Home Page Essays Yellow wallpaper Essay Summary
Yellow wallpaper Essay Summary
University/College: University of Chicago
Study of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story of a woman, her psychological difficulties and her husband's so called therapeutic treatment of her aliments during the late 1800s. The story begins with a young woman and her husband traveling to the country for the summer and for the healing powers of being away from writing which just seems to worsen her condition. Upon reading this intense description of an almost prison like prescription for overcoming "temporary nervous depression" the reader is permeated with the idea the men are nothing more than the wardens in the lives of women. "The Yellow Wallpapaper" has focused mainly on the richly documented medico-cultural circumstances surrounding the story. (Wiesenthal 1)Gilman does well throughout the story to show with descriptive phrases just how easily and effectively, the man 'seemingly' wields his 'maleness' to control the woman. But, with further interpretation and insight I believe Gilman succeeds in nothing more than showing the weakness of women, of the day, as active persons in their own as well as society's decision making processes instead of the strength of men as women dominating machines.
We will write a custom essay on Yellow wallpaper Summary specifically for you
From the beginning of the story forward the narrator speaks of how her husband and other influential men in her life direct her so that she will recover quickly and I believe this to be the initial sign that the feminist perspective will be presented throughout. The narrator shows how although she has a formed opinion (and probably successful idea for her treatment), she is still swayed by her husband's direction with the following passage, "I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus–but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad." Jonathan Crewe writes, "Her supposition that the room in which she is confined has been some kind of schoolroom or gymnasium means that she has correctly divined its function(s) as a scene of disciplinary schooling (she later speaks of suicide as "an admirable exercise"), yet she fails to see in advance—or even fully to recognize—the continuity between these functions of the room and its functions as the prison cell and/or asylum ward to which the recalcitrant pupil is destined." (Crewe 274) Her husband seems to be the one who can change her thoughts because of his 'maleness' or the fact that he is her husband. Nonetheless, a member of the opposing sex is still suppressing her.
With a further look into this passage though, I believe that this again is nothing more than a sign of the inablities of the narrator. I don't believe her sex to be the cause of her suppression it is her lack of understanding of not only herself, but of how to successfully make others aware of what is best for herself. The narrator also speaks many times in a manner, which suggests that because a man speaks she has no means by which to disagree with him because she is a woman, yet another feminist tact. A perfect example of this is presented in the beginning passages of the story, where the narrator states, "Personally, I disagree with their (her husband's and brother's) ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?" This last sentence "But what is one to do?" exemplifies wonderfully her oppressed female stature in the society of her life. The proceeding passage is yet another display of the woman's ineptness with self-esteem. If the woman would just take a moment to assess the fact that she is quite possibly right about her own recovery even though she is a woman the conflict would immediately taken from the sexist realm to a realm of inner-conflict, which is were I believe many of the topics covered in this story belong.
The final passages of the story, at last, successfully manifest a display of power and possible regain of self-governance through the narrator's finally standing up to her husband by locking him out of the room in which he has imprisoned her supposedly for her benefit. Whereupon, for the first time in the story he must listen to her entreaties to discover where the key is hidden. The proceeding assessment of the final moments of the story could quite possibly be a successful way in which the author intended to say much, after the fact, of how she understood the need for a woman to stand up for her rights even in the face of a man's believed superiority. This is an astute revelation considering that at that time men were still the magistrates and governors of women's lives and for the author to make such an observation was in itself unorthodox for the day. This passage serves a two-fold purpose. The ability to lock the door restores the narrator's power over her environment at the very least, and possibly her inner domains as well. The husband having to pay attention to the wife so that he may once again be with her also displays that she may finally be getting through to her husband, that the manner in which he can help her most is to listen to her and try to understand her.
READ: Diabetes Essay
"The Yellow Wallpaper" presents a very interesting perspective of how a man can influence a woman's life from a very feminist point of view, but with a present day interpretation can be given a whole new depth because the many conflicts flow from being woman vs. man to a much more complex struggle of woman vs. herself so that she may successfully win the battle of person vs. society. Gilman successfully portrays a dominated woman in this story, but I believe that is all the narrator is, a dominated woman not a woman dominated by a man. Gilman does portray the man as insensitive and lacking in emotional support, but neither of these qualities imply or affect dominant characteristics. I believe that in the end the woman discovers that she is not being dominated as much as allowing herself loss of control. I totally agree with Jonathan Crewe when he said, "Yet if it remains important to establish that being a woman or being queer is not tantamount to being sick or insane, it is hardly trivial to establish that being so is not tantamount, either, to exhibiting bad form. (Crewe 298) The discovering of where control falls in this story is very interesting when compared with literature in general. Much as the narrator comes to the realization that control over her life is ultimately her responsibility, a reader, who often times is 'controlled' by a story, must come to the realization that a work of literature only becomes a personal experience when he/she finally determines his/her interpretation or 'control' over the story. "Weather on the wallpaper or in the narrator's first person text, the "unheard-of contradictions" in "The Yellow Wallpaper" never tell us but do ultimately teach us that madness is, precisely, unheard contra-diction." (Wiesenthal 13)It is this realization of control or the reader's interpretation that is the final block that gives the building that is known as a story, depth and meaning to every reader.
