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Mental Madness In The Yellow Wallpaper

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The narrator who lives in the patriarchal society is often controlled by the authority of her husband. John’s occupation as a physician reveals that he is standing on the dominant position in terms of his wife’s illness, and builds up the foundation of his authority in the family. John’s error method of treatment, and mental captivity of his wife leads to the ultimate tragedy. At the beginning of the story, John considers his knowledge is superior than his wife, which John thinks that he knows what is the best treatment for his wife. However, he does not believe that his wife is sick, just a slight hysterical tendency, ignoring her true thoughts and limiting her psychological and physical freedom. The text states: “ Personally, I believe …show more content…

The main reason for her madness is her living environment, loneliness and the frightening yellow wallpaper. She lives in a house where she is defined as a haunted house, and the layout of the house makes her feeling uncomfortable. As what she describes: “a haunted house” (647), her first feeling of this mansion is scary rather than enjoying, while later one, she says, “ I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room for long.” (Gilman, 649) It can be seen that she is extremely reluctant to live in this place. However, the yellow wallpaper is the critical factor that breaks her logic, which directly leads to her mental disorder, “ A smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.” (Gilman, 649) With the time goes by, she even fantasies out of a woman hiding behind the wall. Moreover, her lonely life is also one of the factors causing madness, whenever she wants to meet her families and friends, her husband repeatedly rejected her requests: “It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work. […] to let me have those stimulating people about now.” (Gilman, 649) She was asked not to have any companions, except the yellow wallpaper. Even a normal person can’t live in such an unbearable environment for a long time, not to mention the narrator whose mental is devastated. However, these factors caused significant changes in narrator’s

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