The Yellow Wallpaper

Introduction The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that explains the sad story of a woman suffering from acute postpartum depression. Written during the dying years of the 19th century, The Yellow Wallpaper is characteristic of the mental and emotional treatment that women were subjected to during this period. Indeed, Gilman uses this short story as her â€Å"reaction† to this sort of treatment.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Yellow Wallpaper specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Given the weight that Gilman gives The Yellow Wallpaper and considering her own life, one would be tempted to conclude that she was indeed using the story as a reference to her life. Through reading the story, one is able to see a clear desire for the women in this period to entangle themselves from domination. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, there is a clear theme of domination of wom en and the society seems to be unanimous in support of it. From the surface, the story seems to be addressing the narrator’s sickness but a deeper analysis reveals that it is indeed talking of the condition of the women folk in general. In fact, the society seems to have assigned roles for women, which they are supposed to adhere to. In the story, John is used symbolically to represent the male folk while the narrator represents the women. Throughout the story, the narrator together with the rest of the women trapped in the wallpaper are desperately trying to break loose from the function that the society has assigned for them. Although these women are trying as hard as they can, their courage always seems to fail them especially at night when their husbands and the rest of the family are at home. However, their courage finally gives way and this is why John who is used to represent men faints upon realizing that his wife has finally broken free from his control. Although thi s observation is debatable, there is clear evidence from the story to prove this point. Right from the start, there seems to be specific duties that wives and mothers have to fulfill. These duties seem to have been so oppressive such that the women tend to get depressed after giving birth to their first child. This depression leads them to take the rest cure during which time they are supposed to do nothing but to eat and remain in seclusion. The rest is so extreme such that one is even forbidden from writing anything since this would be tantamount to overworking their brains something that would hinder their recovery. This is despite the fact that the narrator knows that â€Å"congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.† (Gilman)Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In fact, the oppression of women seems to have been so great such that John and the narra tor’s brother who are both physicians believe that the narrator is not sick despite her thinking otherwise. This happens despite the fact that they both love the narrator dearly. What is surprising is that despite this form of medication, the narrator does not seem to get any better. In fact, she wishes that she could get well faster just to escape this form of regimen. It is obvious that the narrator views the treatment as an unnecessary interruption in her life that should not have occurred in the first place. Despite this, she is aware of the repercussions that could possibly follow her refusal to adhere to the terms of the medication. Instead of looking in to the reasons why her recovery is slow, John believes that her wife is to blame something that seems to scare the narrator a great deal. This is seen when she says, â€Å"If I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall.† (Gilman) Although we are not told what kind of a place Weir M itchell was, there is no doubt that it was a place that instilled fear on the narrator and this makes us to wonder what kind of an husband would want to take his wife in such a place. In fact, Gilman seems to have put this statement for effect just to show us the extreme end that these men were willing to go to keep their women under control. Although the couple rents a colonial mansion for the wife to recuperate, it is ironical how she is not allowed any say in the matter. Throughout the story, John seems to know what is best for his wife and he does not accept her output in the matter. Of all the things, the husband does not even allow her to choose her bedroom from the many rooms but instead he forces her to occupy the room with the ugly wallpaper. The narrator wants to do so many things but as it was characteristic in that period, the marriage institution that she is committed to compromises her freedom and happiness. In addition to the bedroom containing the ugly wallpaper, the room has no windows and even the bed is bolted to prevent her from moving it to any other position. This is a clear sign of control and domination by the husband. By analyzing the lives of the women behind the wallpaper, it is obvious that they are trying to look for their freedom. On her part, the narrator is looking for freedom from her husband and the rest cure that she has been subjected to. Throughout the story, the narrator tries hard to free women from the gender bias that had seeped in the society. However, this is not easy because just like the wallpaper these societal changes had become â€Å"ridged and yellow with age.† (Gilman)Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Yellow Wallpaper specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Despite John’s domination, the narrator slowly begins to take control of her life. Although she had loathed the yellow wallpaper at first, she begins gaining some mental streng th just by watching it. As her mind begins to churn, she forces herself to think and this is something that her husband does not like. Deep down her heart, she knows that her husband does not necessarily know everything but she does not say anything for fear of reprisals. Although John has told her not to bother herself with anything, she begins analyzing the wallpaper and that is when she notices the figure of women trying to free themselves. For once, the narrator feels that she knows something that her husband or any other person for that matter does not have an idea about. This is presented when she says, â€Å"there are things in that paper that nobody knows but me.