Essays on The Yellow Wallpaper

Using Formatting to Portray Mental Illness in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman takes the reader through the first-hand experiences of the narrator's bed rest following the birth of a child. Gilman uses a variety of methods to convey the mental anguish the narrator is experiencing and one of these methods is the use of shorter paragraphs. By utilizing this format, the reader develops a great sense for the racing thoughts the narrator is experiencing as she is left alone in her room for an extended period of time. The fragmented thoughts provide a sense of urgency and unrest that may otherwise be more difficult Continue reading...

Subordination of Married Women

The pervasive theme in the narrative The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is women subordination. The narrative provides a critical analysis of the place of married women in society during the late 19th century. In the course of the narrative the author provides various roles of women in society. These feminine roles reiterate the depict males as the dominant gender. For instance, the narrative shows the role of women as house keepers, children bearers, and incapable of making their own choices. The narrative shows that the women are under the control of men and the narrator’s fate Continue reading...

Gothic literature is often defined by a combination of romanticism and the macabre; conflating the feelings of darkness, isolation and ostentatiousness are part and parcel of what makes that genre so compelling. Female Gothic stories focus those elements particularly on the plight of women, who suffered through an especially systemic submission and oppression during the 18th and 19th centuries. Women in Female Gothic stories are often isolated, set apart from other people, and constantly have their desires, needs and fears downplayed or dismissed by their male counterparts. This leads to a tremendous level of anxiety and tension within them, Continue reading...

English

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman which first appeared in the 1892 edition of the New England Magazine. The story narrates the perils of an anonymous women who is confined by her doctor husband. The tale narrates the manner in which the main protagonist becomes obsessed by the yellow wallpaper in her room during her period of confinement by her patriarchal husband. Gilman’s short tale intricately describes the oppression of women living in a patriarchal society. The main theme being feminist in nature, the short story has inspired several linguistic analysis. Despite the Continue reading...

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Discussion Of Oppressed Female Issues & Solutions

The following paper is based on the short story “ The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that depicts the life of a normal couple and is narrated by an oppressed wife who accepts every decision made by her husband or other male family members but with despair.
This paper will briefly discuss the concept of being submissive among women as characterized in the story and then discuss the issues behind this feeling in real life. The paper will also discuss some techniques to help such women get over their oppression.

Oppression is defined Continue reading...

The domination of men as the superior gender is evident in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Ibsen’s “A Doll's House.” As depictions of the existing societal norms around which the authors write their work, the different perceptions of the sexes emerge. Each plot concentrates on its female lead character, thus, informing readers about the effects of their husbands’ dominance. The authors approach the issue from different angles and in turn, provide diverse perceptions of the roles of men and women in their homes. Consequently, this paper seeks to provide evidence of male bigotry in the two novels Continue reading...

Alcott's Little Women and Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" seem to express very different attitudes toward the expected role of women in the 19th century. Analyze what you think are the main differences and similarities.
Nineteenth-century heroines in the literature realm were characterized by different and exact social desires, including conduct and qualities. Female leads exemplified the desires of society and were flawless illustrations of the perfect women. In Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, the customary perspective of ladies is smashed and always supplanted by desires closer to those of the current period and Continue reading...

Final Research Paper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” follows a traumatized, submissive housewife who is taken to a summer home in the country by her physician husband, and given a rest cure for undisclosed reasons. This involves her being effectively locked up in a bedroom for days and weeks on end, being instructed to do nothing and go nowhere for an extended period of time. As time passes, she begins to slip into insanity, as she imagines figures in the yellow wallpaper of the bedroom – eventually turning on her husband and the rest cure that she has been Continue reading...

Out of all the professions that individuals pursue, the medical profession is one of the most mind intensive. Professionals in this field usually have to undergo intensive session of training for a long time. This is because human health is a very sensitive issue that requires those charged with the responsibility of maintaining it to be competent and efficient. Because of the sensitivity of human health, the professional in this field are viewed as very powerful. In some situations, the health and wellbeing of a person is placed in the hands of a medical professional, and if the medical Continue reading...

