Wallpaper Symbolizing Jane’s Insanity In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, the wallpaper causes and symbolizes Jane’s imprisonment which eventually causes her decent into insanity. Gilman shows this through the patterns and colors in the wallpaper itself, through the woman that she believes is stuck in the wallpaper, and when then wallpaper is finally taken down. As Jane continues to study the wallpaper, the different aspects that she discovers contribute to her eventual madness. The physical appearance of the wallpaper is directly symbolic of Jane’s situation. The yellowish color is affiliated with the weakness, and the powerlessness that she is feeling.
However, as her mental illness advances and the constant isolation from everyone continues, she starts obsessing over the wallpaper and an actual form begins to take shape among the patterns. Confirming this the protagonist writes in her journal, “I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman” (Gilman 799). As the story and the loss of the narrator’s mind progresses, the transitioning of the patterns in the paper changing from disorganization into the form of a woman coincides with the transference of her own identity. Originally, shadows within her surroundings also appeared to be the woman behind the paper. She
‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1899. Gilman wrote the story after a recent recovery from madness in retaliation to a doctor’s wishes that she rest. The story reveals the case of a young woman who appears to be battling with mental illness whilst simultaneously being oppressed by her husband. However, the story also delves deeply into society’s ideas about women within marriage during the Victorian era. The story could be recognised as one woman’s descent into madness.
Our narrator starts out being credible, and she tells us how she does not like the wallpaper at all. But as the story progresses, we can see how our narrator changes. An example of this is tells us how the pattern becomes clearer every day, “it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit.”(p.8). At this point she starts seeing various things in the wallpaper, but she still dislikes it, however later on we can see how her madness progresses and becomes a serious issue.
Response to The Yellow Wallpaper Imagine yourself being locked in a room alone, scared, and mistreated. Imagine that room not being a part of your own home. Imagine having all of your friends and family members plotting against you. These are the emotions the narrator felt in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literary masterpiece, The Yellow Wallpaper. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story about a woman who is suffering from what is modernly known as post partrum depression.
“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 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.
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 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.
Later on in the story the images start to become clearer she says “it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (Gilman 614). Towards the end of the story she says, “sometimes I think there are a great many of women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast and her crawling shakes it all over” (Gilman 616). This could symbolize that at first when she sees just eyes in the wallpaper. She believes that people are watching her in the situation of not being able to be her own person and do what she wants to do instead of being told; then she realizes that she not the only woman in that situation, yet most of the time she feels alone and that no one is there to help her out. Gretchen Greene points out Gilman’s own life by stating this, “Specifically, Gilman and the narrator are trying to escape the function society has