ipl-logo

The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

653 Words3 Pages

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. It is a powerful and haunting story that depicts the descent of the narrator into madness. The story's narrator is a woman who is confined to a bedroom by her husband, John, who is a physician. The narrator is suffering from what is described as "nervous depression," and John believes that rest and isolation are the best treatments for her. However, as the narrator spends more time in the room, she begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper, which becomes a symbol of her mental state and the oppression she feels. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a complex and unreliable character. Throughout the story, she struggles with her own mental illness and …show more content…

However, the reader quickly realizes that the narrator is not a reliable source of information. She is clearly suffering from some form of mental illness, and her perceptions of the world around her are distorted by this illness. This is evident in her obsession with the yellow wallpaper. At first, she is simply curious about it, but as the story progresses, her obsession with the wallpaper becomes more and more intense. The wallpaper becomes a symbol of the narrator's own mental state. She describes it as "dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions." This description mirrors the narrator's own mental state, which is confused and erratic. As the story progresses, the narrator's mental state continues to deteriorate. She becomes convinced that there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper, and she becomes obsessed with freeing her. This obsession is a manifestation of the narrator's own desire to break free from the constraints that society has placed upon her. She feels trapped in her role as a wife and mother, and she longs for the freedom to express herself and to be taken

Show More
Related

  • Similarities Between The Yellow Wallpaper And Lamb To The Slaughter

    935 Words  | 4 Pages

    Together the themes of manipulation and mental illness will trigger a series of events that change their lives. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the protagonist becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom and seclusion from human contact. This was a cure that her husband John prescribed that proved detrimental to her mental health. As she spends more time alone in the room, she becomes fixated on the patterns and images, slowly becoming convinced there is a woman behind the wall that is trapped and that she must free, "The front pattern does move—and no wonder!

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

    916 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “the yellow wallpaper”, the narrator's confinement and lack of mental stimulation led to the deterioration of her mental health. She becomes increasingly delusional, seeing a woman trapped behind the wallpaper, and ultimately loses her grip on reality. The story suggests that extreme circumstances can push individuals to the brink of insanity, especially when they are denied self-independence. In "The Black Cat," the narrator's guilt and addiction cause him to spiral into madness.

    Read More

  • The Insane Cure In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    2324 Words  | 10 Pages

    Throughout the story, her own concerns for her mental health are diminished and written off as simply nervousness that will eventually go away. The lack of proper care for her and her involuntary confinement to the room with the yellow wallpaper eventually causes the woman to end up in full psychosis, characterized by hallucinations of a woman trapped within the paper. The woman seen within the paper not only represents the actual woman’s need for a voice to give her freedom but also her inability to escape the constraints of the patriarchal standards being imposed upon her. It is not until she completely loses herself to the delusions and finds herself tearing down the wallpaper that she feels she has escaped her own husband’s constraints. Gilman uses symbolism in the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to convey that within a world with insane standards and rules, a woman’s only reasonable option is to go insane

    Read More

  • Psychological Disorders In The Yellow Wallpaper

    573 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the reader follows a woman who suffers from depression but can not seek help because her husband does not believe it. As the couple travels to a colonial-styled estate, the narrator discovers the yellow wallpaper, as mentioned in the title, and soon becomes fascinated with it. Gilman wrote this story to shed light upon the psychological disorders that many suffer from but get overlooked. The short story portrays the notion of Id, Ego, and Superego. Id is shown throughout the story as the narrator makes an effort to restrain it but eventually writes down her thoughts on paper.

    Read More

  • Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is experiencing

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour

    1279 Words  | 6 Pages

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the Narrator tore off the wallpaper which was making her go even more insane. Her husband had always told her that there was nothing wrong with the wallpaper and she was fine, but the wallpaper made her feel like she was trapped behind it and she started to see things in the wallpaper. For her to get better she knew that she was going to have to go against the orders of her husband because what he was suggesting for her treatment was just making it worse.

    Read More

  • Mental Health In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1248 Words  | 5 Pages

    Finding something she can feel strongly about, that she understands fully, is something that she has been denied all of her life, and it becomes an addiction. As she becomes more and more dependent on loathing the wallpaper, her desperation is mistaken by her husband and Jennie as motivation and they begin to see it as an improvement. As they continue to refuse to attempt an understanding of the woman, she grows restless and begins hallucinating further. Seeing the wall move, seeing a woman moving in the patterns. She recognizes the image of a woman “skulk(ing) about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman 4).

