The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis Essay

Gilman shows the progression of the main character’s insanity through the woman in the wallpaper, John, and the bed. Like most individuals, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” gradually shows increased symptoms of insanity. She begins the summer as a sane individual. As time progresses, she starts acting

The Struggle of Many Women 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.

She proceeds to explain the contributing factors of the narrator succumbing to her “disease” of hysteria which was isolation from social interaction and the restriction of her own thoughts. She points out that the narrator is confined to a simple square room with nothing to offer in terms of mental health therapy. The narrator’s lack of the ability to interact with anything or anyone leads to infatuation with the wallpaper, which turns out to be “the

The story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and published in the year 1891 (Gilman). The Yellow Wall-Paper starts out as the narrator who is a nameless character and an upper middle class mother who is suffering from depression. The story is told through journal entries where she writes down her thoughts and she uses the journal as her source of freedom from the room she feels “trapped” in. Throughout the story, Gilman uses symbolism and imagery to truly convey the meaning of the sick and restrictive society. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas and emotions.

Only the charwoman goes near him. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator feels trapped by her husband and physician, John, because he is controlling and believes he knows what is best for her. The woman that the narrator sees in the wallpaper is eventually revealed to be

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

In the end of the story, her hostage/husband forces insanity. “I got out at last…you cant put me back” (pg.9). This force causes her to break out of the wallpaper from which John imprisoned her

This differs greatly from Jane, who begins to sympathize with the plight of all domestic women through her experience with the woman behind the yellow wallpaper. Although she initially frowned upon the woman’s efforts to escape, the more her mental health deteriorated, the more she began to relate her plight to that of the trapped woman, both prisoners desperate for escape. With her newfound revelation, she sought to save the trapped woman from her prison, subconsciously freeing herself in the process. “As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her…I wonder if they all came out of that wallpaper as I did?… “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane!

In the story, the narrator

The house is in a super-isolated place. The house represents the narrator 's personal emotions; restricted and isolation. In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the symbolism of the the wallpaper and the diary demonstrate the psychological difficulties, that were caused by being disrespected and thought less of, during the 19th century for women across the United States. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the woman 's husband John neglects her symptoms of postpartum and says she has a slight hysterical tendency.

She was always being told what to do and how to live. That is until she “escapes the wallpaper” and sets herself free from her husband. "I've got out at last," said I, "despite you and

The wallpaper is affecting her mental state. She really believes that there is a living human being trying to escape from the wallpaper. Once her husband mentions that they only have three more weeks at the house the narrator is determined to solve the wallpaper before then. She believes that the women is being held inside the paper because the pattern is bars that are trapping her in. The main character has become so obsessed with the wallpaper that she doesn’t even sleep anymore all she does is study the wallpaper.

John’s (her husband) and the narrator’s sarcastic response portrays the strained nature of their marriage. Its suprising to see that their marriage exists during a period when there are such strains and power disparities. John represents a pragmatic and stoic typical male view of the world, incontrast to his wife, and doesn’t care much about his wife’s emotions. He prescribes rest cure for her by leaving her alone in a room with a yellow Wallpaper. Her thoughts later on succumb to the torment of being alone and she left with no choice but to stare at the Wallpaper continuously until she begins to see things in a pattern.

She has postpartum depression and staying home alone all day just makes it worse, and she does get worse. This causes her to do something at the end of the story that will show just how crazy she is. At the end of the story the women hits a breaking point. While she is home alone she starts ripping off the wall paper in hopes to let herself free. When her husband comes home,

Imagine you were forced to stay in a room for three months, and while you are in that room, you are only visited periodically by two people. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this nightmare becomes a reality. “The Yellow Wallpaper” records the events that happen through this story in journal entries from the narrator’s point of view. The events in “The Yellow Wallpaper” follow a standard plot format. As a result of that, the plot structure in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is simple and easy to follow.