† For once, the narrator is elated since she feels that she possesses first hand knowledge that is not yet evident to her husband. For once in her life, she seems to have concluded that she has a functional mind that is entirely hers and one that she can use as she wills. Even to John, her wife is like a myste ry that he is unable to solve and that is why he keeps he locked in the bedroom just to keep her under control. However, what he fails to realize is that by doing so he is actually helping her to solve her own mystery. As the story nears climax, John seems bewildered and he even seems to be noticing a change of attitude on the narrator. In fact, he commends her for putting an effort to get better but she knows that she is getting well for other reasons. Although he does not admit it, John has realized that the wallpaper is a representation of his wife and that is why he reprimands her wherever he catches her staring at it. Just with a day to go before they leave the house, the narrator masters her courage and tears down the wallpaper. The narrator’s feelings of freedom peak when she manages to pull down the yellow wallpaper from the walls where it had hanged for many years. In order to accomplish this, she uses much will power and patience but she finally manages to get the w ork done. She is convinced that John would reprimand her for tearing down the wallpaper but for once, she is not bothered. To her, taking control of anything even if it is the â€Å"odious wallpaper† is better than just sitting and doing nothing. Indeed, tearing down the wallpaper seems to only be the first step toward her freedom. To her, she seems to have concluded that her life was in her own hands and not on Johns or any other male for that matter. Within a short time, she seems to have developed mentally as a woman. The narrator’s final victory comes when John arrives home and realizes what she has done. To begin with, he is shocked when he realizes that she has locked the door something that she had never done before. However, the climax arrives when he enters the room and realizes that she has torn down the wallpaper. There is no doubt in John’s mind that his wife has finally developed mentally and regained the freedom that he had for so long denied her. In fact, the shock is so much for John such that he faints.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The proof that the narrator has gained mental control comes shortly after when she says that â€Å"now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall so that I had to creep over him every time.† (Gilman) At this point, she is not perturbed by what he thinks and his fainting does not even surprise her. To her, tearing the wallpaper out of the walls is a sign of showing that she is willing to take matters into her own hands and this is what scares the husband and makes him faint. Conclusion The Yellow Wallpaper is a clear representation of life in the 19th century. During this period, women seem to have been under male domination and the society seems to have accepted this fact. Throughout the story, the narrator seems to be fighting to get a voice of her own. However, her husband decides that he knows what is best for her and he does not even give her the freedom of choosing what she wants. Instead, he embarks on making all the decisions for her even on matters that directly affect her well-being. At the end of the story, the narrator regains control of her life and this scares her husband to a point where he even faints. Works Cited Gilman Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper, 1899. Web. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/home This essay on The Yellow Wallpaper was written and submitted by user Cerise to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. The Yellow Wallpaper The point of view adopted by the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper is first person. The narrator is a new mother, living temporarily in a house of unaccustomed lavishness.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Yellow Wallpaper specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More She and her family come there to help her recuperate from a mysterious ailment, perhaps postpartum depression. This ailment seems to be both mental and physical because she gets so tired. She disagrees with her husband’s and brother’s handling of her health. Since she is nearly entirely hallucinatory by the story’s end, the reader is led to suspect the accuracy of her narrative. However, her perception of her own feelings is quite lucid. Thus, she is both reliable and unreliable as a narrator. The point of view of someone undergoing mental breakdown is ambiguous, and forces the reader to constantly question the facts while acknowledging her probable accuracy and insights about herself. The reader meets the narrator while she speculates about the house that her husband has rented. She demonstrates an active, inquiring mind as she wonders why the rent was so cheap (Gilman). She would like to believe that there is something otherworldly about the house and grounds, but she accepts that there was some sort of estate difficulty, which she readily accedes, â€Å"spoils my ghostliness† (Gilman). This willingness to relinquish her own fanciful interpretation shows that she has a vivid imagination, but retains her good sense. Thus, at least at the outset, she is entirely able to distinguish fact from fiction. She retains her sense of â€Å"something strange about the house† (Gilman), showing that she has a mind of her own. Indeed, much is strange about her situation, in that she is being shut away from company, including her own baby, in a room with barred windows, â€Å"rings and thingsâ €  set into the wall, a nailed-down bed, and a â€Å"gate at the head of the stairs† all suggesting mental asylum. Furthermore, whoever was immured in her room was so distraught that they tore off the wallpaper, and even did so when, the reader infers, confined to the bed or shackled to the wall (Gilman). Thus, her perception is partially valid. These initial impressions show her to be an acute, if naà ¯ve, observer and in touch with reality.