Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Character Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

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Gilman, the author of this short story, describes her similarities to the character in the introduction of the story. Gilman also was facing depression after having her daughter. She was ordered to rest by her husband and mother. “Her husband and mother were convinced that Gilman needed rest and willpower to overcome her depression; they persuaded her to go to Philadelphia for treatment by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the most famous American neurologist of the day,” (Gilman 1668). Mitchell was known for prescribing the rest cure for women that were suffering from depression. Dr. Mitchell had Gilman in rest for several months with limited intellectual activities. After leaving Philadelphia, Gilman was instructed to “live a domestic life as. . . possible,’ to ‘ have but two hours’ intellectual life a day,’ and ‘never to touch a pen, brush, or pencil again’ as long as I lived., (Gilman 1668). Gilman followed his instructions for a few months, but began to be destroyed mentally. She decided to go back to her normal life which included: being a writer, a …show more content…
Growing up in the Victorian Age, Gilman was able to experience the limitations of women. In this story, Gilman describes the treatment of woman during a depressive state of their lives. Jane, the main character of the story, is depressed after giving birth to a child. She is ordered to rest by her husband and brother who are both physicians. Jane is isolated from everyone. She is kept imprisoned in a room where her conditions begin to get worse. She is restricted from intellectual activities of reading and writing. As she becomes distanced from the outside world, she begins to hallucinate. Jane begins to see a woman on the other side of the wallpaper in the bedroom that symbolize her. She decides to tear the wallpaper down to free the woman. The story demonstrates the submissive behavior of women to men in the twentieth
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