Gilman uses symbols to explain the how women are trapped in domestic life. The symbol that Gilman uses the yellow wallpaper in the room she is confined in. At first, the wallpaper is just awful as she says “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow.” She is disgusted by it and understands why children, who have been in this room, would want to tear it down. Then, the wallpaper becomes a point of curiosity as she wants to discover the organization of the pattern. She said, “...and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion,” as if the wallpaper was made with symmetry in mind.
The wallpaper is used characterically to reflect the marriage the narrator finds herself ambushed inside. At the start of the short story, the wallpaper is merely seen as an aberrant bore, but as the narrative progresses, the wallpaper becomes much more baleful and frightening. As a site of symbolism, the symbol has three functions in Charlotte Perkins Gilman s ’, “The Yellow Wallpaper”: it reveals the wallpaper including the imagery, imprisonment and symbolism. The imagery of the wallpaper in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” transitions as the short story is developed in order to emulate the increasing realization of the monopoly the narrator’s marriage has upon herself. The very first descriptions illustrate her initial animus by describing it as “one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Perkins 41-42).
So we see our main character and we feel her pain, we know she is suffering because she can feel within herself that something is not right. She makes countless attempts to tell her husband this, and he continuously shrugs her away, constantly reassuring her that it is a “temporary nervous depression- a slightly hysterical tendency”(Gilman 987).The use of the word hysterical here is literally referring to her disorder, but figuratively he is essentially saying that she is hysterical regardless of ill health or otherwise; simply because she is a
He is now patient of doctor Bradshaw, who does not understand his problem, considers him mentally disturbed and decides to send him to an asylum. Septimus however does not accept it and prefers to commit suicide, which is therefore an act of despair. The two characters do not directly come to know each other. Only at the end of the novel Clarissa listens about S’s death from doctor B who has been invited at her party. This information deeply shocks her.
He is showing how he just wants to be left alone sometimes. Holden is showing signs of his post traumatic stress disorder from when he thinks of Jane. He is also getting very jealous of Stradlater and Jane together. Patient: Holden Caulfield Date: 3/2/54 Date of Birth: 10/14/37 Session: four – chapters 6 and 7 “’You don’t do one goddam thing that you’re supposed to. I mean it.
The narrator’s husband, “John is a physician, and perhaps( I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) that is one reason I do not get well Faster. You see he does not believe I am sick.”(527) Before entirely reading this I got confused right away from the page. Why would she believe John, a physician, think he’s making her chances of recovering deplete? He believes she is not sick but just has nervous depression. What did she do to be so depressed all the time?
By tearing it down, the narrator emerges from the wallpaper and asserts her own identity, albeit a somewhat confused, insane one. Though she must crawl around the room, as the woman in the wallpaper crawls around, this "creeping" is the first stage in a feminist uprising. From the beginning of the story, the narrator’s creativity is set in conflict with John’s rationality. As a writer, the narrator thrives in her use of her imagination, and her creativity is an inherent part of her nature. John does not recognize his wife’s fundamental creativity and believes that he can force out her imaginative fancies and replace them with his own solid
Once Cole finally does open up to him with the iconic line “I see dead people”, Malcolm feels a crushing sense of defeat and a fear that Cole needs to be institutionalized. This would mean that he wasn’t able to help him, like he hadn’t been able to help the patient who had met a tragic end. However, through further scrutiny of old interviews with the patient, Dr. Crowe realizes that the spirits the man claimed to be around were actually speaking to him. With this newfound belief, Malcolm and Cole set out to help Cole face his fears, and help the lost spirits as well. In the end, Cole ends up helping Malcolm just as much as Malcolm had helped Cole, if not more.
Her physician husband John “a physician of high standing”, does not believe she is sick. He prescribes the “rest cure” and makes all the narrator’s decisions for her. Her brother also tells her to take phosphates, air and exercise. From the narrator, the reader learns that the people around her refuse to believe that she is truly ill. Her resulting powerlessness pushes her over the edge of insanity: “But what is one to do?” (Gilman 598) Along with characterization, vivid imagery is another essential feature of an enjoyable story.
In the beginning, you immediately feel the isolation of the room in which our character lives, but you quickly figure she is there for a reason. In her writing in secret and disagreeing with physicians at all cost, you feel sorry for her, but also question if she is of right mind. There are times you are angry with the husband, but you know that is how it was at that time with how he treats her. I would agree most people reading would assume she is crazy and then see the clues that lead to postpartum depression and see the husband as not all bad. You cannot trust that her view of any reality when she seems most lucid is even clear enough for anything when you realize her state of mind.