The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about control. In the late 1800's, women were looked upon as having no effect on society other than bearing children and keeping house. It was difficult for women to express themselves in a world dominated by males. The men held the jobs, the men held the knowledge, the men held the key to the lock known as society . . . or so they thought. The narrator in "The Wallpaper" is under this kind of control from her husband, John. Although most readers believe this story is about a woman who goes insane, it is actually about a woman’s quest for control of her life.

She speaks as though her opinions to do not count anyway, but she is very accepting of this. She belittles herself several more times throughout the story. "I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and her I am a comparative burden already" (Barnet 747). Having read the text through to the end we know that she is in a mental hospital, a reader could most likely begin to imagine what John may have been thinking to have witnessed his wife go through such disturbing mental anguish and that he was only going off of the knowledge available at this point in time. How would the story be different if it had been written from John’s point of view?

Analysis: The above quotations clearly display the similarity between John and the Narrator’s relationship to that of a father and a daughter. John controls the majority of the Narrator’s behavior to the point she feels an overwhelming sense of guilt for her incapacity as John’s wife. The Narrator is restricted in her actions and is therefore unable to fulfil her wifely duties, forcing her to consider herself as a burden. When is reality, John treats the Narrator as his daughter and does not permit her to complete her duty. For instance, the Narrator dislikes the yellow wallpaper and wishes to have it removed; however, John does not allow her to do so and acts as if it would feed into a child’s stubbornness. His continued belief in his superiority disregards the Narrator as is wife and instead infantilizes her. He believes her identity exists only through him, which merely encourages his paternalistic

John is introduced into the story by the narrator as soon as the story starts. The narrator describes him as "practical in the extreme." He has "no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talks of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures." Although the narrator describes him as these things, they are married and she, undoubtedly, loves him. She continues on by saying " John is a physician and perhaps... that is one reason I do not get well faster." This description paints the husband, John, as controlling over his wife.

First of all, when the narrator is in her room, she sees the woman behind the wallpaper creeping her during the daytime. This shows that she is unreliable because of her mental health problem. This is one the most important part of the story because the woman that she sees represents herself being trapped in the room. Also, her feelings are not stable. In the beginning, she sees John as a person who takes care of her and loves her. However, the later in the story, the narrator seems to

The setting of these two stories emphasize, on visually showing us how the main characters are based around trying to find freedom despite the physical, mental and emotional effects of living in confinement. While on the other hand, dealing with Psychology’s ugly present day behavior showing dystopia of societies views of women during the time period they lived.

In the story, this treatment is not a rarity. Whenever the narrator attempts to discuss a serious situation, John refers to her as “his blessed little goose” or a “darling” (Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”). To relate this to the theme, these discouraging words must be analyzed and explained. For instance, the word “little” to depict the narrators heart, portrays a picture of small body matching it, like one would see an infant. This leads into his claim that she is “as sick as she pleases” (Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”). Being as sick as one pleases reflects upon the life of a young child. It mirrors the techniques of a child, in how they conjure up illnesses in order to escape unpleasing tasks. This accurately goes along with John’s diagnosis of “temporary nervous depression;” which in that time, was known as the way in which women bypassed sexual requirements and typical household maintenance. (Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”).  Within the unjust treatment and diagnosis, lies the bigger picture as well as the root of the narrator’s eventual insanity.

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

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there are many of literary techniques that illustrates the theme to express the story. Irony, imagery and symbolism are some literary devices that is presented among the story.  “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband’s lack of acceptance and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The story appears to take place during a time where women were oppressed. Women were treated as if they were under one’s thumb in society during this period which is approximately the 19th century.

She has been trained to trust in her husband blindly and sees no other way. He calls her “little girl” (352) and “little goose” (349) and states “She will be as sick as she pleases!” (352) whenever she tries to express her issues. Instead of fighting for what she thinks will make her better she accepts it and keeps pushing her feelings aside, while he treats her like a child. We get an instant feel for her problem in the first page when she says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (pg 346). A woman shouldn’t expect her husband to laugh at her concerns. Even after briefly writing about her condition she remembers her husband telling her the very worst thing she can do is think about it and follows his instructions. This is when she begins to focus on the house instead of her problems and the obsession with the wallpaper starts. She has nothing else to think about alone in the home; they don’t even allow her to write, which she has to do in secret.

In a guise of a physician’s authority over his patient, John exercises patriarchal domination. He dominates the narrator both physically and mentally, by confining her to a prison like room and latter constraining her from writing. Every time he focuses that they came to that house merely on the narrator’s account so that she would get better soon. However, he doesn’t even let her talk about her anxieties and fears. She very disappointingly remarks that:

Bette Davis wrote, “When a man gives his opinion, he is a man. When a women gives her opinion she is belligerent.” Similarly, in the short story The Yellow Wallpaper the author Charlotte Perkins Stetson was able to reflect the challenges in her life through the female protagonist. The narrator/female protagonist was suffering from what her husband interpreted to be temporary nervous depression. Although her husband John was a doctor, his methods to aid her proved to be insufficient and harmful. It was clear that he loved his wife and wanted her health to improve but, his controlling ways were of no help. He believed that he knew best since he was the “doctor”, which only heightened his know it all character. Correspondingly, the author suffered

“Peace in patriarchy is war in women”, Maria Mies. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman creatively weaves a message of a controlling male-dominated society through a new mother dealing with Postpartum depression. The wallpaper, the bedroom, and the journal all have significant meaning in this story.

Jane’s inability to communicate with her husband stemmed from her fear of standing up against John’s patriarchal and overbearing nature. When John, “A physician of high standing...” tells everyone that his wife has nothing, “... but temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency...” Jane reasonably thought, “... what is one to do?”(648) John treated her like a child, using the words “darling” and “goose”, instead of a full grown woman because of his lack of respect for her womanly opinion. Since John kept discrediting Jane's thoughts with comments about her having a fragile and childish mind, Jane felt insecure about her ideas and was incapable of sharing them with John. Jane was unable to challenge her husband's diagnoses about

The narrator’s husband, John, represents the attitude of the androcentric society towards women. In the text, the narrator says “But what is one to do?” (Gilman, 648) for several times to show her discontent and helplessness when her husband and brother enforced her to cooperate the treatment. She describes John as a “careful and loving” (648) gentle and cautious man. It seems like he does care about his wife. However, those “virtues” are actually based on the dominance of male powers and the ideas of traditional society. During the treatment, He “hardly lets his wife stir without special direction”, “cautioned her not to give way to fancy in the least”, asked her “absolutely forbidden to work until she is well again”, and even made her “a