Conflicts of the Narrator- the Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, published in 1899, is a semi-autobiographical short story depicting a young woman’s struggle with depression that is virtually untreated and her subsequent descent into madness. Although the story is centered on the protagonist’s obsessive description of the yellow wallpaper and her neurosis, the story serves a higher purpose as a testament to the feminist struggle and their efforts to break out of their domestic prison. With reference to the works of Janice Haney-Peritz’s, “Monumental Feminism and Literature’s

  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbolic tale of one woman’s struggle to break free from her mental prison.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the reader how quickly insanity takes hold when a person is taken out of context and completely isolated from the rest of the world.  The narrator is a depressed woman who cannot handle being alone and retreats into her own delusions as opposed to accepting her reality.  This mental prison is a symbol for the actual repression of women’s rights in society and we see the consequences when a woman tries to free herself from this social slavery.

The first idea is to remember the ladies. She states that men should not be given all the power. If the ladies are paid no attention it was bound to inspire a rebellion against this tyrant like behavior. If women have no voice, they will not be happy. If men need the title of master women will act differently than if they called themselves their wives’ friend. All these ideas are voiced in the letter she wrote. John expressed his ideas about women and how he thinks they should not vote in the new government. Both made valid points.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper” we are introduced to a woman who enjoys writing. Gilman does not give the reader the name of the women who narrates the story through her stream of consciousness. She shares that she has a nervous depression condition. John, the narrator’s husband feels it is “a slight hysterical tendency” (266). She has been treated for some nervous habits that she feels are legitimately causing harm to her way of life. However she feels her husband, a physician, and her doctor believe that she is embellishing her condition. The woman shares with the reader early in the story that she is defensive of how others around her perceive her emotional state. This causes a small abrasion of animosity that

Many of the passages concerning the husband can be interpreted as containing sarcasm, a great many contain irony, and several border on parody (Johnson 528). It is true that the husband’s language is exaggerated at times, but dismissing the husband’s character as caricature seems extreme. He is instead the natural complement to the narrator’s madness and uncontrolled fancy: the character of John is control and “sanity” as defined by Victorian culture and is therefore the narrator’s opposite. Greg Johnson notes that John exhibits a near-obsession with “reason,” even as his wife grows mad. He is the narrator’s necessary counterpart, without whose stifling influence her eventual freedom would not be gained. And he is also transformed at the end of the tale—in a reversal of traditional gothic roles—because it is he, not a female, who faints when confronted with madness (529).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the story of a woman suffering from post-partum depression, undergoing the sexist psychological treatments of mental health, that took place during the late nineteenth century. The narrator in Gilman’s story writes about being forced to do nothing, and how that she feels that is the worst possible treatment for her. In this particular scene, the narrator writes that she thinks normal work would do her some good, and that writing allows her to vent, and get across her ideas that no one seems to listen to. Gilman’s use of the rhetorical appeal pathos, first-person point of view, and forceful tone convey her message that confinement is not a good cure for mental health, and that writing,

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.

John, the narrator’s controlling, but loving, husband represents the atypical man of the time. He wants his wife to get better and to be able to fill the role of the perfect wife that society expected from her. John, being a doctor, did not quite believe that her mental illness was out of her control and insisted on

Many people deal with post-traumatic depression and it can have a huge impact on one’s life. In the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character, as well as the narrator, is an unnamed woman dealing with post-traumatic depression. The exceptionally imaginative protagonist’s metamorphosis is due to her isolated confinement in a room with “yellow wallpaper” in order for her to recover from depression. This type of treatment is prescribed by her physician and husband, John, whose controlling personality demands the main character to get bed rest in a secluded room and forbid her to participate in any creative

For instance, the other women in this story, like Mary and Jennie, have traditional women jobs. The story states, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby…[Jennie] is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession” (3, 5). These women do not address the oppression of women, so they do not become insane. They are each happy doing traditional “housewife” work, but because the Narrator is not, she becomes crazy. This sets the Narrator apart from the other women in the story by making her an “other.” Also, the Narrator’s husband regulates and controls everything she does. As the story states, “[John] is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me…” (2). John is completely in charge of the Narrator, and this lack of control over her own life may have caused her start of insanity. In additional to this, John does not believe that the Narrator’s condition is real. Page 3 states, “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” Because the Narrator was a woman, her depression was over-looked by all the males in the story, like her husband and brother, as just a “temporary nervous depression” (1), and she did not get the kind of

A constant theme conveyed throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the theme of mental illness and the extremes that it can reach. Introduced in the beginning of the short story, the main character, Jane, is supposedly diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression” and “a slight hysterical tendency.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys the theme of mental illness throughout the story using point of view, irony, Gothic elements, and personification. Point of view plays an important role in communicating the theme of mental illness. Since the story is written in a first person perspective, we as readers have a deeper understanding of what is going on in Jane’s mind and how she feels as time goes on.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and was first published in the New England Magazine in 1892. When it was first published, it was a short story that shocked those who read it. It is a story of fiction but was influenced by Gilman’s personal experience with depression and a doctor who prescribed her “rest cure” for her illness. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” to criticize the way doctors treat women with mental illnesses and save women from being driven crazy. To fully understand “The Yellow Wallpaper,” one must have some background on Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Following is a brief history of Gilman’s personal life and a discussion on the themes of the short story from critics point of view.

The Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a “rest cure”. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageous imaginations towards the wallpaper. Gilman’s story depicts women’s struggle of independence and individuality at the rise of feminism, as well as a reflection of her own life and experiences.

Wife wasn't surprised by John attitude towards her because she knew that that was norm in society which also proves in the text, ‘John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.’ In woman's life the dominant firstly was father and brothers and after marriage the leading was husband. Husband took care of wife but wife’s life wasn't so full of roses either because she needed to obey male and couldn't object his opinion. Of course nowadays is completely different in America but in some third world's countries the situation is similar to 1800s but feminists thought the world are trying to change

Throughout her writings women assume and embrace roles that can be considered as madness. Because women were only sought to be as objects who simply obeyed as the husband said, her writings are taboo for the century it takes place in. Women commonly did not work, and were stay at home mothers who took care of the man in their lives. They took care of the children and did not disobey the rules in the household of society. There were fast past societal changes during late nineteenth century;