ipl-logo

Theme Of Female Hysteria In The Yellow Wallpaper

343 Words2 Pages

Furthermore, Gilman’s conditions as a woman of how society perceived women, and how her illness was misunderstood led to her mental illness. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was a common topic in literature, in which the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper makes reference. Hysteria is a psychological disorder whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization) . The term hysteria has a controversial mental history, as this disease specifically targeted women in the 1900s – to which Sigmund Freud considered a female disease. In the fifth century, Hippocrates related hysteria, as a female disease. Like Hippocrates, Trotula de Ruggiero, the first female doctor in the eleventh century, related

Show More
Related

  • Neurasthenia Disorders In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1348 Words  | 6 Pages

    Instead of fulfilling her needs for social and intellectual stimulation, he forced her into isolation and prescribed mind-altering drugs. So instead of getting better, her mind became so focused on the yellow wallpaper in the room, that she imagined herself trapped behind bars and desperately needing to escape. This showed how insane she had become. This story showed how powerful the human mind can be, especially when the effects of drugs and spousal abuse are brought into the situation. When Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, it was in relation to her own Neurasthenia disorder, and the writing of this paper actually helped change the treatment process when Gilman explained, the story “saved one woman from a familiar fate - so terrifying her family that they let her out into normal activity and she recovered” (Gilman, Why I).

    Read More

  • Isolation In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

    500 Words  | 2 Pages

    As was common of the treatment of women during the nineteenth century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is one of oppression as John, the protagonist's physician husband, tries to cure her mental illness with a treatment plan of solitude and rest after moving in hopes his wife will regain her health. While critics have debated what causes the character's eventual insanity, María Teresa González Mínguez suggests that lack of a creative outlet lends to the woman's rapid regression. The protagonist's lack of a creative outlet combined with isolation ensures a downward spiral for the woman as symptoms of her mental illness ultimately consume her. While John hopes monitoring his wife's behaviors will cure her, his efforts only worsen her mental state.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins

    210 Words  | 1 Pages

    The central idea in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins, Is that a person’s environment can lead to insanity. A writing strategy, which develops this idea, is symbolism. In Stenson’s short story, the narrator’s room symbolizes her confinement and being oppressed. An example where the narrator’s room symbolizes confinement is when she describes her room as, “a big airy room… for the windows are barred for little children…” (648). By the narrator describing the windows as barred, it gives off the feeling of being trapped.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

    1447 Words  | 6 Pages

    Stuart Hellie Ms. Meyers American Literature I 2_ March 2023 Hysteria in Modern and Past Societies According to Merriam-Webster, hysteria is defined as “ a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychogenic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions. When people in past or present societies let their emotions control their actions, it negatively affects how that society functions and the individual people within it. Hysteria has been shown throughout The Crucible and other events throughout history.

    Read More

  • Yellow Wallpaper Diagnosis

    588 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paula A. Treichler from the University of Illinois analyzes “The Yellow Wallpaper” and its effects of the diagnosis given to the main character effectively in her article “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”. In her article, Treichler emphasizes the reasons why the main character was lead to believe her diagnosis from her husband and the other contributing factors that played a role in her hysteria, such as lack of social interaction and confinement. In the introduction to her article, Treichler gives the background of the story and hits on every area of importance. The diagnosis made by the narrator 's husband is highlighted by Treichler in her opening paragraph to illustrate the significance and informality of the diagnosis and its unreliability.

    Read More

  • Isolation In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

    676 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women with mental illnesses in the 1800s were not taken very seriously. They were often told to get some rest, and they would be fine. Taking rest involved being alone for a long period of time and doing nothing at all. This is precisely what happened to the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. Little did doctors understand that isolation and sitting idly can cause mental illnesses to get worse.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Narrator's Madness In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1113 Words  | 5 Pages

    Madness often occurs when somebody desires something that is not accessible to them. When somebody cannot have what they want most, they can go insane yearning for it. For example, if an individual struggling with alcoholism attempts to go sober, they will likely experience withdrawal symptoms because their body is so used to having alcohol that it has forgotten how to function without it. During this withdrawal period, the individual may crave alcohol to the point that their psychological instincts take over and they will do absolutely anything for a drink. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator goes insane in her longing for freedom.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper

    562 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 shows mental illness through the narrator first hand. The theme in this story is going insane verses loneliness as well as being trapped. These themes are shown through the main character (the narrator of the story) as she works through her own mind, life, and surroundings. First, the theme of the woman’s state of mind is the main focus in this story.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper

    1248 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression. The narrator 's husband John, who also happens to be her physician, prescribes the rest cure to help lift his wife of her depressive state and ultimately heal her depression. However, the rest cure does not allow the narrator to experience any mental stimulation. Therefore, to manage her boredom the narrator begins obsessing over the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. After analyzing the pattern for awhile, the narrator witnesses a woman trapped behind bars.

    Read More

  • Descent Into Madness In Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

    1480 Words  | 6 Pages

    Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper: A Tragic Analysis

    1846 Words  | 8 Pages

    In most interpretations of Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is usually deduced that John, the unnamed narrator’s husband in the short story, is a flat character that is used solely for plot advancement. This is most likely due to the combination of indirect discourse, an unreliable narrator, and the ambiguous ending that negatively impacts the reader’s opinion of him. But, if the reader views the short story as a tragedy, John plays a more impactful role in the story. By analyzing the story from an Aristotelian perspective of tragedy, John becomes Gilman’s unintentional tragic hero.

    Read More

  • Literary Criticism Of The Yellow Wallpaper

    802 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” Literary Analysis The “Yellow Wallpaper” is a iconic short story written by Charlotte Perkins, a famous feminist author. The novel takes place the 19th century and deals with the issue of how women dealt with mental health issues, specifically postpartum depression. Back in the 19th century the way physicians dealt with women 's mental health was much different then it is today, back then they believed that the cure for depression was solvable by isolation and rest. As a result many women suffering from postpartum depression were forced into isolation which only made their situation worse. Jane; the narrator of the short story, is one of these woman forced into the rest treatment by her physician husband.

    Read More

  • Psychoanalytic Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper

    963 Words  | 4 Pages

    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. In the story, the narrator's better half adds to the generalization individuals put on the rationally sick as he confines his significant other from social circumstances and keeps her in an isolated house. The narrator it's made out to trust that something isn't right with her and is informed that she experiences some illness by her own significant other John.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Psychoanalytic Analysis

    1291 Words  | 6 Pages

    Psychoanalytic reading of The Yellow Wallpaper In Charlotte Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the speaker seems to be suffering from postpartum depression or "temporary nervous depression." (648). Accordingly, her husband makes the decision for her and takes her to a country house because he believes that it would be good for her. The narrator is not allowed to take care of her own child as she was imprisoned in her room where she should do nothing but "rest."

    Read More

  • Hysteria In Wide Sargasso Sea And The Yellow Wallpaper

    648 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hysteria was first discovered in Egyptian texts dating back to 1900 BC. However, in the 19th century, the epidemic began to spread in Europe and the U.S. Exclusively to women, hysteria caused a variety of side effects such as sexual desire, emotional eruptions and nervousness. It was not until psychologist Sigmund Freud debunked the illness in the 1890’s, that hysteria was pronounced a misconception. Although the myth of the disease disappeared, the stigmas surrounding women’s behavior were still present. In Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, and The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female protagonists slowly slip into insanity due to the authority of their husbands.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Female Hysteria In The Yellow Wallpaper

Open Document