The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

869 Words4 Pages

Mental health, especially in women, was ignored and regarded to as a temporary “nervousness” that can easily be cured with rest. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a young woman suffering from depression and anxiety when she visited a specialist and was told that her nervousness could be easily solved with a “rest cure”. This misguided advice inspired her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper” which follows the story of a young woman whose husband disregards her anxiety and depression as “nervousness” and leaves her for several weeks alone in a room to “rest”. His ignorance demonstrates the gender dominance in their relationship, as well as the class structure which is presented because of John’s education and career. The narrator eventually has an extreme …show more content…

“[The house] is quite alone standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village… there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people." Overall, it is a very isolated place that is far from the road, three miles from any society, and contains many “locks” and “separate houses”. The house’s physical set-up mirrors the narrator's emotional position: isolated and restricted. This isolation is encouraged by John, who is a high ranking physician and says that he wants the best for her, but makes every decision regarding her life, including where she can live and go, while also disregarding her illness. “There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?" This overlooking and confinement are reflected when she begins to see a women trapped behind the wallpaper in her room. The woman whom the narrator imagines behind the wallpaper in a direct embodiment of the metaphorical restriction. Since the narrator is not permitted to leave, and also not able to write and be creative, her mind uses the paper as a creative outlet for her imagination in order to escape the confinement and restrictions set in place by her

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