Insanity In The Yellow Wallpaper

The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 shows mental illness through the narrator first hand. The theme in this story is going insane verses loneliness as well as being trapped. These themes are shown through the main character (the narrator of the story) as she works through her own mind, life, and surroundings. First, the theme of the woman’s state of mind is the main focus in this story.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman transfers insanity to existence in the short story, “The Yellow Paper”. The main character goes through a “cure” in order for her low spirits to go away following the birth of her daughter. She goes insane after given the treatment of rest cure to relieve her symptoms. The author writes about the process of the main characters mentality getting to a level in which isn’t recognizable. It captures the attention deeply probably because Gilman has gone through the ordeal of insanity as well.

In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the emotional state of the narrator and feelings toward her husband are reflected in her description of the setting through the use of first person narration, imagery to portray feelings of oppression and figurative language to create a consistent tone of isolation and cynical irony. The narrator uses symbolism to portray her connection with her observations and the yellow wallpaper. From the moment they moved into their house, the narrator felt like her husband treated her like a child which was shown when he forces her stay in a nursery. John forces the narrator to repress her imagination. While her "habit of story-making" might have found a healthy outlet in writing,

Madness often occurs when somebody desires something that is not accessible to them. When somebody cannot have what they want most, they can go insane yearning for it. For example, if an individual struggling with alcoholism attempts to go sober, they will likely experience withdrawal symptoms because their body is so used to having alcohol that it has forgotten how to function without it. During this withdrawal period, the individual may crave alcohol to the point that their psychological instincts take over and they will do absolutely anything for a drink. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator goes insane in her longing for freedom.

Madness and what it causes, an analysis on the basis of the chosen short stories written by Charlotte Gilman and Edgar Allan Poe. Madness has many faces, usually such a state of mind is far from desirable. Person with an unstable mind can cause a havoc in a pragmatic and organized world of ordinary citizens. People build society of certain cultural norms for breaching which an individual faces various consequences. Very few bother to determine if a person while breaking some set of rules is capable of answering for his or her actions or not, today 's average individual suffering from a mob mentality is more keen on finding a scapegoat rather than a just solution.

During the 19th century, women had little power. They were dominated by men in every aspect of their lives, and they had poor status with no right and no voice. As a result, women started fighting for change that could lead to a better life. They joined political meetings to protest against repression and all forms of inequality. These active women were the origin of early feminism, which was considered to be a turning point in their social situation.

Furthermore, Gilman’s conditions as a woman of how society perceived women, and how her illness was misunderstood led to her mental illness. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was a common topic in literature, in which the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper makes reference. Hysteria is a psychological disorder whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization) . The term hysteria has a controversial mental history, as this disease specifically targeted women in the 1900s – to which Sigmund Freud considered a female disease. In the fifth century, Hippocrates related hysteria, as a female disease.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” follows an unnamed woman as she struggles with an unspecified mental illness. The narrator and her husband, John, temporarily move to a colonial mansion. While there, the narrator becomes increasingly more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that covers her bedroom. This obsession increasingly grows until she eventually breaks down at the end of the story. However, while the narrator is struggling with her mental illness, John brushes it off, continually saying that nothing is wrong with the narrator.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a woman is seen descending into severe post-partum depression, and eventually madness. While this story and the woman herself can be analyzed through many different lenses of perspective, one lens which may not be seen often is how the woman is a hero, but a failed one at that. The narrator and main character of “The Yellow Wallpaper” can be determined as a kind of failed hero through an archetypal lens of analysis, which identifies her initiation, her quest, and the sacrificial scapegoat of the situation. Every hero needs some sort of start, with harrowing conditions, which metamorphoses them into an actual hero. Any hero’s initiation can be broken down into three parts consisting of the disconnection which sets them apart as someone whose storyline is worthy to be followed, their evolution as an individual, and their homecoming as a hero.

Social, intellectual, and economic restrictions of the late nineteenth century left women without sovereignty. Women typically suffered under the rule of fathers and brothers before marriage and in subservience to their husbands after marriage. Women had few property rights, no voting rights, and no educational rights. Women essentially remained children throughout their lives. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” center around two such women.