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.
It is no secret that men and women are treated differently still to this day. However, during the Victorian Era women were treated with very little respect. They were expected to be homemakers, and not voice their opinions. "The Ruined Maid" by Thomas Hardy and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman were both written during this time. Even though these stories were written in the same time period, the protagonist thoughts about the Victorian Era were different.
3. As the story reaches a close, the descriptions of the wallpaper in the narrator 's bedroom become less realistic and start to mirror the narrator 's deteriorating mental state. The yellow color of the wallpaper isn 't as concerning to the narrator as the "yellow smell" (203) and the "many women behind" (203) it. She believes that the wallpaper "strangles them off" (203) so that the women can 't escape. In reality, the only woman the wallpaper is trapping is the narrator.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a first person narrative written in the main characters secret journal, the main character is married to John who has it be, is also her physician; he treats her for depression also ensuring her that writing is bad for her then whisks her away from their home for treatment. “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a great deal – having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Gilman 527). John refuses to let her write the only thing that makes her sane, which ultimately makes her increasingly insane and begins the fixation with the yellow wallpaper in her room. At first she just does not like the wallpaper, then it starts to terrify her to where she is seeing people move behind the paper. “The front pattern does move – and no wonder!
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
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.
Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were trapped in a room with nothing to do? In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main character Jane tells her husband about her unstable mental state, her husband John who is a doctor requires her to stay locked in a room with hideous yellow wallpaper, and not do anything she would normally do or what she would like to do. John had good intentions and believed that Jane being locked in a room will give her time to reflect on herself and get better. But, this just made Jane’s mental state even worse to the point where she thought that there was a woman moving in the yellow wallpaper and it drives her insane. John’s decisions were actually considered normal in the late 1800s,
In most interpretations of Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is usually deduced that John, the unnamed narrator’s husband in the short story, is a flat character that is used solely for plot advancement. This is most likely due to the combination of indirect discourse, an unreliable narrator, and the ambiguous ending that negatively impacts the reader’s opinion of him. But, if the reader views the short story as a tragedy, John plays a more impactful role in the story. By analyzing the story from an Aristotelian perspective of tragedy, John becomes Gilman’s unintentional tragic hero.
The house is in a super-isolated place. The house represents the narrator 's personal emotions; restricted and isolation. In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the symbolism of the the wallpaper and the diary demonstrate the psychological difficulties, that were caused by being disrespected and thought less of, during the 19th century for women across the United States. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the woman 's husband John neglects her symptoms of postpartum and says she has a slight hysterical tendency.
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.
Secondly, there is also a sense of confinement throughout the story. The Yellow Wallpaper fits the winter or the anti-romantic phase of Northrop Frye's monomyth diagram as it, "tells the story of imprisonment … and fear." (Bressler 152). The narrator is imprisoned in the room which has yellow wallpaper. Basically, the room where the narrator is staying in is like a prison.
The narrator leads a fairly boring life. The only thing she seems to do all day is sleep, write, eat, look out the window and study the yellow wallpaper in her room. Evidence of this in the story is “I lie here on this great immovable bed - it is nailed down, I believe - and follow that pattern about by the hour” (Gilman 650). Another piece of evidence would be, “The color is repellant, almost revolting ; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (Gilman 649).
(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!”
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.
The protagonist's fantasy about people in the wallpaper addresses the idea of supernatural elements in its most prominent form. Throughout the story, several Gothic elements are explored. The most prominent elements are isolation, insanity, and the supernatural. The eerie events that occur throughout the story and its literary elements of Victorian Literature develop “The Yellow