The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was first published in 1892. The story shows a woman brought to an “ancestral house” by her husband who is a physician, due to her nervous condition. She is convinced she is sick, but her husband doesn’t believe it is anything significant, instead explaining it as all in her head. Her husband insists she does nothing but rest, leaving her alone in a large upstairs room, which was once a nursery, while he is gone often overnight. She becomes seemingly obsessed with the wallpaper, and while at Continue reading...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's penned "The Yellow Wall-paper" at a time of immense changes in the early- to mid-nineteenth century society. A woman’s position remained in the privacy of her home as she carries out her stipulated role as mother and wife. In contrast, men ruled the world of politics, work, and economics. Nevertheless, the middle of the century brought changes that impacted positively on mental health. Many feminist groups embraced the changes in the concept of the “the New Woman.” Psychologist Patrice Engle writes, “despite mounting evidence of the impact of maternal mental health on women and children, Continue reading...

The biography of Marjane Satrapi is the focus of this paper. The author’s biography shades light on the lives of Islamic women governed by their religious and cultural norms and the role of the men in the same. Satrapi’s work depicts the life of a Muslim woman and the expectations the society has with regard to the female gender. Gender inequality is an important matter as it inhibits people of a certain gender from basic rights, thus subjecting them to a prejudiced life. Inequality that favors the men affects the society at different levels because the aforementioned Continue reading...

A Look at Antiquated Gender Roles

INTRODUCTION
What is crazy? Mentally disturbed? What makes someone’s behavior unstable and makes them a threat? Today we have a much clearer understanding of the nature of people’s psychology, mental illness, and diseases. However, throughout the past people have been branded as insane, unstable, a threat, and locked away for issues that are not motivate by insanity. The mentally and physically disabled have often been mistaken for the mentally ill and placed in confinement. It was, also, not uncommon to see women committed to sanitariums for the “emotional outbursts” and disagreeable dispositions. None, of these were sign Continue reading...

In Amy Tan’s “Rules of the Game” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” both characters inhabit worlds created within their minds. This leads to the isolation between them and the rest of the world. There are marked differences and similarities between the natures of their mentally imposed isolation.
Both Gilman’s narrator and Waverly are responding to the setting in which they are forced to live. Westerly must endure her parent’s difficult marriage, and Gilman’s narrator must deal with being a woman without the autonomy in a male dominated domestic life.
Gilman’s narrator Continue reading...

The plight of women in destructive, toxic marriages is an interesting one in fiction; literature has a way of illustrating the fundamental inequalities that exist in overbearing relationships between men and women, especially when society favors one gender over the other in terms of privilege. In Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women in these relationships are beset upon by harrowing forces of domination and victimization. Their husbands abuse them in either overt or subtle ways; Delia in “Sweat” is regularly beaten by her husband, while the unnamed Continue reading...

Literature

What is the underlying meaning of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”? I feel a strong desire to know more of what Gilman’s message was. I don’t see the strong connection between Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and post-partum. It is only because I was informed of the post-partum underlying information that I was able to make the connection. I find this story fascinating because this story comes into my life when I find myself being 6 months pregnant with my first child. When we read this class, I was taking birthing and parenting classes Continue reading...

The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The short narrative has over the years been hailed as the one of the most significant early feminist literatures. The narrative illustrates the attitudes that existed throughout the 19th century regarding the physical and the mental health of women. The story is presented in a first person and is written by a woman who is confined by her husband (John) in an upstairs bedroom that the latter has rented for the duration of the summer. John restricts the author to work, which includes reading and writing. As such, the author has to hide the journal from John, as is Continue reading...

There exist commonalities in the contexts of charlottes Perkins Gilman’s the yellow wallpaper and WEB du bois’ exist in terms of the concept of each article. They articles in additions on how they cover topics show some relations and the comprehension of the articles for example the issues of gender, inequalities among other themes that touch the society.
The issue of class differentiation is depicted in the charlotte Perkins Gilman. The prominent women that existed during such time carried the theme of class differentiation for example the upper class women and these who did not have any place Continue reading...

Compare and Contrast “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”

A lot of stories in literature is about coming to terms with or dealing with the interior world as it places out in the outer world. It has been mused that every person is a world onto himself or herself, and sometimes the rich inner life within the self is in direction competition with the world around them. This concept plays out in two very different stories in unique ways. James Baldwin’s story, “Sonny’s Blues” explores this world of communication of the self to the world through music and drugs and presents image of jazz culture in Continue reading...

I have chosen to examine four short stories whose characters are people with physical markings or mental disorders. People who have these traits are unusual and regarded as odd by "normal" people. Usually, they develop some mental powers and become able to achieve much more than people who have neither physical nor mental problems. Maybe these "marked" people achieve success because they believe in themselves, whereas, "normal", healthy people tend to be paradoxically more self-conscious which hold them back. However, they are always there to judge the challenged ones. The stories that were particularly interesting to me are: Roman Continue reading...

