Critical Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

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Critical Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper is a fictional narrative, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which reflected real life societal themes. The author used her personal dealing with postpartum depression to help convey the biased social attitudes directed towards women. The narrator’s fascination with the multiple shadows can be viewed as a symbol of the meaning of her story, indicating that it extends past that isolated case. Gilman’s narrative criticizes not only a specific case of treatment but the chauvinistic principles and resulting sexual politics that it stems from.
The relationship between the narrator and her husband John provides an example of the breach between genders throughout society. John’s behavior toward his wife is often condescending and patriarchal, and it is made apparent that his actions do not stem solely from her illness. He addresses her like a child, belittling her, with terms like “little girl” and “blessed little goose.” The protagonist often finds her ideas and opinions are superseded by John’s, especially regarding her course of treatment. His control over her state of being leaves her confined to a room where she is isolated from outside sources and unhappy. John’s choice of care proves that he sides behind the prevailing scientific theories which claim that women’s innate inferiority leaves them in a state of dependence.
The protagonist’s response to his cure depicts not only the negative effects of John’s, but society’s, treatment of her. At first, she attempts to challenge both her husband’s doctoring and personal bouts of lassitude. She is able to find an outlet in writing but is forced to do so covertly because of John’s oppressive attitude towards her creativity. One can see how the unfavorable social definitions of women are internalized when the

Yellow Wallpaper

The wife in the yellow wallpaper is middle-aged and has just given birth to her first child. Forced to live in a nice home, she is secluded from all its pleasures and her child. She is a well-educated and aspiring writer who is struggling with more than just postpartum depression. The symptoms of postpartum depression match the client's case perfectly, such as mood swings, crying, appetite problems, and anxiety (Depression Information Postpartum from the Mayo Clinic by Mayo Clinic Staff). She also…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is the story of a Female narrator who is sentenced to bed rest by her caring but misguided husband. Through this story she is slowly driven insane by her isolation as she begins to see women trapped in her wallpaper. I believe her marriage was the trap that helped this take place. A tool used to force women under a never ending contract and to give men a legal form of ownership over them. Through this story, Charlotte P. Gilman has helped to display man’s arrogance and unwillingness…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.” - Charlotte P. Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced depression in a time that society failed to accept people with mental illness, nor did they recognize its symptoms as those of a true physical condition. In addition, the “epidemic” of depression and mental illness in…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

seen as hysterical and nervous beings and the advised treatment was that of “Rest Cure” in order to monitor the condition. Was the problem post partum depression? Or was it the “female condition” that women experienced in society? The story, “the yellow wall paper” is centered on the descriptions of the wall paper and the woman interactions with it which reveals more to the reader than just a mere state of depression. The female condition was characterized by women’s attempt to identify…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper is a collection of fictional journal entries written by a woman whose husband, also a physician, has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house, which he rents for the summer. As part of her “Rest Cure” treatment, she is forbidden from working and has to hide her journal from him so she can recuperate from what he calls a “slight hysterical tendency”, now known as depression, which was a common diagnosis to women in the late 19th century…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

Madness “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1899 details the story of a young woman’s descent into madness, showing clearly the symptoms that are attributed to mental breakdowns. There are many different psychological issues present within the story, including the narrator’s condition of “nerves” and the very real issue of postpartum depression, and as a result of both of these issues not being treated in the manner that is needed in order to resolve these afflictions, the narrator…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses feminism to portray a society where males dominate over females. An inequality is shown towards women as they are displayed as weaker individuals in situations in relationships and outside forces. Later on in the story, the male and female roles change as the relationship between the inequalities of the two characters in the story. Gilman’s use of feminism sets the stage of the story as masculinity reigns over femininity in how the plot progresses…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper The story is about the narrator speaking of her own story and experiences. Kind of like reading her thoughts as she speaks to us. The narrator seems to be crazy and a bit insane which she is taught to believe of herself by the way her family, friends, and husband treat her. Story begins when the narrator and john move into a beautiful summer home. John has brought her out there so she can get better from a strong case of depression. He says you need the most rest you could possibly…

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the yellow wallpaper

Carolina Rodriguez Sylvia Herrera English Literature 16 September 2014 Respond Paper: The Yellow Wallpaper The yellow wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this book is known for its feminists literary ties. The narrator wrote this during the Victorian Era. An era full of constrictment towards women.The story is a set of journals written from the point of view of a woman undergoing a -mental breakdown- defined as what we call "postpartum depression.” Gilman experiences oppression…

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Yellow wallpaper

were treated? Have we, women, done anything wrong that we deserved all those sufferings? In the story—“The Yellow Wallpaper”, the writer directly portrayed the harsh, difficult life of women in the early 20th century. Through the insane women, the author reveals how women were trapped by the structure of marriage and society and how they were oppressed by their husband. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story written in the late 19th century by Charlotte Perkens Gilman. It is written in the 1st person…

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