Avery Swinimer Mrs. Donck ENG4U 4 April 2023 Revealing the indifferences of gender roles within Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story that tells the tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and her descent into madness. Her physician husband decides that the only way to cure her “temporary nervous condition” is to be deprived of any form of stimulus at a summer home. Through the implementation of literary devices such as mood, tone, and symbolism, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper uncovers the inequalities of gender roles and the oppression of women during the nineteenth century. In the short story, Gilman uses the narrator's …show more content…
At the beginning of the text, the narrator says “Personally, I disagree with their ideas… I believe that congenial work would do me good” (Gilman 648). This inner dialogue illustrates that at the beginning of her stay, she believed she was okay and just needed to keep herself occupied with her passions such as writing; however, her husband insisted that she needed treatment for her “nervous condition”. This demonstrates that the narrator is subject to the opinion and decisions of the men in her life and that she has no other option but to obey them and their commands. At the end of the story, the narrator then writes “‘ I've got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’” (Gilman 656). This quote shows how the tone of the story went from optimistic to madness and how the narrator has completely dissociated from herself. She believes that she has escaped as her husband no longer has control over her. As the tone of the story shifts, it becomes evident that the oppression from her husband leads to the mental deterioration of the …show more content…
The narrator's husband says “‘My darling,’ said he, ‘I beg of you, for my sake and for our child's sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?’“ (Gilman 652). The husband begins to use their child as a means of informing the narrator that her role as a woman is defined by motherhood and if she cannot fulfil those duties then she is failing society. The baby cements his belief that she is not well as she is unable to care for it. The narrator says “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes at night, and that is hard!“ (Gilman 656). In this quote, the narrator is referring to the wallpaper which she views as prison bars. During her time in this room, she realised that she is trapped not only in the estate but in her role as a mother and a wife. The narrator wants to escape from her duties and become her own person however, her stay in the room has her convinced that this is her life now due to her husband's constant reinforcement of gender roles and the oppression she faces. Through the use of simple objects such as wallpaper and a child, the author creates a world where men
He put her in a room, the reeked of yellow. During the 19th century, women were to listen to their husband, and they also had the power to determine the health of their wives. She wasn’t permitted to write, on the grounds that he needed her to “rest”, but she secretly does so anyway. The room makes the woman so insane and in the wake of understanding
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” written in 1892, is a short narrative told through the journal entries of Jane, a woman who is presumably suffering from postpartum depression. Jane’s husband, John, who does not believe she is sick, has arranged for them to spend three months at a rented mansion so she can recover from what he claims to be slight hysterical tendencies. In the interim their newborn baby is being looked after by, Mary, whose relation to the couple is not stated. As part of her recovery, John has forbidden her to write, have any form of stimulus or social interactions, as well as think, or make any decisions as to the course of her own recovery. Though Jennie, John 's sister, has accompanied the couple, Jane, spends most of her time alone while her husband is away tending to patients.
As the result of this, she no longer has any identity. She find herself lost between the identity of Jane and the women in the wallpaper. The narrator stated, “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane”(pg 559). As a reflection of what her situation was, she said “I don't like to look out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast”(pg 559).
Her circumstance is completely controlled by her husband John, a physician, who refuses to consider his wife’s condition an illness. She is left helpless, as he controls where she sleeps, what she eats and what she can do. Because of this, she becomes imprisoned in her mind and loses her sense of self and reality within the four walls. Insanity builds as her mind is entangled by the wallpaper that lines the nursery, and as she begins to identify with the women behind the bars of the wallpaper. Her mind is entrapped only until she tears down the wallpaper to escape the imprisonment.
After being confined to the upper room, the narrator begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper and conjure up of the idea that there is an imprisoned woman behind the wallpaper waiting to be freed. The narrator seems to relate to the woman behind the wallpaper as she feels as though she is imprisoned also. The narrator becomes plagued by the woman behind the wallpaper and she begins to peel off all of the wallpaper to free the woman. She starts crawling around the room and the narrator is convinced that she is trapped and was once herself in the wallpaper. The narrator’s descent into complete madness escalates and the narrator is creeping along the walls of the room and her husband arrives.
The protagonist's husband is depicted as controlling and indifferent to her suffering. He dismisses her concerns and belittles her, treating her like a child. The woman's entrapment in the room with the yellow wallpaper becomes
“The Yellow Wallpaper”, is a short narrative written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and debuted in 1892. It is narrated by a woman who is battling postpartum depression and is being confined by her physician spouse, John, who thinks that the only treatment for her ailment is to rest, in a room with the yellow wallpaper in a colonial estate at an isolated location. The narrator is only permitted to rest and heal; all other activities, including writing and socializing, are strictly prohibited. Jane's mental condition is worsened by being confined to a room with yellow wallpaper because she becomes fascinated by it and starts to notice unsettling patterns in the design. She feels alone and powerless as a repercussion of her husband's denial of
The narrator expresses that “I do not like their room a bit”. Without hearing the narrator’s thoughts, her husband subjectively arrange her room on her account. The narrator willingly obeys her husband and to live in the nursery at the top of the house. This room seems like a
Women were thought of as weak and unable, and they did not question a man’s authority. Through the development of this story, it shows how passive women with postpartum depression were treated poorly and it resulted in mentally ill patients rather than healthy ones. The ever changing tone, vivid imagery, and ironic situations all show how the woman comes to understand who she is. The narrator in this story comes to the realization that she is the woman in the wallpaper she has envisioned- trapped in this world by her own husband. To break free of this entrapment, she ripped off all the wallpaper so no one could put her back into her horribly vivid
The Narrator’s disdain for the situation she is in is clearly shown through how she tells her story. As her insanity grows deeper, the wallpaper is described as a prison, something that has a sub-pattern whose “dim shapes get clearer every day. […] And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (Gilman). This life that The Narrator has been born into is not one that she fits into, so she identifies with this hypothetical woman trapped behind a metaphorical wall of femininity.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveals the medical community's mistakes of generalizing treatment and unfair treatment of women. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who has been assigned the “rest cure” by her husband who is a doctor. Her brother, who is also a doctor, agreed with her husband’s decision. This cure is supposed to deal with her postpartum depression.
The dystopian story “The Yellow Wallpaper” analyzes the struggle for equal rights of women and their quest for freedom. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story shows the idea of equality and treatment of women in the late 1800’s. The story explores the intense impact of status and power on rights of gender and mental health. This is shown in several ways throughout the story by John, the narrator’s husband who imprisons her, and the environment in which the narrator is placed in. These elements throughout the story exemplify the inequality of women and the control held over them by men at this time.
As the narrator becomes more fascinated with the wallpaper she moves progressively away from her normal day-to-day routines and lifestyle. When the narrator finally recognizes herself as the woman trapped in the wallpaper she screams at her husband "I 've got out at last," (Gilman 656) "you can 't put me back" (Gilman 656). She realizes woman are forced to hide behind the internal patterns of their lives and they need that she needs to be
Jack Boettcher Ms. Hall English 175 5 April 2023 Feminism in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Despite the progress that has been made in the fight for gender equality in recent years, women still face numerous obstacles and challenges in different aspects of life. Unfortunately, these challenges are not a recent circumstance as they have been present for centuries, especially in the late 1800s. In her story "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman clarifies the oppressive treatment of women by a patriarchal society. Through the character's experiences, the story illuminates the importance of women's independence and mental health in a society that contains gender-based discrimination.
She begins to slip away from reality and into her dreamlike world. The woman seen in the wallpaper mirrors the narrator 's plight for freedom. While she is free from the restraints of marriage and motherhood, she has been consumed by madness. John dominates the relationship, both as doctor and husband.