The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is about a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression and is prescribed bed rest by her husband. The woman becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in her room and starts to believe that there is a woman trapped behind it. The story is a feminist critique of the treatment of women with mental illness during the Victorian era.
However, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is not a tale about one lady’s mental struggles. It’s really a story about the dominant versus submissive dynamic between an authoritarian husband and his submissive wife. John drives his wife to the brink of madness with his constant nagging. The narrator appears to self-destruct through her overactive imagination and desire to write.
The story The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late 1800s. The story is about a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression and is prescribed complete bed rest by her husband, John. The woman, who is never named, becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in her room and starts to believe that there is a woman trapped behind it.
The story ends with the woman tearing off the wallpaper and crawling into the hole that she believes is behind it. The story is narrated by the woman herself, which allows us to see into her mind and understand her descent into madness.
The story highlights the issues faced by women at this time, such as lack of mental health care and the lack of autonomy within their marriages. The story is still relevant today as it highlights the importance of mental health care and the need for open communication within relationships.
“He says that no one but myself can help me out of it,” she tells her spouse. “I’ll have to use my willpower and self-control rather than allowing any silly notions to take over me,” she adds, addressing her spouse. John isn’t assisting his wife in any way; he just doesn’t believe there’s a problem. Keeping a diary was one of the primary reasons she decided to do so; she felt it might assist her since she was afraid to speak up against her husband.
The wallpaper also becomes a symbol of her oppression. The wallpaper is yellow and ugly, and it seems to be alive. The narrator feels trapped by it, and she eventually comes to believe that there is a woman living behind it. The wallpaper becomes a symbol of the way she is trapped by her husband’s view of her. The story is about the narrator’s gradual descent into madness, and the way that her husband’s view of her as a fragile, delicate creature contributes to her mental breakdown.
The story is also about the power of the written word, and how the act of writing can be a form of resistance against oppressive forces. The Yellow Wallpaper is a classic work of feminist literature that has been praised for its insight into the psychological effects of oppression and confinement.
She states that she doesn’t enjoy writing in her journal because it makes her tired. John opposes her writing throughout the narrative, believing it contributes to her sadness but that she continues to write anyhow, believing she is getting away with something. John considers Marie a sick not depressed individual when he prescribes her medicine for someone who is physically ill rather than psychologically distressed.
The wallpaper in the nursery room becomes a symbol of her mental state. To Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper is an important story because it is about a woman who is basically kept imprisoned by her husband’s over-protectiveness and she eventually goes insane as a result.
The story highlights the importance of psychological freedom and it also promotes feminism, since Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a well-known feminist writer. The Yellow Wallpaper is a story that should be read by everyone, because it is an important story with a powerful message.
She uses the journal as an outlet for her true feelings, which she fears would lead to imprisonment if others were to learn them. She writes, I believe that if I just had the capacity to produce a little, it would relieve the press of ideas and relax me. However, when I attempt, I become exhausted. Her husband disagrees with this notion while being non-threatening.
As the tale continues, it becomes apparent that she has begun to fixate on her room and, more significantly, the wallpaper. The bed is nailed down, the windows are barred, and there are rings and other objects protruding from the walls, perhaps from when it was a children’s playroom. She initially hates the space but grows to like it; I’m starting to really like this room despite the wallpaper. This may be considered a contradiction; possibly because of the wallpaper
The narrator fixates on the wallpaper to the point where she can no longer see reality. The wallpaper becomes a living thing to her, and she sees a woman behind it, which could be interpreted in many ways. The woman could be a projection of herself, or possibly another person entirely that is either real or imaginary.
The story ends with the narrator tearing the wallpaper off in strips, possibly because she has finally realized that it isn’t real. This story is about mental illness and how easily someone can fall into delusions if they are not careful. It’s also about how society views mental illness and how people suffering from it are often not believed or taken seriously.
As the narrator tells us, she hasn’t had enough time to do so. She is in a state of shock, unable to believe that this is happening. As she desperately searches for her phone’s contact list on her computer and begins dialing family members’ numbers one after the other, we see two things: an hourglass symbolizing loss or death, and an obese woman’s face looking back at her from the screen with its eyes wide open like those of a corpse.
It appears as if she is no longer dealing with reality. She sees a woman in the wall who might be interpreted as a projection of her own image, imprisoned by outside forces.
The wallpaper becomes a representation of her own repressed self. The yellow color may represent her feelings of sickness and unease. The wallpaper also begins to take on a life of its own, as it seems to move and crawl around the room. This could be interpreted as her mental state deteriorating even further. The woman in the wallpaper may also be seen as a symbol of Gilman’s own struggles with mental illness.
The story ends with the woman in the wallpaper finally escaping, and the narrator’s husband finding her in a state of hysteria. He then locks her up in an upstairs room, in order to prevent her from harming herself or anyone else. The story is open to interpretation, but it seems clear that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was writing about her own experiences with mental illness and the struggles she faced in a society that did not understand her condition.