Essay On The Narrator In The Yellow Wallpaper

The husband’s suggestions override that of the narrator in almost every way throughout the story. Through the narrative, we see the transition of what is a seemingly innocent housewife into a person suffering from mania as she exhibits a change of behavior most notably her distinct lack of sleep and her elevated arousal energy level. The husband suggests isolation as a cure for her perceived depression. Can her repression and lack of social support have lead to a change of behavior if not a complete change in personality? As the combination of a barren social environment with repressed emotions runs amok, the narrator further dwells into mania as she starts to focus on the Yellow Wallpaper.

Her thoughts later on succumb to the torment of being alone and she left with no choice but to stare at the Wallpaper continuously until she begins to see things in a pattern. She believes in the notion that there’s a woman behind the paper, and she is all the time trying to climb through, but unfortunately no one can climb through that pattern-it strangles so” (Gilman p.667). This symbolizes how women’s power is strangled by men and there are many women out there who are trying to escape and break free from suppression. She’s one of those women behind the wallpaper climbing to get out. The wallpaper represents imprisonment since the narrator tries to remove it from the wall but she’s not allowed to do so, yet she stays confined in the

This symbolizes her realization of being trapped for so long, and her desire now to free herself. However, because society is cruel and who never approve of a woman so independent, she creeps around the room to hide her escape. When John arrives at the nursery-like room, he sees what has become of his wife. His wife explains she has ‘gotten out, in spite of you and Jane,’ before John faints and his wife continues to creep around the room, trying her best not to step on the fallen body. In conclusion, the narrator of the Yellow Wallpaper, is what happened to a woman in an oppressed society.

From the very beginning of the novel Jane has the courage to defy her aunt when she is unfairly punished in the red room. The cultural and social context of the age must be taken into account when analyzing such behavior. At the time, Jane Eyre’s gesture of talking back to people was totally improper, because women especially poor ones were expected to meekly accept their lot in life. But she cannot keep quiet and merely accept her condition as a poor orphan, because at the end of her discourse, she feels her soul begin "to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt... as if an invisible bond had burst and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty". This is the beginning of a spirit that Jane carries forward into her future relationships with men, beginning with the detestable Mr.

This is when Mrs. Mallard’s character finally starts thinking for herself. She no longer has Mr. Mallard to hold her back. Another case of character development is Mr. Mallard’s character. Critics have described Mr. Mallard as being abusive, and harmful to his wife. In the story Chopin writes, “ she will weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death...” (Chopin) This quote is an example that Mr. Mallard was not abusive or unkind to Mrs. Mallard.

(l.42) The husband decides everything for the protagonist and thinking it’s for her own good, but eventually his methods proves to worsen her illness, she can’t even write. She also has a brother, who is a doctor that doesn’t really help her on her sickness and just orders her to rest. The poor character has two family members that should be helping her, instead they are making her worse, even though that is not their intentions. In the story, she suffers from a mental breakdown after she obsesses over a wallpaper that consumes her every moment. She starts acting paranoid because of the things she is seeing in the yellow wallpaper.

Adeline faces many tough challenges and is forced to inwardly prepare herself for the obstacles that are continually thrown at her. Adeline lives in a negative household where it is considered conventional for her to be despised, and so she has a constant feeling of being rejected. She shoulders that burden through her school and even keeps up the pretence that she comes from a secure household. Even though she doesn’t confide her true feelings, she eventually opens up. This is shown when Adeline exclaims to Aunt Baba, “I want to forget about everything that goes on here!” (page 122) Only then it is realized the full extent of how much she had bottled up the hurt she gained from her family, and how strong she was to withstand this feeling of worthlessness.

However, while the narrator is struggling with her mental illness, John brushes it off, continually saying that nothing is wrong with the narrator. He is completely oblivious to her mental state until the conclusion of the story, when he sees the full effect of his oversight. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” shows us that maltreatment, particularly neglect and isolation can have diminishing and possibly drastic effects on a person with mental illness. John, who is a doctor, diagnoses his wife with what he deems “temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 317). From the beginning, John dismisses his wife’s mental illness and does not see the toll her mental state is taking on her.

When we meet the main character she seems like a regular person, she has some mental problems, but she 's trying to do her best, to recover and be able to reconnect with her child. Due to her loneliness and boredom, she is starting to get obsessed with the wallpaper covering the walls in

She continues this conversation and ends up crying, wanting to get rid of Gregor to end this suffering that they have been enduring for way too long. Her outburst shows that she has completely changed in the treatment towards Gregor, and this was the tipping point of Grete’s sympathy and caring of him. In the beginning, she treated him like her brother, but now she treats him like a bug that needs to be gotten rid of. When she finds out that Gregor has passed, it is apparent she is happy to move on with life. She throws out the boarders of the apartment and writes a letter to her employer for a day off.