Introduction

‘The yellow wallpaper’ is a famous short story written by American writer charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is considered as a landmark in American feminist literature and the same was published in a magazine in the year, 1892. Writing such feminist story was a brave step and this was very innovative for any contemporary writer. This paper intends to discuss ‘The yellow wallpaper’ with a special perspective to examine feminism along with discussing several other related aspects of the story.

Discussion

The yellow wallpaper is the story of a woman who is also the narrator of this story. This woman Continue reading...

The Yellow Paper is a symbolic story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is a disheartening tale of a woman struggling to free herself from postpartum depression. This story gives an account of an emotionally and intellectual deteriorated woman who is a wife and a mother who is struggling to break free from her mental prison and find peace. The postpartum depression forced her to look for a neurologist doctor who gives a rest cure. The woman lived in a male dominated society and wanted indictment from it as she had been driven crazy by as a result of Continue reading...

Literature has always had various functions depending on the time when it was written, but it has always had a peculiar feature of diverse meaning and subsequent messages the author would be able to send to the target audience. In this context, literature serves as a means of communication with potential triggering of certain ideas and even actions. In terms of feminist discourse, literature is viewed as means of expressing one's experience and also triggering diverse and often unpredictable and unexpected interpretive experiences of the target audience. One of the best examples of an interpretive literature is a short Continue reading...

Old, empty mansions evoke feelings of loneliness, isolation and even fear. What used to be happy homes for a large number of people have become empty nests. They fearsome or “haunted” as they are dream homes at the same time. They are thus frequent settings for gothic tales and horror movies.
Such old houses were the settings of two short stories: A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The two short stories are about two women who degenerated into complete breakdown while living isolated in huge, dream mansions.
In A Rose Continue reading...

The story of the Yellow Wallpaper is a description of women’s miserable life and the power of men over them back in the 18th century. Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this short story represents the primary issue of male superiority and cruelty over women. The main character who was not identified, was a woman who suffered from postpartum depression. She was not given proper recognition which only proved that women during those times were regarded with hostility in the society. She narrated the story about her tragic experience in the hands of her husband who for many years Continue reading...

During the time when the careers of writers like Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were flourishing, unemployment had also been growing and the working-class was getting larger and larger. Thus, the works of both Wharton and Charlotte often featured working-class characters. However, the question is: To what extent was their depiction of the working-class American society in their respective works and how were they different?
In her works, Edith Wharton tends to purposely make the lifestyles of the American working classes seem like a fixation so that social inequality is seen as natural and normal. Apparently, she has Continue reading...

Many authors have written significant and fascinating works about people in isolation; this isolation is often used to showcase their alienation from society (and subsequent subjugation). In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a timid housewife is prescribed a rest cure by her physician husband, involving her sequestering herself away from the rest of the world, diving into inaction. She experiences both tremendous psychotic episodes and incredible feministic tendencies and desires, echoing the frustrations that women in the 19th century had given their restricted autonomy and the forcefulness of their husbands. Meanwhile, Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis tells Continue reading...

Introduction

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman concerning a woman’s gradual decline to insanity from her depression that has emerged as a result of the birth of her child. In other words the story is exclusive of both feminist masterpiece and a haunting psychological story. Gilman, the wife and writer of the story existed during the time when she felt that women were denied access to participate in other fields beyond their homestead. She felt that women are in need of having opportunity to grow, to works and participate in other operations outside their Continue reading...

Question 5: The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The New England Magazine first published this book in January 1892 (Dock 4). Readers regard Charlotte’s book as the most creative work of literature that illustrates the attitudes towards women’s mental and physical health during the 19th century. Charlotte Perkins presents the book in the first person to describe the problems she undergoes under the control of her physician husband. The author’s husband forbids her from working and bars her from accessing the rest of the house. The story depicts the implications of this Continue reading...

Part I

The Yellow Wallpaper is an illustration of the Gothic literature for the way it displays madness and powerlessness in the context o f women rights. The author Charlotte Gilman uses her work to fight for her rights as well as the rights of women in general. She uses the Gothic elements; women distress and supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events to justify its place in the gothic literature genre. The main character of the yellow wallpaper is displayed with insanity. The insanity protests the medical as well as the professional oppression for the women in society of the time. The Continue reading...