    Read More

  • Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper

    928 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the story, the wallpaper symbolizes her sickness so if she's getting attracted to the wallpaper that means she's attached to her sickness which explains her mind is worsening. In addition, the narrator explains that the wallpaper has a “woman stooping down creep about behind that pattern.” (pg.463). This explains how she's starting to see something that is not physically there and that she is starting to imagine things. Also, the narrator states that the wallpaper is old foul yellow and has a peculiar odor (pg.465).

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    568 Words  | 3 Pages

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story that depicts the changing circumstances of the narrator and the resulting transformation of her character. Gilman uses a variety of textual details to reveal the complexity of this development, including the narrator's deteriorating mental state, the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper, and the use of language techniques such as tone, diction, and syntax. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is a submissive and obedient wife, forced to live in isolation and rest for her "nervous depression" at her husband's command. The narrator's initial tone is subdued and passive, with little indication of her own thoughts or feelings. However, as the story progresses, the tone becomes increasingly frantic and obsessive, reflecting the narrator's growing fixation on the yellow wallpaper in her room.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

    1105 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper is regarded as a classic feminist piece; written by a woman herself, Charlotte Gilman. The short story revolves around a woman forced into isolation and essentially a sensory deprivation routine titled the Rest Cure, due to her diagnosis of nervous exhaustion. This ultimately backfires and leads the protagonist to become obsessed with the yellow-patterned wallpaper in her confinement. Losing her sanity at the end of the story. Though it is deemed fiction, the story elements itself existed during the Victorian era, and the story was inspired by Gilman’s own experience.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1639 Words  | 7 Pages

    The narrator can no longer distinguish between illusion and reality. When the yellow wallpaper starts to reveal bars, the narrator truly feels trapped and secluded. The yellow wallpaper represents the narrator’s imagined world, especially when she finds the woman inside the wallpaper. The narrator states, “And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (Gilman). In her illusion, the woman inside of the wallpaper appears at night.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Point Of View Analysis

    814 Words  | 4 Pages

    The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story full of imaginative symbolism and descriptive settings. However, without the narrator’s unique point of view and how it affects her perception of her environment, the story would fail to inform the reader of the narrator’s emotional plummet. The gothic function of the short story is to allow the reader to be with the narrator as she gradually loses her sanity and the point of view of the narrator is key in ensuring the reader has an understanding of the narrator’s emotional and mental state throughout the story. It’s clear from the beginning of the story that the narrator’s point of view greatly differs from that of her husband’s and other family in her life.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Deterioration

    1260 Words  | 6 Pages

    When the narrator is forced by her husband to stay where " the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the wall… It is stripped off -- the paper -- in great patches… I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin." The Yellow Wallpaper: (Charlotte Perkins Gilman page 2) she only keeps deteriorating. As the protagonist spends more and more time in the room with the Yellow wallpaper things only worsen as she starts seeing things in the wallpaper.

    Read More

  • What Is The Mood Of The Yellow Wallpaper

    1591 Words  | 7 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the short story takes place in the diary of an unnamed woman in 1892; who is being driven crazy by improper medical treatment illustrated by the narrator’s increasing obsession with the wallpaper in her bedroom. Gilman reveals to the readers that the narrator struggles with a form of mental illness throughout the story; the narrator says she has ‘temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency’. In response to these mental struggles the narrator is prescribed the ‘resting cure’; also known as bed rest. As the story progresses the woman's mental health deteriorates while her mind twists reality creating an antagonist out of an inanimate object she can’t escape due

    Read More

  • What Is The Moral Of The Yellow Wallpaper

    482 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character’s restrictions in life are represented by the yellow wallpaper. This story, first published in 1892, shares the difficulties in a woman’s life during this time period, and how they could ultimately lead to insanity. Perkins introduces the main character, a woman, vaguely at first. This woman’s name isn’t mentioned until it can be inferred as “Jane” by the end. Jane begins her first entry in her diary styled narrative by explaining her frustrations about her so-called “sickness.”

    Read More

More about The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

Open Document