Literary Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper

“Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!”(Gilman 244). The narrator describes herself becoming part of an inanimate object and escaping her confinement. When she becomes depressed after giving birth to her child, the narrator has strict orders to follow in order to “make her better.” As she follows the doctor’s commands and isolates herself from everyone and everything she loved, she loses her mental stability. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is treated for depression by “rest cure,” isolation from society, which affects her mentality causing her to become secretive, withdrawn, and insane. With the treatment

In Charlotte Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she tells a horrific ghost story about symptoms of the rest cure. The “rest cure” was a treatment developed by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell who restricted women of intellectual stimuli and condemned them to a domestic life to help their postpartum recovery. After being a victim of this treatment, Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Careful attention to the use of Gilman’s symbols in her short story allows the reader to analyze some of the themes concerning feminism and societal misogyny. Foreshadowing throughout, Gilman uses the house, the writing, and the wallpaper as symbols to show how man’s use of the “rest cure” limit women in society and offers that the solution to this issue is to persistently tear away at man’s injustice.

The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a brilliant piece of fictional literature. The tale involves a mentally ill woman who is kept in a hideous, yellow room under the orders of her husband, John, who is a physician. The ill woman is conflicted due to the fact that the horrifying yellow wallpaper in the room is trapping a woman who she must help escape, but the sick woman is aware that she must get better in order to leave the terrifying, yellow room. The setting and personification applied in the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, allows readers to develop an understanding of the sickness of the main character faces.

As a husband and father, what would you do if your wife was diagnosed with postpartum depression after giving birth to your child? Would you make the effort to get her professional help by taking her to a psychologist, or would you isolate you her from the world, and lock her in a house where she has no one to talk to? Postpartum depression, usually occurs within three months after childbirth and symptoms can include fear of hurting the baby, hallucinations, delusions, marked illogical thought, and suicidal thoughts, (Dictionary of Psychology 551). Modern research also, shows that postpartum depression affects 10 percent of women in the months after the child is born (Depression Statistics: Women Fact Information).

In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, author Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many literary techniques to allow the reader to understand the universal truth that a woman’s class is seen as lower than that of a man’s, due to their sex. We see this truth throughout the literary work, when the main character who is a woman, is put in confinement and later becomesdistraught and mentally unstablebecause her husband and brother who are both Physicians diagnoses her as “nervously depressed”. Two techniques author Gilman uses is tone and diction to illustrate how the narrator, among most women in that time period is treated as below men in class, with little say in their own mental or physical issues.

Throughout literary history many artists have been influenced by the works and techniques of others. Traditions and methods of literary movements have been passed down and shared between many of the world’s best-known authors. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was heavily influenced by Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative in her piece The Yellow Wallpaper. Gilman mimics Rowlandson’s diary form of writing in her short story and uses similar literary techniques when describing the captors. Although both pieces shared very similar techniques, Gilman was able to add a twist to the captivity narrative style and include diction choses that help the reader understand the change the narrator when through throughout her captivity.

In charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman illustrates the topic of mental health and through the employment of foreshadowing the theme isolation can lead to insanity is evident and contributes meaning to the story. The theme is shown through the foreshadowing of the narrator's diminution of rationality. One scenario in which this is instituted is when the narrator found that the her “bed stead is fairly gnawed” (Gilman 13). This foreshadowed the narrator’s insanity because it hints at maybe she isn’t revealing everything about her behavior that she lets on. Later on, when the narrator is psychotically trying to pull of all of the wallpaper, she “tried to lift and push it (the bed) until I was lame, and then I got so angry

Gilman, in this particular passage of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” explores the theme of female oppression through imagery and symbolism of the wall-paper. These elements of literature make the wall-paper come to life for both the narrator and the audience. “The front pattern does move”(55) personifies the wall-paper to be so animate and physically restraining that the woman behind it must shake it to attempt to escape. The italicization of “does” serves to further affirm that the wallpaper exhibits restrictive human-like behaviors - particularly those of dominant men in society. The narrator states that there are “a great many woman behind”(55), extending the metaphor to all Victorian women in the United States and others around the world who are oppressed. Many women were in fact belittled by the ideal of true womanhood and exhibited characteristics such as submissiveness or piety. Gilman also employs somber diction throughout the story, such as “crawl”(55) and “creep”(58) to suggest that covert agency is the only way for women to improve their situations at

The story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is Charlotte Gilman’s interpretation of how women were treated and were thought that they were only useful in the home. The story follows the first person point of view of a woman who is struggling to break free from the irrational labels of being a

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story that portrays a very common view of nineteenth century culture and medicine. The story, written in classical fiction form, has a plot, setting, a cast of characters, and a point of view from which the story is told. The way in which the story is told, and the unexpected conclusion, are two of the main reasons why “The Yellow Wallpaper” is such an important piece of nineteenth century fiction. There are few characters in the story; however, each one plays a crucial role in allowing the reader to come to a deeper understanding of the meaning behind the story by allowing the reader insight into the mind of the narrator.

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman suffering from nervous depression narrates her own story. Her husband and her occupy a curious mansion for the summer. He choses to establish their bedroom in the nursery at the top of the house. The first description of this

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman is a story that deals with the oppression of women during the nineteenth century. The story allows us to see into the mind of a woman who is gradually driven into insanity over a summer. Just like many women of that era, the unnamed character is trapped in the confines of her marriage as well as the house she resides in. Gilman uses many parallels from what is happening in the main character’s life to what was happening to women everywhere in that century. Without knowing the historical context from when this story was placed, it would be hard to see the symbolism that points to women’s oppression. However Gilman does a good job of using many specific techniques to tell the story and to draw

The “Yellow Wallpaper” is a iconic short story written by Charlotte Perkins, a famous feminist author. The novel takes place the 19th century and deals with the issue of how women dealt with mental health issues, specifically postpartum depression. Back in the 19th century the way physicians dealt with women 's mental health was much different then it is today, back then they believed that the cure for depression was solvable by isolation and rest. As a result many women suffering from postpartum depression were forced into isolation which only made their situation worse. Jane; the narrator of the short story, is one of these woman forced into the rest treatment by her physician husband. It 's here where she discovers the yellow wallpaper that leads to her mental demise. What is the symbolic meaning of the yellow wallpaper and how do her interactions with the wallpaper represent the change in her feelings towards her husband and society. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes women 's suffrage and the struggles women went through, and her interactions with the wallpaper represent the problems woman had with their husbands and society.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was best known for her writings regarding the unequal status of women within the constraint of marriage. Gilman, as a sociologist and a reformer, argued that women’s traditional role in domestic sphere confined their creativity and intelligence. The text to be analyzed here is a remarkable work of Gilman’s: the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. The story is set in 1892 and is told in strict first-person narration in the form of a journal by a woman who suffers from depression. Her physician husband, John, suggests that she should stay in a mansion in the suburbs for “rest cure” treatment. The forced passivity leads to her realization of her powerlessness thus gradually

During the period of modernism, unexpected breaks in tradition occurred with viewing the world differently. The authors used literature during the modernism time to show the decay and the growing alienation of individuals. A portrayal of a restricted role in society stands reflected in Charlotte Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The protagonist knows she is limited in her role in society as she agonizes what her husband will think of her actions. By visualizing the woman behind bars she pictures herself self-consciously. To capture the reader’s attention Charlotte Gilman uses a short story demonstration fear and insanity. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Gilman uses imagery to illustrate how a limited role of a female in society can drive her insane.