Studies show that women feel very sad, hopeless, and empty. Some women also may feel anxious, lose pleasure in every day things, not feel hungry, and may lose weight. Other women may feel more hungry and gain weight, have trouble sleeping, and not be able to concentrate (WEBMED). Most of the women are ashamed for feeling lost and fearful for their child. Postpartum blues can be due to imbalances in women’s
The personification of the book as a child allows the reader to relate to the fears and struggles the narrator has with accepting her creation. The narrator feels disgrace over her creation even though she has put so much effort into it.
From the beginning of the poem, there is an obvious separation of generations, hence the “separate rooms”. The narrator sets the stage for separation as she says, “my daughter denies she is like me, her secretive eyes avoid mine.” The secretive eyes create an immediate barrier between the mother and daughter. Clearly there is a block of information about her daughter’s life that the mother has no knowledge of. All of that information is locked in her daughters “room.” The room women lock themselves in is a room of confinement. It represents a lack of individuality, loss of control of one’s own life, and other burdens of womanhood.
Due to the strong social and literary influences, Charlotte was drawn to literature and began writing at a young age. She attended college and after a couple years she married an artist names Charles Walter Stetson. After giving birth to their daughter she was plagued by severe bouts of depression and psychosis. In an effort to get herself well she separated and later divorced Stetson and moved across the country to California. Her experiences with mental illness and social oppression greatly influenced her writings as seen in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
In the two short stories, both women feel repressed in their role unwillingly to escape their room leaving them to have a distorted reality created by their mind. Under societal conditions, both women embody a struggle for freedom while spiraling into id tendencies and primal thought. In the Yellow Wallpaper, the woman has very little control over her life due to her nervous condition. She has become trapped by her husband because of not only societal obligations but the treatment back in the day. The treatment consisted of no interactions with anything or anyone but rest and silence.
The lack of power that women have in Salem sets the stage for hysteria. The female characters long for a voice in the community, and attempt to gain one by using their court powers to blame those around them and lying to gain attention from the community. Due to the very little power women have in Salem, the women find the need to blame others in order to be heard. While Abigail is being accused of performing witchcraft, she tries to blame Tituba. Abigail states, “Sometimes I wake and find myself standing in the open doorway and not a sitch on my body!
The Feeling Perspective: A Look At Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” In the “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes the tale of a woman that is secluded and without activity. Moreover, that because of these things she goes mad. Gilman uses this story to show that seclusion and inactivity are harmful to a person’s mental health and that being social is one of the things that keep people sane. She uses a first-person perspective making it seem as if the woman is writing the story. In writing the story this way she can delve into the characters mindset.
In this society people get very disturbed when the law is broken. When Mrs. Phelps starts sobbing after Montag reads the poem Mrs. Bowles starts yelling at Montag. Mrs. Bowles says, “I knew it would happen! I’ve always said poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings, poetry and sickness, all mush!”(101). Mrs. Bowles is furious at Montag for reading a poem and making Mrs. Phelps cry.
When she writes “Oh my dear girls—for to such only am I writing—listen not to the voice of love, unless sanctioned by paternal approbation.”(P. 55), she is trying to tell women to put themselves in a position in which they are not exploited, and listen to their brains and parents rather than their heart and emotions. The story of Charlotte Temple is somewhat extreme in the sense that she was a very naïve and sheltered young woman that didn’t really know what the world was like outside the walls of her home or the border school. She was weak and she was dependent on other people to make the decisions for her. Rowson is also warning the women about other people in their life. The parents have the best intentions for their children, but other people might not.
Then the narrator becomes worse. She starts seeing a woman in the walls. Later, the narrator tears the wallpaper to get the woman out, which is when the narrator's illness is the worst. Gilman writes, "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?" (755).