The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story about a woman who is suffering from what is modernly known as post partrum depression. This story however takes place in the early 1900’s. After a little research, I found out that this short story is actually an exaggerated remake of the author’s own personal experiences. In 1887, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Gilman began to suffer from serious depression and fatigue. She was referred to Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell who was leading specialist in women’s nervous disorders in the nineteenth century.
The two texts present a woman from a disadvantaged point of view and how she struggles to establish a foothold in a male-dominated society. In Hamlet, analysis of the plight of women falls on Ophelia and Gertrude. The two women endure chauvinistic suffering and finally break loose. Gertrude transgresses the patriarchal bounds of femininity by marrying soon after her husband’s death, much to Hamlet’s chagrin. Consequently, he refers to her as “frail” (Act 1, Scene 2, line 146).
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.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was active in several feminist and reformist organizations in the late eighteen hundreds: “she proposed revolutionary rearrangements of domestic life to free women for work outside the home.” (p.204), she was truly a brave woman of her age. Gilman reflects her own mental illness and domestic imprisonment through the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. At the beginning of the story, the wife and husband’s relationship seems normal and appealing, but then you learn about the woman’s sickness. This implies that their relationship and husbands support may not be as wonderful as it first seems, because having a good social support from family and friends increasingly helps reduce the seriousness of postpartum depression. Although ten to fifteen percent of women can suffer from postpartum depression the eighteen nineties was an age in which men would normally see women as hysterical and nervous; therefore when a woman claimed to be very ill after having a child, men would simply tell them to sleep it off and dismiss them for “there is really nothing the matter” (p.205).
The color of the wallpaper reflects her sickness. While the narrator becomes ill, the wallpaper with flamboyant patterns has a “repulsive, atrocious” yellow color that represents disease. A woman’s anxiety was seen an illness back then and to cure it, she was to be taken away to rest, just rest. The narrator in the story developed depression and nervousness from delivering her baby, and similarly the patterns and the color of the wallpaper signify the illness of angst and fear. Since the
The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Paved the Way for Later Generations Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a partial autobiography. Appropriately, this short story is about a mentally disturbed woman and her husband's attempts to help her get well. He does so by convincing her that solitude and constant bed rest is the best way to cure her problem. Atrocious yellow wallpaper covers this room and it aids in her insanity. The woman is writing the story to express her insane thoughts against her husband's will.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story that explores the advancing depression and psychosis of a woman during a time in which women had few rights and were given little respect. The overall theme of this piece is to explore the gender roles of women during the nineteenth century. The Victorian era was one of extreme restrictions on the economic status as well as the individuality and sexuality of women. Perhaps the most important aspect of this story is the author’s use of symbolism to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions about the dynamic of the main character’s relationship with her husband, as well as her mental state. One aspect of the story that is striking relates to the fact that the entire piece is
“The Yellow Wallpaper”: Unknown Insanity The 19th century was filled with a lot of unknown illness and disorders. Charlotte Perkins-Gilman chooses to write about the unknown illness in which some women faced at the time. The 19th century was also a time where women had fewer rights than men. This may have contributed to one of the ways the story is set for the narrator’s insanity. The narrator’s insanity is caused by her husband, the treatment prescribed for her, and her obsession with the yellow wallpaper.
The Significance of Voice in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator’s dynamic voice exemplifies the her struggle with insanity as she becomes infatuated with the wallpaper in the attic room where she holds herself prisoner. With instruction of her physician and approval from her husband, the narrator is to only rest while staying in the summerhouse recovering from “temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 2). As the story plays out, the narrator begins to lose touch with reality and we witness her collapse from beginning to end through her own storytelling. From the start, the narrator confesses to not liking the attic room where she is staying at all and immediately explains that the “windows are barred”, “there are rings and things in the walls”, and that the wallpaper is “stripped off in great patches all around the head of my bead” (Gilman 4). At this point, the narrator appears normal and healthy, as anyone would be aware and curious of his or her surroundings in a new environment.
In Athens they way that women were educated was through learning tasks such as weaving, domestic arts, spinning, and other chore like household tasks. There was a very stern law code concerning marriage for Athenian women as well. For instance, an Ancient Athenian woman would not be permitted to enter public sanctuaries wearing any form of jewelry. If a woman did this, the men were able to hit her and make her life basically miserable. Women were also not allowed to make any form of deals or contracts for anything more than a bushel of barley.