Oppression In The Yellow Wallpaper

Eventually, we realize that the woman in the wallpaper is the narrator. Throughout the story, the narrator 's mental state continues to deteriorate. Being both the narrator 's husband and physician, John assumes that he knows what’s best for his wife. However, in this essay, I will argue that Gilman portrays John as an antagonist or “villain” in her story because, through his actions, he is the main reason for his wife 's descent into insanity which proves that he didn’t know what was best for his wife after all.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female narrator is greatly troubled by the suppression of her imagination by her husband and her ultimate isolation due to this subordination. These feelings are reflected through the author’s use of setting as the narrator’s dreary and malicious descriptions of the house and the wallpaper mirrors her emotional position. Throughout the reading, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s in-depth loss of touch with reality as she sinks further and further into her own reality. As she becomes more isolated, her descriptions of the house become more abstract as she begins to focus on the wallpaper and starts to see herself as being hidden behind it.

(99). The woman on the floor trying to take the wallpaper down would not let her husband in as he tried to knock the door down, but she does not realize she is doing it to herself. For example, Catherine Golden states in her article that, “The narrator seems detached from the bits of wallpaper on the floor next to her and John wallpaper fragments that could be read as a literal representation of the source of her insanity. The narrator’s hallucinations and action of tearing down the wallpaper to free the woman trapped behind the wallpaper pattern condemn her to madness” (60).

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story set in the 1890s about a female narrator who struggles with postpartum depression. She moves into a home for the summer with her husband, John. Since she has this sickness, John forbids her from doing any sort of activities other than some houes work. If she was doing anything, her husband would want her to rest to help with her illness. This was a common "cure" known at the rest cure back then.

Patronized Depression Could it be that the cause of sin and madness is due to the limitation of the human mind? In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a young women who tends to distract herself by trying to free the lady inside the wall. However, this figure might not only be the thing Jane or the narrator might want to free, as she is clinically depressed, and is constantly being patronized by John her husband, who seems to limit Jane’s interaction with other people and her personal diary. The Yellow wallpaper is seen as a way to escape her depression. In this story the role of Jane is limited due to her “Condition,” and her ability to express herself.

As the narrator becomes more fascinated with the wallpaper she moves progressively away from her normal day-to-day routines and lifestyle. When the narrator finally recognizes herself as the woman trapped in the wallpaper she screams at her husband "I 've got out at last," (Gilman 656) "you can 't put me back" (Gilman 656). She realizes woman are forced to hide behind the internal patterns of their lives and they need that she needs to be

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story told through diary entries of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, becomes obsessed with the ugly yellow wallpaper in the summer home her husband rented for them. While at the home the Narrator studies the wallpaper and starts to believe there is a woman in the wallpaper. Her obsession with the wallpaper slowly makes her mental state deteriorate. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many literary devices such as symbolism, personification and imagery to help convey her message and get it across to the reader.

On the contrary, in the article “How Extreme Isolation Warps The Mind” Michael Bond describes many different circumstances in which isolation engulfs the body and mind of people in close quartered areas. Isolation slowly creeps in and attacks the health of one’s body and mind in a confined area. While confined in a room, isolation depletes Jane’s health. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Jane suffers from postpartum depression. Her husband John, who is a doctor, decides to exile her to a room with pale yellow walls.

A large theme within Bradbury’s writing is, people are dispensable. Mildred Montag, the protagonist’s wife, is a morbidly depressed woman who is one of the many victims at the heart of this truth. With not much of a connection to her husband, she turns to technology to help numb her. She is constantly listening to her “seashells,” our equivalent of earbuds, blocking out who and what is happening around her or engaging with the television instead of spending time with real people. When her and her friends meet, they sit in her parlor, in front of the technology, and socialize that way, which highlights another important theme.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado” and Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” the two characters are consistently belittled by the antagonist in the stories. In “Sweat” Delia is an average housewife, but unfortunately she is in an abusive relationship with her husband named Sykes, who has a tendency to degrade Delia. Throughout the story, Sykes treats Delia horribly and towards the end of the story, Delia finally realizes that she has had enough of her abusive husband because he makes her feel as if she is not worth anything. Due to Sykes’ tendency to degrade her, Delia is considered to be a sympathetic character. The same kind of conflict affects the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado.”

The main character, Rachel Watson, had recently divorced her husband, Tom, and found herself missing the seemingly perfect life she had with him. Much like Melinda, Rachel feels worthless and disapproves of her appearance as well after the divorce. Her becoming an alcoholic over time was the main cause of the split. When she was under the influence, she could be extremely aggressive and violent and then black out; at least according to Tom. After she would sober up, he would tell her all the horrible things she said and did while she was drunk, like the time she attacked him with a golf club.

Treatment of women in the 1900s was a really cruel time in history for women, and some short stories that are based on cruelty of women are “The Yellow Wallpaper”. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about this women that is really sick and her husband is a doctor and doesn 't believe she is sick, so until she gets better she has to stay inside and can not express her feeling to him so she writes her feelings down in a journal. To begin, In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” In the beginning of the story she was expressing her feelings and saying how her husband is a doctor and believes that she is not sick and won 't take her into the doctor to get treated.

Loneliness, isolation, and lack of attention forced people to sink into depression. " The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is the story about the relationship between a repressive husbands whom pushes his wife from depression into insanity. " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is the story about a woman who is overpoweringly influenced by her dad, and she begins to deteriorate emotionally after his death. The two stories are about how people can influence the deterioration of one 's mental state.

Restricted in movement and stripped of her opinion by her husband, the narrator forms an obsession with the obscure background pattern that “skulks behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (80) on the wallpaper. As the dim shapes become more distinct, she ultimately deciphers the true figure to be a woman. This is a metaphor for the realization of her mental and physical entrapment as she proceeds into a state of insanity. The intensive need for helping the woman escape reflects the need for her own liberation. As the woman quickly flees upon her release, the narrator refuses to follow as she is so unaccustomed to the “green instead of yellow” (89).

It becomes hard to recognize her as the story progresses, sleepwalking through the castle and constantly rubbing her hands as she attempts to remove the innocent blood shed on her hands driven by her guilt-ridden mind. Lady Macbeth is unable to surpass the evil she has set on herself and in the end; the guilt she prayed against became her worst enemies. She was beyond repair and it lead to her suicide. Furthermore, in the yellow wallpaper the protagonist becomes mentally ill for being locked in a room deprived of life. The majority of the story takes place in a room which only induces pain deep within herself evoking negative mental thoughts.