The Yellow Wallpaper And The Awakening Analysis

The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, reflects the life of many women during the difficult times they were living in. The narrator can relate to many people during the Victorian age where the woman’s role was to be a wife and a mother only. The narrator is a woman who is imaginative and is dissociated from herself and from the world.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it is demonstrated that the oppression on women is a very real and hazardous thing. She depicts this through an experience of a crazy married woman who is trapped by her husband and contained in the mental prison that is her home. Using the aspects of gender criticism, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is in conjunction with these societal way to oppress women through the male dialogue and perspective.

Morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable are just a few descriptors used by critics to describe Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Chopin is amongst the first feminist writers of the twentieth century writing two novels and about a hundred short stories, most of which the protagonist is a woman. Although Chopin wrote other short stories that were considered controversial none of them received as much criticism as The Awakening. Set in the late nineteenth century the story follows Edna Portellier who has been awakened to her own desires and even though she has a husband and children she decides to pursue those yearnings. This in turn causes her to lose her innocence and morality. Edna is the epitome of a Fallen Woman. By looking closely at the characterizations, figurative language, and symbolism within the story it is easy to see that she is fallen because of the choices she makes.

Using Feminist Theory, the reader can understand the message in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In the story, John’s wife is slowly going mentally insane. John limits her abilities in society, because John does not allow her to work, the ability to write, and forces her to stay in the isolated nursery. For example, John’s wife describes her desire to work to do her good mentally. “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.” Through the Feminist Theory, John does not believe her ideas and forces her to do something against her will. John believes that his idea and opinions are superior. Secondly, John does not allow her to express her feeling through writing. “ I did write for a while in spite of them;

The dystopian story “The Yellow Wallpaper” analyzes the struggle for equal rights of women and their quest for freedom. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story shows the idea of equality and treatment of women in the late 1800’s. The story explores the intense impact of status and power on rights of gender and mental health. This is shown in several ways throughout the story by John, the narrator’s husband who imprisons her, and the environment in which the narrator is placed in. These elements throughout the story exemplify the inequality of women and the control held over them by men at this time.

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.

There are many feminist aspects throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper.” They can be seen through many symbolic objects and events. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” from her own personal experience, later being labelled as a classic feminist literature. In the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is put on bed rest by her husband who is a physician. She is suppose to "live a domestic a life as far as possible.. and never to touch a pen, brush or pencil . . ." (Gilman, 669). Despite this, she secretly writes in the form of diary entries. The setting is very restraining for her. The windows are barred, the bed is nailed to the floor, and there are what looks like remains of shackles from the wall. These descriptions

The yellow wallpaper is a compelling book about a woman going crazy and tearing off the yellow wallpaper off the wall. At first glance, this seems like a bad book written by an unstable person who was obsessed with wallpapers. However, this is not the case, and with closer analysis the book is about critiquing gender constructs in society. First of all, gender in that society was based on keeping women down and letting men be superior in modern society. Women weren’t encouraged to be in the workforce and men were generally in positions of power.

“The worst prisons were not constructed of warped steel and stone. They were carved out of expectations and lies, judgement and corruption” (Kelseyleigh Reber). Reber may have felt this way, but she is not alone in this feeling. There are many authors that have this common theme in their stories. Charlotte Perkins demonstrates this in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” She shines a harsh light on the ill reality of society in this time period. There are different kinds of prisons. Gender roles, mental illness, and struggles with identity can all be something that hold people back and hinder their abilities.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses the “psychological horror tale” to criticize the role of women within society in the late 1800’s. For Gilman, the conventional nineteenth-century middle-class marriage, with its stringent distinction between the “domestic” roles of the women in society and the “active” work of the male, ensured that women remained inferior citizens. In the story, John’s assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his wife, all in the name of “helping” her. The narrator is reduced to acting like a cross, petulant child, unable to stand up for herself without seeming unreasonable or disloyal. The narrator has no say in even the smallest details of her life, and she retreats

The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Orphanage, directed by J.A Bayona, are both female driven stories, and due to a lack of dominant female roles in books and television, these pieces are statements of our society. The 19th century had few feminine rights and strict gender roles. A time when a large population of women were thought to have a form of mental illness, and due to a lack of medical knowledge were vastly mistreated. The lapse in medicinal science, in combination with extremely sexist ideologies caused further harm to come to women than help. The Yellow Wallpaper, with a nameless female Narrator, depicts how women seen as unwell were treated in the 1900’s. The Orphanage, through the protagonist Laura, portrays

When Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was first published, many people initially read it as a Gothic horror story about a women who goes psychotic. As time goes, people started to realize that “The Yellow Wallpaper” was actually a text that heavily criticizes the inequality of the sexes within the institution of marriage. This text represents feminist because it talks a women trying to escape from her husband especially when she found herself trapped which was drive her crazy.

In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman represents how wretchedness is overlooked and changed into blended sentiments that eventually result in a significantly more profound enduring incongruity. The Yellow Wallpaper utilizes striking mental and psychoanalytical symbolism and an effective women's activist message to present a topic of women' have to escape from detainment by their male centric culture.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not just an author but a great feminist. Gillam inspired countless women to seek indecency with her work like "The Yellow Wallpaper." The story is a fictionalized short story of a woman who is descending into madness while dealing with her mental illness and cannot heal due to her husband 's lack of belief. At the same time, the woman also known as the narrator feels imprisoned in her marriage. The story takes place during a time were women and had no independence and were not able to voice their own opinion. "The Yellow Wallpaper" can be analyzed with the feminist criticism through the dialogue that the woman and men portray and the symbolism in the wallpaper itself.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman captures the lives of women in a society based on societal expectations during the late nineteenth century. She focuses on the issue of gender inequality where women were often discriminated against and expected to fulfill the role of a perfect wife and mother. The narrator is based on on Gilman’s personal experience of suffering from her treatment for postpartum depression due to the social restrictions on women which represents a reflection on women's social status in society. The narrator, who remains anonymous, is depicted as a depressed and isolated prisoner who is oppressed under her husband’s control and struggles to break free. Gilman presents the toxic effect of gender inequality particularly through the relationship between a husband and wife.