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As she lives for days and weeks in this room, her objections to her treatment increase, but she is still largely in touch with reality. However, her observations of her surroundings begin, increasingly, to conflict with others’. John insists that the people she is seeing out the window do not exist (Gilman). She is beginning to personify the wallpaper in her own musings. She compares thi s to her childhood imaginings that her nursery furnishings came alive. She remembers the â€Å"kindly wink† from her bureau knobs (Gilman). The narrator also begins to hide her activities, for example, her writing, from her family, especially her sister-in-law. She distinguishes herself, as an aspiring writer, from Jane, who aspires only to housekeeping. (Gilman). Thus, while the reader begins to question her perceptions because they are drifting away from realty, she remains insightful about her relations with those around her, and about herself. Her characterization of John’s sister is acute, and she is accurate in her observation of her own tendency to â€Å"cry at nothing and cry most of the time† (Gilman). After the Fourth of July holiday, her obsession with the wallpaper begins to signal her retreat away from the concrete world, and her increasing unreliability as a reporter of fact. She says of the wallpaper, â€Å"It dwells on my mind so†, and rec ounts how she visually follows the pattern by the hour (Gilman). However, she continues to be alert to her own condition of mind, recounting how she tries to convince John that she should make a visit, but despairing that â€Å"I was crying before I finished†, and cannot â€Å"think straight† (Gilman). As she begins to see a woman’s figure in the wallpaper, it seems as though she is trying to broach the topic of her near-hallucinations with her husband. She agrees that she is, â€Å"Better in body, perhaps, -â€Å"(Gilman). The reader can infer that she would have said that her mind was deteriorating, but her solicitous husband stops her with a look (Gilman). Shortly thereafter, she says, â€Å"I always lock the door when I creep by daylight† (Gilman), but does not connect this consciously with what Jennie calls â€Å"yellow smooches† on her clothes (Gilman). Thus, while interacting unconsciously with the hallucinated female behind the wallpaper, and experiencing an apparent olfactory hallucination (Gilman), she also comments with clarity on her mental state. As her condition deteriorates, and she begins to strip the wallpaper to release the imaginary woman, her hallucinations take over. However, she still retains her observant eye for the behavior of others, for example, commenting on the â€Å"professional questions† John asks Jennie about her (Gilman).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Yellow Wallpaper specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To nearly the end, she is lucid about people’s roles in her life. She fully acknowledges that she is the one doing the creeping only at the very last, finally identifying herself with the woman behind the wallpaper, â€Å"out in this great room† (Gilman). It is only when her husband faints in shock that she calls him the anonymous â€Å"that man†, not ‘John’. She now seems full y disconnected from her former reality. By using a strict first person point of view, Gilman keeps us guessing until the very end. The author uses this to make sure that the reader continues to believe the truth of the narrator’s emotional state, as she sees it herself, while the tangible facts of her life disintegrate. The narrator may become mad, by the world’s standards, but she is always on target about what she feels. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.† Unknown. Unknown. Unknown: Unknown, Unknown. Unknown. Print. This essay on The Yellow Wallpaper was written and submitted by user Anders Obrien to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins, the author of The Yellow Wallpaper, spent most of her time advocating for women rights. She wanted equal representation in every aspect: socially, economically and politically. Her utmost focus was in the inequality established after marriage.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The Yellow Wallpaper specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More She argued that women obligation to remain in the house while their husbands went to work was unfair and, asserting that it barred women from utilizing their knowledge and intelligence. She proceeded to explain that the fact that women stayed at home the same way as servants could not make anyone happy. Unless she got her freedom, nothing in the house would run smoothly. The ideology of true womanhood made women suffer in silence; however, it was phased out for the new womanhood. Gilman tries to show how men dominate the marriage institution, but in the end, w hat is displayed is the ways women are weak and let men control them. In my opinion, the owner displays her inabilities throughout the text; it is not a matter of whatever she is going through. She further claims how the man influences her decisions and, that whatever man says she has to listen notwithstanding its validity. This displays her inabilities as a woman giving the man more power and control. The narrator seems to have conflicts with her inner self; she thinks that women should be given an option to make decisions in the family and assumes her role as a true woman. The woman in this narration has allowed herself to be controlled and not by man alone. She has failed to recognize that she is the driver of her own life and blame should not be put on man. Although the man tries to control her as it is traditionally, the woman has to take it as her responsibility to control herself. The major conflict in the narration comes about when the doctor, who is also the narratorsâ€⠄¢ husband, struggles with her over the nature of her illness, which she believed resulted from her struggle with dissimilarity in their marriage institution. As a result, she terribly desires to express herself and make her complains known to the husband (Gilman, 6). The narrator tries to express her views on what she wants to do while she is sick, but her husband insists that she must get enough rest. This brings the point of conflict between the narrator and her doctor partner. John does not believe in her wife’s creativity, and that is why he does not allow her to use her talent. It seems like he is forcing her to quit writing and focus on being a wife and a mother.Advertising Looking for critical writing on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, she is not able to work her creativity and ends up drawing the wallpaper that represents a depressed woman (Gilman, 15-20). Still the husband canno t believe her capability, resulting in the conflict. It shows how sometimes men can be disobliging to their wives and how they may lower their self-worth. The narration is a display of the prison nature of marriages established by men. Marriages have locked up women from pursuing their dreams and made them useless to the community at large. Men view their wives as unimportant, just as John did to his partner, making them have no other means of escaping their roles as mothers and wives. John is simply a reflection of the society and the marriage institution. The story illustrates the effects of confinement on the narrators’ depression problem. Work Cited Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1973. South Carolina: Forgotten Books. pp 1-63. Print. This critical writing on The Yellow Wallpaper was written and submitted by user Annie Donovan to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.