The narrator tells us in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?” (Gilman 66). She suffers from a nervous disorder that her husband does not think is significant problem. In line 12 of the story, the narrator says “So I… am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again” (Gilman 66). From the way she describes it, her disorder affects her more than her husband realizes or gives her credit for. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard has a “heart trouble” that apparently needs to be watched to some extent because Chopin wrote, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 516).
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.
But what if you cannot believe the person telling the story? What if the story itself is not meant to be simply read, but translated? The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that should be taken for what it is: the diary of a madwoman, but should not necessarily be believed as it is told. Charlotte Perkins Gilman penned this, what could be called a quasi-autobiography in 1892, as a “message from experience” to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, a physician who treated Gilman’s ‘nervous disorder’ and prescribed his ‘rest cure’ to her in 1887: she was desperately pleading with him and others to alter this treatment, with warning of its horrific and detrimental effects. The dramatic and situational irony found over and over throughout the text in both narrative content and style are what in effect finally show the reader this story is not to be taken at the narrator’s word: a husband and wife lease a mansion for the summer so she can ‘rest’ to cure her ‘nervous condition’; family and servants tend to her, her baby and her duties- while she quietly obsesses about wall paper.
Mary Davis Dr. Blair Eng. 1102 February 7, 2013 Opposites Attract Reading “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is clear that Charlotte Perkins Gilman wants her reader to do something the narrator's husband did not do; that is, to understand. As the story begins we see that the narrator is an imaginative and very expressive woman. The only obvious affliction she has, is that John has no idea as to what her actual needs are as a patient. The narrator is forced to suppress her opinions concerning her condition.
The wallpaper symbolizes and reflects the sanity of the main character. As the reader learns more and more about the wallpaper, the more the reader learns about the mental stability of Jane. Although there were many times those she subconsciously questions John’s methods using the wallpaper “unheard of contradictions” and “lame uncertain curves” alluding to the questionable methods that her husband uses to treat her. “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) - perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.” (Gilman.1892). And It is through the dead paper, her writing and self expression that the readers can sympathize with her plight as she says “I don't know why I should write this.
Walter's resentment and anger erupts in Act I, Scene 1: "Who in the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy 'bout messing 'round with sick people — then go be a nurse like other women — or just get married and be quiet." Beneatha's relationship with her mother is largely one of conflict because of their many differences, but it is not a strained relationship, for even after her mother slaps her for her blasphemous talk, Beneatha later hugs and thanks her mother for understanding her dismissal of George. She loves her mother even if they do not always agree. Beneatha's "schooling" is a privilege that Walter Lee has not had, yet Beneatha appears to believe that a higher education is her right.
Why wouldn’t the doctor question the cause of death of a healthy young widow, if not for the fact that he knows more than he is saying? Dr. Sheppard’s sister Caroline, a very strong personality in the story, is first one to question the doctor’s assessment of the death. Caroline is shown to be like most older sisters, bossy and a know-it-all, gossipy, but loving and caring, sure that she knows best, even though her brother is a doctor. As she questions and insists that Dr. Sheppard is wrong about the death being accidental, you again see the doctor attempting to discredit the thought. He continues to discount her assessment of the poor widow’s mental state, in the days and weeks before her death, as a reason for suicide.
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.
Analytical paper # 2 Due: October 24, 2012 “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a young woman whose creative appeal and self-expression are suppressed by her society and her marriage. The short story is told by the narrator through her diary, which she describes as an exemption of her thoughts. The narrator is apparently artistic and creative as can be seen through her animated descriptions of the house her husband John has rented. The narrator includes representations of the yellow wallpaper in the upstairs nursery where she and her husband sleep at night. The wallpaper is used characterically to reflect the marriage the narrator finds herself ambushed inside.
He also tends to go unnoticed, as it said at the beginning. “We’re common and boring, and you walk right on by us...” But it wasn’t all negative because people he met along the way did pity him, which helped him get from point a to point b. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane is put on a “rest cure” treatment by her husband after she gets depressed after giving birth. Because she is a woman, she is obviously just making herself nervous and needs to sleep and not strain herself and everything will fix itself. Her husband, John, even goes so far as to say that she should “not give way to fancy in the least” because it would be too tiring for her.