Introduction

Literary critical theory is a complicated process - there are many different ways from which one can look at a story. The question remains, however, whether or not these readings are valid. Is the process of literary criticism a means of mental gymnastics, where theorists can force a reading into a text like a child pushing a square peg in a round hole? Looking at the various theorists who make up the most prominently observed members of the literary critical canon, it becomes clear that the act of reading itself is an interactive one, with the reader bringing just Continue reading...

Philosopher Jacques Lacan describes the mirror stage in psychoanalysis as the moment when someone (usually an infant around six months of age) recognizes themselves in the mirror: "The child, at an age when he is for a time, however short, outdone by the chimpanzee in instrumental intelligence, can nevertheless already recognize as such his own image in a mirror" (Lacan). This is meant to be the moment where we are able to understand our own appearance and transcribe it onto another object. In the case of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the unnamed narrator of the Continue reading...

Esteemed literary critic Vladimir Propp, in his essay "Fairy Tale Transformations," breaks down the essence of the fairy tale into a series of elements and functions, all linked inexorably to religious practices found in past traditions. According to Propp, fairy tales are an amalgam of the functions and roles of religion and culture in various societies; the tropes of fairy tales are reflections of these customs. These functions all exist in some form or another in the vast majority of fairy tales, allowing Propp to organize and codify the structures and natures of fairy tales. "We observe that the Continue reading...

Reviewing "The Yellow Wallpaper" through Plato and Christine de Pisan

Charlotte Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the tale of a young married woman who suffers from what is presumed to be post-partum depression. Her physician husband decides to sequester her for a ‘rest cure’ in their summer home, which turns out to backfire when she starts to slowly go insane. The story takes the form of journal entries denoting her gradual slide into madness, as she hallucinates and forms paranoid thoughts about her husband and the outside world. The audience sees all of this through a first-person perspective that allows us to see inside the mind Continue reading...

Charlotte Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the tale of a young married woman who suffers from what is presumed to be post-partum depression. Her physician husband decides to sequester her for a ‘rest cure’ in their summer home, which turns out to backfire when she starts to slowly go insane. The story takes the form of journal entries denoting her gradual slide into madness, as she hallucinates and forms paranoid thoughts about her husband and the outside world. The audience sees all of this through a first-person perspective that allows us to see inside the mind Continue reading...

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a timid housewife is prescribed a rest cure by her physician husband, involving her sequestering herself away from the rest of the world, diving into inaction. As this occurs, and she keeps herself in the bedroom of her summer vacation home, she begins to hallucinate as a result of both the abuses her husband perpetrates against her and the crippling inactivity to which she has been prescribed. Her increasing desire for freedom, as well as distrust and disappointment with her uncaring, unfeeling husband, leads her into complete madness. The Continue reading...

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story which deals with the depression of a married woman and how her husband ignores her silent cries for help. Along with her depression, the theme of struggle to cope with the circumstances and to help oneself is also apparent. At many instances a reader can detect the autobiographical note in the story. Gilman herself suffered from post partum depression and at that time no one could really help her or understand her. This dilemma was also quite apparent in the protagonists’ life. The main aim of this research Continue reading...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman campaigned for woman’s suffrage, as well as and educational and employment opportunities. She was known as the most important feminist writer and thinker of her era, and probably would have been surprised that she is now only remembered for “The Yellow Wallpaper” story she wrote in 1892. Unlike William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, this was based on her own personal experience of being diagnosed with ‘hysteria’ and being sent for a rest cure. Gilman explicitly described herself as a radical and women’s rights activist, which Faulkner certainly was not, and Continue reading...

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses diverse literary applications to develop her message to the readership. Her narration becomes memorable because of the level of involvement she makes with her readers. For example, she uses such literary elements as character, plot and style to deliver her message.
Gillman’s story is extremely insightful in its narration of patriarchal societies. The story tells about a woman who suffers from depression after the birth of her child. Her husband then secludes her in a summerhouse. The house is rented but has pathetic conditions that further worsen the treatment of Continue reading...

During the 19th Century, the society confined women in homes as housewives and mothers. Men were allowed to venture outside the home to fend for the family. Men were considered authoritative; they made decisions on behalf of their families. Charlotte Gilman explores the mind of a woman who struggles to tear the layers of wallpaper placed by the society. She struggles after giving birth to her child to liberate the opinionated and intellectual woman within her from the societal myth of male superiority.

Contrary to the belief of her counterparts, she believes “that congenial work, with excitement and change, Continue reading...