The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Summary 973 Words | 4 Pages
The Yellow WallpaperAlthough on the surface The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about one womans struggles with sanity it is not. In truth, it is a story about the dominant/submissive relationship between an oppressive husband and his submissive wife. The husband, John, pushes his wifes depression to a point quite close to insanity. The narrator seems to destroy herself through her overactive imagination and her urge to write. When they arrive she seems well in control of her faculties, but by the time they are readying for departure, she has broken down. Flawed human nature seems...
The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis Essay 676 Words | 3 Pages
Many people in modern world are sensitive to the huge amount of things. One of the worst is people with post-traumatic depression after giving birth to the child. In the short novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, "The Yellow Wallpaper," we see what results it can cause. Talking about the character list in this story – we don't have many heroes. In the novel, the role of the main character, as well as the narrator, has a woman who is trying to deal with post-traumatic depression. When her husband prevails to rent a house somewhere far away from their home,...
The yellow wallpaper Argumentative Essay 376 Words | 2 Pages
If there is one story that we have read so far that has had a tremendous impact on me, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is definitely it. I read the story in high school, however I really didn't remember too much about it. I saw the story as one woman's journey into madness however; I also saw it as more than madness.It made me very upset when not only her husband but also her brother, both physicians, shrugged her "sickness" for lack of a better word off as nothing because it was something they could not understand. I think a lot of...
The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Paper 681 Words | 3 Pages
For this assignment I chose to review The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The yellow wallpaper was about a lady with what is said to be a temporary nervous condition and her husband traveling to the country for the summer and for the healing powers of being away from writing which seems to worsen her condition. The people in the story rent a house for three months and the main character in the story is tormented, she stares at this wallpaper for hours on end and thinks she sees a woman behind the paper. "I didn't realize for a...
Yellow wallpaper Persuasive Essay 360 Words | 2 Pages
The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is truly insane from the very beginning of the story; she just falls deeper and deeper into insanity as the story progresses. In the beginning of the story she tells of how her husband diagnoses her insanity, a slight hysterical tendency,(633). Later in the story she admits her own condition, I get unreasonably angry with John sometimesI think it is due to this nervous condition.(634). John, her husband, makes her stay in bed and rest through the story; this contributes to her gradual slide into complete insanity. She begins...
The yellow wallpaper Essay Summary 1224 Words | 5 Pages
"He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. " He will not allow her to take a downstairs room with ".. pretty old fashioned chintz hanging. " He has forbidden her to work or enjoy the company of stimulating friends even though she feels ".. that congenial work, with excitement would do me good"(p129). Her disagreement with her husband's rest cure is apparent. The narrator describes the old nursery as a "big airy room". However, the description of the room conjures the image of a nineteenth century lunatic asylum. "for the windows are...
Yellow Wallpaper Essay Paper 547 Words | 2 Pages
Eng-1Professor MuellerIt must be about 3 a.m. I am laid up in this hospital with breast cancer writing about my life. I was married to a doctor, God rests his soul, but men in my days were not fun to be with. I had a depression problem and I believe he was more burdensome than the depression itself. There was a time when I just had a baby, I became very depressed, and my husband said it would do me well to get fresh air. I, the woman of the times, wanted to get better and I trusted my husband,...
The Yellow Wallpaper And The Metamorphosis Essay 715 Words | 3 Pages
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" contain many similarities. They both have the common theme of the deterioration of the main character's life and mind, as well as the theme of the ostracism of outcasts in society. They also both deal with the main characters gaining a freedom through the demise of their previous lives.The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is slowly deteriorating in mental state. When she first moves into the room in the old house, the wallpaper intrigues her. Its pattern entrances her and makes her wonder about its makeup. But slowly her obsession...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" contain many similarities. They both have the common theme of the deterioration of the main character's life and mind, as well as the theme of the ostracism of outcasts in society. They also both deal with the main characters gaining a freedom through the demise of their previous lives. The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is slowly deteriorating in mental state. When she first moves into the room in the old house, the wallpaper intrigues her. Its pattern entrances her and makes her wonder about its makeup. But slowly her...
Environment Essays (52) , Income Inequality Essays (8) , Television Essays (61) , Pride Essays (44) , Medical Marijuana Essays (21)
Topic: Yellow wallpaper Essay Summary
The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story of a woman, her psychological difficulties and her husband's so called therapeutic treatment of her aliments during the late 1800s. The story begins with a young woman and her husband traveling to the country for the summer and for the healing powers of being away from writing which just seems to worsen her condition. Upon reading this intense description of an almost prison like pres