnected from reality and does not know the severity of her condition but she does know that John is there and wants her to be better, too. As the story continues, she is consumed by the yellow wallpaper in her room and starts to make faces and pictures in it that really aren’t there. She starts seeing pictures of strangled heads and beady eyes.

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567 Words | 3 Pages

"The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, is a short story with themes of gender inequality, oppression, and mental health that still affect countless individuals today. It is about a woman who is confined to her room by her husband, a physician, as he attempts to "treat" her issues by taking away all of the control she has in her life. As her mental condiiton worsens she begins to see a pattern in the wallpaper of the room and has hallucinations of it being a living creature, a woman trying to escape the walls. This causes her delusions to become even more drastic and severe as she starts to tell herself that the way to free herself is by freeing the woman in the walls. The story has many themes, however, some of the more prominent ones would be both mental disorders as well as the constant oppression of women.

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1113 Words | 5 Pages

Secondly, throughout the story, the narrator describes seeing an evolving woman trapped inside of the wall. Although readers can assume that this woman is merely a product of the narrator’s mind, the woman can also be seen as a symbol of the narrator and her feelings of being trapped. Eventually, the woman in the wall aids the narrator in her escape. In conclusion, many elements of the narrator’s increasing madness throughout The Yellow Wallpaper contributed to her freedom from the confines of the room, the confines of society, and the confines of her

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

Martin states that the narrator’s confinement in the upstairs bedroom fortifies her mental illness developing into “a frightening hallucinatory world constructed around the pattern of the yellow paper on the wall.” This shift in her identity happens as the shift in her disposition towards the wallpaper changes. The wallpaper is a visible metaphor that eventually becomes her identity. In the beginning of her stay in the bedroom she says the wallpaper is “committing artistic sin” (Par34) and can push anyone to “suddenly commit suicide” (Par35) These comments show her despise towards the wallpaper and the separation she originally has from it.

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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.

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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.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

(678) in this statement she is challenging herself and this shows the reader she is facing some confusion. The yellow wallpaper in the main characters (the narrator) bedroom is a major point in the story. The yellow wallpaper plays a major role in the woman’s insanity. The woman’s obsession with the wallpaper creates her problem and affects her mind and judgment. This is shown in, “It dwells on my mind so!”

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

Nonetheless, the narrator continues to pen her ideas about the wallpaper as it transpired from being perplexing to gaining clarity each day. Amidst arriving at a full conclusion of what the wallpaper depicts, the narrator says she sees “a woman stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern” (Perkins Gilman, 50). As the days passed,

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810 Words | 4 Pages

The yellow wallpaper is not just the dreadful décor the narrator is stuck within the story but the most important symbol in the story. It symbolizes how women were not allowed to change or free to make their own decisions. The narrator once said that the wallpaper "sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it" (Gilman). She felt like the wallpaper stuck and not able to succumb to change she demonstrates this as well when she says "The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out" (Gilman). The narrator herself became the women she saw in the wallpaper that she felt trapped in a life without change which manifested itself into the wallpaper further increasing the symbolism and importance of yellow wallpaper.

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