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. As this progresses, the woman starts to go mad from ignorance and starts to believe there is someone behind the Wallpaper.
Symbolism Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper One might know that Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses the wallpaper in the main character’s room as a symbol for a bigger underlying meaning. This is a short story about a young women diagnosed of depression and “a slight hysterical tendency”. In hopes of healing the narrator, her husband moves them into an old, ornate home for the summer and required her to refrain from any activity to calm her mind. However, instead of getting better, the narrator goes into a deeper level of madness. This madness is caused by her obsession over what she believes is animate patterns and a trapped women in a peeling, aged wallpaper in her room.
She becomes obsessed with the patterns of the wallpaper, but she mainly notices a woman that she thinks is trying to free herself from the confines of the wall. During the day this woman is still, but when night time comes around, it seems as though the woman creeps around. Towards the end of the story, the narrator has a breakdown and thinks that she is this woman inside of the wallpaper, and begins to perform similar actions like creeping around. This meaning of this scene is simple cause and effect. Not only did she already have postpartum depression, but she is basically trapped in this house for a whole summer with nothing to do so she can heal.
Finally, at the end of the story she has completely lost her sense of self and her obsession with the yellow wallpaper overpowers her. Over the course of the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman shows the effects that postpartum depression can have on one’s life. In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman progressively illustrates how mental illness can lead to insanity if it is not treated properly. When the narrator and her husband, John, first arrive at their summer home, she knows better than anyone else what is best for her condition but she lets her opinions be completely
“And women should stand beside man as the comrade of his soul, not the servant of his body” (Direct 1). In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a wife and mother, faces postpartum depression and, treatment that is unfit for her by her husband. The resting cure increases her psychological behavior causing her to hallucinate. The women lose all form of self-awareness and is expected to conform to what is expected of her in the 19th century. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman demonstrates the issues women faced during 1892 using theme, point of view, and symbolism.
If the brain does not have anything to occupy itself then a man or woman will go into a state of depression. Being isolated from the outside world for so long caused her brain to start hallucinating. Also, the author of the book “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman stated “ I wrote the yellow wallpaper with its embellishments and additions to carry out the ideal…and sent a copy to the physician who so nearly drove me mad...it has to my knowledge saved one woman from a similar fate-so terrifying her family that they let her out into normal activity and she recovered.” A woman who had had the rest cure along with the narrator and the author has either driven them insane or to the borderline of insanity. The effects of the rest cure on many women were devastating to their health and is a unreliable treatment to treating postpartum depression. Jane’s efforts to avoid others from looking at the hideous painting, shows how that
It is a story that could actually happen. In the story, Jane expresses concerns about her mental health to her husband, John, a doctor, who through good intentions and believing that he is doing the right thing, requires that his wife stays in bed all the time, and not do any of the things she would normally or would like to do. Due to being bed ridden, Jane becomes worse until she reached the limit and goes crazy. John’s behavior and decisions at this time were considered to be completely normal. The Yellow Wallpaper is considered to fall in the genre of realism because it represents the way life was for women during the nineteenth century.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression. The narrator 's husband John, who also happens to be her physician, prescribes the rest cure to help lift his wife of her depressive state and ultimately heal her depression. However, the rest cure does not allow the narrator to experience any mental stimulation. Therefore, to manage her boredom the narrator begins obsessing over the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. After analyzing the pattern for awhile, the narrator witnesses a woman trapped behind bars.
Oppression in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin both present intriguing short stories with the common theme of oppression that strongly mirrors their personal experiences. The narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is portrayed as being trapped by her husband and suffering from mental illness. This is represented by the woman behind the wallpaper. Chopin shows oppression in “The Story of an Hour” by Mrs. Mallard’s joy after the “death” of her husband and her reaction when he returns. It is evident that the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” represent the authors’ personal lives and oppression in women.
Jackson appeals to fans of the American gothic through her particular description of the house and how the characters interact with it in order to show the environments foil of an absolute reality. Shirley focuses a large part of the introduction of the house on describing its odd design and initial impressions. Dr. Montague describes the house as being on a “slight slant… that may be why the doors slam shut” and notes how “every angle is slightly wrong” (Jackson 77). This causes an uneasy feeling for the reader as they question the effect this will have on the characters throughout the novel. Also, Eleanor’s initial impressions of the house cause her to hesitate and question whether she has made the correct decision.