The Yellow Wallpaper - 898 Words

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 3, 1860. From the day of her birth, she was a woman ahead of her time. In 1890, she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper a story about a woman who was oppressed by her husband and her illness. This, Gilman’s most famous work, was written from her own experience in life. In 1884, Charlotte Perkins married Charles Walter Stetson and had one daughter. Following the birth of her daughter, she was greatly depressed and took a therapeutic 3 month trip to California. Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell was consulted in 1884 by Mr. Stetson to treat his wife for what was then called hysteria. Dr. Mitchell’s treatment involved complete isolation and the removal of anything that might cause quot;mental†¦show more content†¦In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator is a woman who has been diagnosed with a quot;temporary nervous depression.quot; Because of her condition, she is restricted by her doctor and her husband from all types of intellectual stimulation. Just like Gilman, the narrator is sent to a large, old country estate for 3 months in the summer to rest and relax, forbidden to write. Throughout the story, she is inside a room with yellow wallpaper. Just as women must do, she had given up on staying in a sunny room downstairs when her husband had dismissed her plea with so much as consideration. She sees patterns in the paper that look like bars and behind the pattern she sees women. The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast , and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is trying to climb through that pattern--it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. (299) In these women, the narrator is seeing herself, but she does not yet know it. The bars are society, the women behind the bars are women like Gilman trying to break free and be strong and independent. Society and men are keeping these women down and strangling them. In the quot;very bright spots,quot; the woman keeps still, andShow MoreRelatedThe Yellow Wallpaper829 Words   |  4 Pages The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper first appeared in 1892 and became a notary piece of literature for it s historical and influential context. Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper was a first hand account of the oppression faced toward females and the mentally ill,whom were both shunned in society in the late 1890s. It is the story of an unnamed woman confined by her doctor-husband to an attic nursery with barred windows and a bolted down bed. Forbidden to writeRead More The yellow wallpaper619 Words   |  3 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The plot of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† comes from a moderation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s personal experience. In 1887, just two years after the birth of her first child, Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell diagnosed Gilman with neurasthenia, an emotional disorder characterized by fatigue and depression. Mitchell decided that the best prescription would be a â€Å"rest cure†. Mitchell encouraged Gilman to â€Å"Live a domestic l ife as far as possible,† to â€Å"have two hours’ intellectual lifeRead MoreYellow Wallpaper1095 Words   |  5 Pagesand treatments played in reinforcing the prevailing, male-dominant gender roles through the subversion, manipulation and degrading of female experience through the use of medical treatments and power structures. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å" The Yellow Wallpaper† is a perfect example of these themes. In writing this story, Charlotte Perkins Gilman drew upon her own personal experiences with hysteria. The adoption of the sick-role was a product of-and a reaction against gender norms and all of the pressuresRead MoreYellow Wallpaper1673 Words   |  7 PagesSvetlana Kryzhanovskaya Prof. Grajeda ENC 3014-MidTerm Paper March 12, 2012 Structuralism amp; Feminist Theory ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ written by Charlotte Gilman can be affectively analyzed from two schools of thought structuralism and feminist theory. Though structuralists’ deny the work of literature any connection to its author (it must be what it is, no underlying meaning) feminist theory must first and foremost be understood in its historical framework. By the turn of the century,Read MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper3202 Words   |  13 PagesEnglish 1302 22 November 2011 Main Character’s Outsider Theme In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, the narrator, Jane, is struggling to deal with her depression that she is suffering in a confined room that her husband, John put her in. John believes that this will cure Jane and make her better from her depression. Instead, Jane is slowly losing herself within the yellow wallpaper in the room causing her to become insane. Jane is not able to express her feelings with her husbandRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper1362 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† Charlotte Perkins Gilman â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is gothic psychological short story written in journal-style with first-person narrative. Other elements used in the story are symbols, irony, foreshadowing, and imagery. â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. Her husband, a physician, puts her on â€Å"rest cure of quiet and solitude.† (Wilson 278). This cure consisted of the narrator being confinedRead More The Yellow Wallpaper1466 Words   |  6 Pagesfeminist socialist and a realist novelist capture moments that make their readers rethink life and the world surrounding. Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† was first published in 1892, about a white middle-class woman who was confined to an upstairs room by her husband and doctor, the room’s wallpaper imprisons her and as well as liberates herself when she tears the wallpaper off at the end of the story. On the other hand, Craneâ₠¬â„¢s 1893 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the realist account of a New York girlRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper961 Words   |  4 Pages The Yellow Paper is a symbolic story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is a disheartening tale of a woman struggling to free herself from postpartum depression. This story gives an account of an emotionally and intellectual deteriorated woman who is a wife and a mother who is struggling to break free from her metal prison and find peace. The post-partum depression forced her to look for a neurologist doctor who gives a rest cure. She was supposed to have a strict bed rest. The woman livedRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper1844 Words   |  8 PagesSarah Kreeger EngWr 301 Professor Bradford 21 July 2013 Short Story Analysis The Yellow Wallpaper: The Power of Society’s Views On the Care of Mental Patients â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman takes the form of journal entries of a woman undergoing treatment for postpartum depression. Her form of treatment is the â€Å"resting cure,† in which a person is isolated and put on bed rest. Her only social interaction is with her sister-in-law Jennie and her husband, John, who is alsoRead Moreyellow wallpaper1165 Words   |  5 PagesIn the short story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, talks about a woman who is newly married and is a mother who is in depression. â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† is written as the secret journal of a woman who, failing to relish the joys of marriage and motherhood, is sentenced to a country rest cure. Though she longs to write, her husband - doctor forbid it. The narrator feels trapped by both her husband and surroundings. The woman she sees behind the wallpaper is a symbol of herself and