The main character suffers from depression. Her husband wants to help with her illness, but only helps make her worse by preventing her from enjoying what she loves the most. "There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write words. "(Gilman,Charlotte) John does not think that his wife should write, rather he wants her to rest everyday in the room with yellow wallpaper. The wallpaper however begins to take a toll on the woman’s life.
Kamara Bellis Buckner English 1301 25 JUN 09 The Victorian Woman’s Insane Treatment in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” During the Victorian era, woman were to be dependant and obedient of their husbands. They were not allowed to pursue careers or interests. Gilman, being a woman of this time experienced this oppression first hand. She had been diagnosed with a nervous condition and was ordered to bed rest after the birth of her child. This ill-fated treatment prescribed by her physician Weir Mitchell, whom she referenced in her story, drove her to the brink of insanity.
Are Louise Mallard and the unnamed narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” symbolically the same woman? Wives, who would rather die than continue in the Victorian Era of Matrimony, voice their marriage issue in two poems The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Gilman’s and Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. Both women lived in a patriarchal society. A climate that demands women to be completely subservient to their husband’s in marriage. The issue exposes their feeling of imprisonment not freedom.
Were they trapped within their homes as if they were prisons? By asking herself these questions we see how great the effect of her being treated like a child was to her. She had to ability to think or do for herself, all she was allowed to do was sit there, her body was well but her mind and soul were dying. In the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, evidence of the subordination of women to a childlike state is clear in the lack of power, control over her own mind and body, and he inability to make her on decisions and be heard. The lack of choice in her treatment is what made is lose mental stability and caused her go crazy.
The women are casualties of a domestic prison, a prison for the mind, created by society and their husbands, who are victims themselves in their own way, of a Gilded Age mindset. The women have no voice and no authority. Their intellect and creativity is considered a frivolous obstacle and a distraction from their jobs as homemakers. There is irony in the endings of these stories in that the victims, the women, adjust to their lot and turn the tables on their oppressors. In Trifles, the women come to a realization that they must bond together against their clueless husbands to see justice done.
“The women in Tennyson’s poems are presented as victims of a male world” How far do you agree? Make reference to at least two poems that you have studied. In both Mariana and Locksley Hall are presented as victims. Tennyson presents Marina as a woman who is mentally unstable due to being isolated from the rest of the world. Whereas in Locksley Hall Amy is presented as a woman who is being constantly controlled by men at first her father and then her husband who she doesn’t love.
Such isolated atmosphere and forced solitary confinement eventually envelops the narrator in her insanity. While receiving conflicting information from the narrator herself, the reader becomes aware of the narrator's decline in mental health. In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s skewed perceptions of her surroundings and mental state, along with her inconsistent narration, reflects her incomprehension of the reality of her declining mental health leaving the audience left in a similar state of confusion. The narrator and her physician husband, John, rent a mansion for the summer so she may recuperate from what is described as a nervous condition. Although the narrator does not believe that she is actually ill, John is convinced that she is suffering from a “temporary nervous depression” (Gillman 12), and prescribes rest and isolation as her treatment.
John is a physician and believes that his wife is only suffering from a “temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency” (70) and due to this condition she should obtain plenty of rest, air and exercise but absolutely no work. The narrator is a writer that is forbidden to write because her husband believes that any form of society or stimulus could cause her condition to deteriorate further. As the story continue you beginning to understand the relationship between the narrator and her husband John. John seems to be very controlling and throughout the story berates his wife, while treating her like a small child that needs caring for. Every attempt that is made by the narrator to express her concerns is met with opposition or disregard.
Growing up, Alice and her sister functioned as the caretaking unit for their mother since their father was emotionally unavailable. Alice’s job was to smooth over any disruptions and assure her family everything would be okay during her mother’s panic attacks. Everyone in Alice’s house was quite and reserved, leaving Alice feeling lonely since she describes herself as loud and weird. Keeping up appearances was very important to the Sebold family and Alice was told as a young girl not to share family secrets, such as her mother’s struggle with alcoholism. Alice was raped and beaten by an African American man on May 8th 1891 at Syracuse University.
He built his authority in his family in that society. Through this story, I can see that the theme of feminism in the 19th century. Woman was not able to think or write in that society. Men had the powerful position. Woman who had knowledge and own thoughts were dangerous and unacceptable at that time.