Such isolated atmosphere and forced solitary confinement eventually envelops the narrator in her insanity. While receiving conflicting information from the narrator herself, the reader becomes aware of the narrator's decline in mental health. In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s skewed perceptions of her surroundings and mental state, along with her inconsistent narration, reflects her incomprehension of the reality of her declining mental health leaving the audience left in a similar state of confusion. The narrator and her physician husband, John, rent a mansion for the summer so she may recuperate from what is described as a nervous condition. Although the narrator does not believe that she is actually ill, John is convinced that she is suffering from a “temporary nervous depression” (Gillman 12), and prescribes rest and isolation as her treatment.
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.
Janna’ Green Dr. Berke Intro to Literary Studies April 23, 2010 The Yellow Wallpaper Most readers of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” usually misinterpret the story. Many assume that the summer home is haunted. They also think the woman is being haunted by a ghost and is eventually possessed by the spirit, which causes her to go mad. The woman and her family have moved to a summer vacation home while their house is being remodeled. When they arrive, she feels that there is something “queer” about the estate.
It deals with the normal everyday or average family, and the problems that are faced in the “real” world. In the average family dealing with the tragic death of a child, one might seek therapeutic counseling to help them deal and approach life on a day to day basis. As much as one might not want to think about it, what Calvin, Beth, and Conrad suffered is life. Conrad in the movie though is pulled by his father to deal with life-issues, where Beth his mother opens the closet door puts the past in there and pretends it never existed. For that reason Beth is in denial that there truly is a problem to be faced by her and the family as a whole.
Through that, John is using a popular method of treating mental illness at the time called “Rest Cure”. At the time, the medical community knew so little about mental illness that doctors would simply tell patients to take a break and sleep it off. Truly ironic, considering that John believes he is at the forefront of advanced medical practice, no? Throughout the story, the narrator isn’t allowed to leave the house for any reason, nor is she allowed to do much of anything while at the house. Based simply on purpose and execution of the idea of the house alone, it seems clear that the house is a symbol of the restricted home life of many women at the time.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman understood that writing was one of the very few ways women could express themselves in a time where they had little to no rights. For that reason, she gave the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper a voice. The narrator kept a journal while trapped in an old nursery with gaudy, aged yellow wallpaper. After a summer of being cooped up in this room with little to no stimulation from the outside world, she slowly becomes obsessed with Kirsch 2 the wallpaper as she falls deeper into psychosis. "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!
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 narrator continues to lose her willpower and strength. She tries to talk reasonably to her husband about visiting her relatives, but breaks down and starts crying during the conversation. Seeing that he was not going to let her leave the vacation home, she continues to watch the wallpaper. Within the pattern, the shape of a woman creeping is becoming clearer. The narrator wishes she could leave.
The Yellow Wallpaper When a person thinks about wallpaper, they may think of a pretty decorate item, with pretty designs. In the case of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, her viewpoint is the complete opposite. The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who suffers from a nervous depression. Her husband, who is a doctor, decides to move the family to a summer rental vacation home as a rest cure for her. During her time at this home, she has a psychological breakdown, which is shown through an imaginative conversation with the wallpaper.