The Yellow Wallpaper “The Yellow Wallpaper” opens with the narrator, an unnamed woman, her husband John, their baby, and her sister-in-law Jennie moving into a summer estate. The narrator is suffering from post-partum depression but her doctor husband diagnoses her as “sick”. That was the diagnosis during that time because mental illness in women was not seen as real. He prescribed a rest cure and forbids her to have any form of mental stimulation, no reading or writing, and no seeing her new born baby. She believes that excitement, change, and mental stimulation would do her good but what she feels is disregarded by John.
Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from depression and how severely her condition is misunderstood by those around her. The setting of the story is in itself a character in the narrator’s story. The old mansion with the yellow wallpaper has many symbols used by the authors to explain the desperation of the narrator’s desperate loneliness. The ironic part of this tale is that her cure of “rest” only pushes the narrator further into her madness. The woman in this story is an ironic symbol of all women in her time, she is unheard and alone in her illness.
“There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing”. However, John’s absence from his wife for great periods of time may say otherwise. The author cites “John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious.” In the end I honestly believe that John genuinely love his wife but was clueless in helping her get better.
I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it” (Gilman 76), This room is symbolic of a prison, holding her in against her will. She also makes note that she is in no way fond of the yellow wallpaper that coats the walls of her prison. Yet because of her high regard for her husband and her unwillingness to acknowledge that she is unhappy, she simply thinks that it is for the best, if her husband thinks so. This aids in leading to her mental condition deteriorating even further due to the fact that she must simply put up with her prison.
Compare the ways the poet presents ideas about relationships in Sister Maude and Farmers Bride. In Sister Maude Rossetti presents a quarrel between the two sisters. This is shown when she says ‘but sister Maude shall get no sleep’; this suggests that she thinks her sister will go to hell because of what she has done. The fact that she doesn’t use a personal pronoun for her sister suggests that she has disowned her and believes that she is no longer part of the family. The phrase ‘no sleep’ is a euphemism for death and suggests that she will pay for what she has done.
Do the characters get what they deserve in the End? During the novella of mice and men Curley’s wife is alienated, spoken behind her back, called vile names and singled out from the rest of the ranch, since she is the only woman there. Throughout the novella she is constantly giving hints on how lonely she is even in her own marriage, by the end of the book she is accidentally killed and freed from the life she so dearly hated. However, another view on her death could be negative since when she dies she does not get the life she deserves for being kept in a place she doesn’t want to stay or even she does deserve her death since she is vile for not committing to her marriage vows by being a coquette. Curley’s wife is clearly a very unhappy
Zoey Crain Comp 1302 Prof. Dodge February 9, 2012 The Yellow Wallpaper The psychological thriller, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story about a woman with postpartum depression. The narrator’s husband and brother concluded it was a nervous depression. Her husband and she move out to a rather suspicious house, so she can better herself. She isn’t aloud to do any kind of work and is given strict instructions to get air and relax her self.
In order to cure her "temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency" (Gilman 833) she is advised to do no work and to never to even think of her condition. This is the advice of her husband John who also fills the role as her physician. This response to mental instability is important to Gilman's own agenda. In being under the care of her own husband the narrator takes on the role of his inferior. She is even deemed with child-like affections such as "little girl" (Gilman 838) and her very place of confinement is a nursery.
As an elderly man nears death, his daughter is persuaded to abandon her people’s tradition of looking after their “own”, because she cannot bear to watch her father die. The setting encourages the reader to think about the writer’s ideas, because the heat and drought reflect the deterioration of the old man’s life. He is a good man whose recollections show a full and significant existence. She takes him to a nursing home, but is sent away because of the colour of her father’s skin. His poor treatment there is more shocking because he has been drawn as a character who had, “worked hard” and ”owed nothing to any man.” Mrs Edwards, the daughter, is confused at first by the nun’s reaction to seeing her.
An example of someone pursuing a relationship for companionship is Rachel. She is the main characters wife who becomes promiscuous after their son, Carlton, dies. To describe this season in her life, she leaves a poem on Julian’s, the main character’s, pillow which has a line that reads, “a season of folly was all that I needed. Where is the love that once I called mine” (Phillips 140). Rachel is unable to deal with her life after Carlton dies, and she abuses sleeping pills to cope with her pain (Phillips 191).