The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

John attempts to control even her inner life, her writing. She says that "he hates to have me write a word" (482). He says the writing is not good for people who are sick. He tells her that it will slow down her healing. Writing is the only thing that’s keeping her sane, but she is unable to do it freely. She has to hide her words so John does not find them. This shows that John has mental control as well as physical control.

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

Women back then were not able to do the same as men. There was no equality in work, school, and small hobbies like writing. John seem to be a good man but still was controlling to the point it causes flaws in efforts of curing his

According to history, the male has always been seen as supreme head of the household in comparison to his betrothed. In most societies females are viewed as inferior and most times in a state of infantile dependency. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Woman Hollering Creek” both illustrate a homogeneous view of male supremacy over their wives. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the woman is enforced to act in accordance with the demands her husband sets down for her. John illustrates patriarchal authority over her by controlling her actions, treatment, and environment despite how she feels. He denounces all approaches she takes to inform him on her lack of progression, because as a male he has the notion that his mind is superior compared to hers. He belittles

Central to the story is the wallpaper itself. It is within the wallpaper that the narrator finds her hidden self and her eventual damnation/freedom. Her obsession with the paper begins subtly and then consumes both the narrator and the story. Once settled in the long-empty “ancestral estate,” a typical gothic setting, the narrator is dismayed to learn that her husband has chosen the top-floor nursery room for her. The room is papered in horrible yellow wallpaper, the design of which “commit[s] every artistic sin”(426). The design begins to fascinate the narrator and she

The role of women in society was displayed quite clearly by the entrance of John’s sister. The woman writes, “There comes John’s sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing. She is a perfectionist and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick!” John’s sister is representative of the typical woman. A woman who is pleased with her life, and wishes for no more. John’s wife, however, is rebelling on her place in society by writing. This is why she includes the statement; “…I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick!”

John attempts to control even her inner life, her writing. She says that "he hates to have me write a word" (482). He says the writing is not good for people who are sick. He tells her that it will slow down her healing. Writing is the only thing that’s keeping her sane, but she is unable to do it freely. She has to hide her words so John does not find them. This shows that John has mental control as well as physical control.

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.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a creative woman whose talents are suppressed by her dominant husband. His efforts to oppress her in order to keep her within society's norms of what a wife is supposed to act like, only lead to her mental destruction. He is more concerned with societal norms than the mental health of his wife. In trying to become independent and overcome her own suppressed thoughts, and her husbands false diagnosis of her; she loses her sanity. One way the story illustrates his dominance is by the way he, a well-know and

The way Gilman writes John makes me feel as though he’s talking to a child and not his adult wife as he uses these names in abundance. All in all, Gilman’s narrator appears both conscious and ignorant to her situation. There are many passages that have readers believing she loathes John and wants to leave him, but there are just as many that convince otherwise and that she wants this domestic lifestyle. Ideally free of the rest

She expresses that while the protagonist is driven to madness by the oppressive actions of John, in the end she became voiceless but extremely loud with her actions. She claims “the wife’s madness has something to do with her husband’s attitudes, because it is he, who gradually drives her into madness with his limitations and orders” (Ayan 76). The feminine madness allows the protagonist to free herself without the use of words. She expresses herself by being reactionary to the wallpaper as a form of silent expression. Ayan states that the narrator is able to free herself from the isolation with actions instead of words which are conducive of breaking free of the “social norms and roles that society relates to women” (78).

Also, we can relate the woman in the wallpaper to the narrator because she is free to do what she wants because John is not there, but during the night she is locked up in her room much like the woman in the wallpaper. These circumstances in which the narrator was put under during the late 1800's would not have been an oddity, and therefore I believe many women just as the narrator did would have had problems go undiagnosed.

The yellow wallpaper in the room shows, symbolically, the narrator was being oppressed. The narrator hated the wallpaper because she saw herself as a prisoner of her own husband. Spending so much time in the room, the narrator studied the wallpaper in details and found the wallpaper somewhat represents her. "There is one place where two breadths didn't match, and the eyes go all up and down the line, one a little higher than the other" (pg280), "Such a peculiar odor, too" (pg 285) etc. The confusing pattern, the bar, the woman behind the bar, and the yellow color of the wallpaper allowed her to feel so helpless, as if she was a bird

The wallpaper is beginning to take on the role of controlling her life. As the days proceed on and she continues to sit in this isolated room, she begins to notice objects incorporated throughout the patterns. Every day the shapes become significantly clearer to her until one moment it appears to be a figure trapped within the walls (734). This aversion to the color completely shifts at this point toward hallucination. The wallpaper now has complete control of the narrator’s mind and sanity.

The roles of women also play a part in the conflict in this story. In the 19th century, women were expected to fulfill their duties as wives and mothers. They were to be content in their existence as nothing more. As Amy Griffin says, “Fulfilling their submissive role forced women to deny their individual personalities and aspirations” (10). The narrator’s desires to have more in her life than John and her child do not fit in with