The Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In January of 1892, author Charlotte Perkins Gilman published her short story, â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper† in The New England Magazine. Gilman’s work illustrates the public perception of woman’s health in the 19th century and is considered to be an important part of early American feminist literature. During the 19th century, women were confined to the idea of the â€Å"ideal† woman and the â€Å"domestic sphere.† According to Barbara Welter, in her 1966 paper entitled â€Å"The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,† an ideal woman embodied piety, domesticity, pureness and submissive. Women would find true happiness in taking care of their families and living a simple and uncomplicated life. â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper† follows the mental deterioration of the female narrator, who recently gave birth, as she follows her doctor’s orders to relax, eat healthily and exercise so her health will improve. Gilman’s â€Å"The Yello w Wall-paper† exposes the danger the antiquated belief has on women in the 19th century. The use of the yellow wallpaper illustrates a physical manifestation of the narrator’s descent into madness due to loss of outside stimuli. The opening of the short story follows the female narrator being told she needs to rest to recover her health after recently giving birth. She notes, â€Å"if a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is oneShow MoreRelatedThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman873 Words   |  4 PagesEarly Feminist Writing In the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman reflects on the social inequalities and injustices held against women in the late 1800’s. Gilman gives light to a very common practice of doctors diagnosing women with â€Å"nervous† conditions and essentially telling them to not do anything that doesn’t involve the domestic duties of women. The story gives insight on how women would have felt from the despotism that men of the time were showing towards them, thisRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman985 Words   |  4 Pages There are two similar stories that describe two particular women in a psychological condition one of the stories is called â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper†, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s and the other written by William Faulkner named â€Å"A Rose for Emily†. Both authors mention how both Jane (Yellow Wall-Paper) and Miss Emily (A Rose for Emily)are being oppressed by their husbands because the typical tradition forces their wife’s to stay home while they go to work. In the early eighteen and nineteenRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman951 Words   |  4 PagesThe unnamed narrator, who is never fully introduced, narrates the story of â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper†, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in the form of a diary/journal. Confined in a mansion to treat her mental illness of depression the narrator becomes obsessed with the ugly yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room. Ultimately, I presume that the wa llpaper itself represents her relationship that she has with her husband, while the women behind the wallpaper represents herself; which goRead MoreYellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman853 Words   |  3 Pagesbeen perceived equally. In many places women are considered as a second citizen. Although inequality among men and women has decreased tremendously in our society, it’s still an issue in some part of the world. The short story â€Å"Yellow wall paper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveals gender inequality. It narrates about a newly married woman who is trying to get away from a trap that is restricting her freedom. Throughout the book the narrator is suffering within herself but she has a hard time figuringRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman Essay1471 Words   |  6 Pageshusband and family. This obedience that the speaker has for her husband, John, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paperâ⠂¬  undermined the woman’s mental health, refusing her the ability to express and speak for herself. The speaker’s diagnosis and treatment of her â€Å"nervous condition† was completely in her husband’s control, taking away her independence as a person. It becomes clear that Gilman is writing this short story as a response to the patriarchal structure of the societyRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman819 Words   |  4 Pages In the short story â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman displays the central idea that no one can really know how it feels to be trapped in a way, but it can quickly happen to anyone. The story would be seen through a first person narrator point of view through the narrator whose name is never actually stated in the story other than in a quote at the end of the story where she says â€Å" I’ve got out at last despite you and Jane†, it is believed that Jane is the narrator. Jane’sRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1353 Words   |  6 Pages In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper,† which is set in the 19th century, the narrator suffers from what is now identified as Postpartum depression, after the birth of her child. The narrator’s husband, John, who is a doctor, suggest that she gets some rest, and places her in a nursery with walls that contain yellow wall paper. Over the course of the story, the narrator’s condition progresses and she begins to develop paranoia about a woman who is trapped in the yellow wallpaperRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman900 Words   |  4 PagesPaper Three and Three Elements of Fiction The Yellow Wall-Paper was a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the year of 1892. In this story we are inside the mind of a lady who is suffering from a nervous disorder and is prescribed the â€Å"rest cure† by her physician husband. They go stay at a colonial mansion which she doesn’t like very much and there she is to just rest without no interaction with society and not even allowed to write in her journal. In the room she stays in she isRead MoreThe Yellow Wall Paper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, And Lysistrata967 Words   |  4 Pagesthemselves and are defined by the people around them; based on their looks or stereotypes that may not represent who they are. Women are defined by others and themselves in many ways such as seen in, â€Å"Borders† by Thomas King, â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Lysistrata by Aristophanes. These metaphors are not directly defining these women, but defining them by their powe r, identity, and intelligence. In the play Lysistrata the character uses the only power she has to controlRead More A Look into the Life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and ?The Yellow Wall-paper?1398 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper† is an amazing story that demonstrates how close-minded the world was a little over a hundred years ago. In the late eighteen hundreds, women were seen as personal objects that are not capable of making a mark in the world. If a woman did prove to be a strong intellectual person and had a promising future, they were shut out from society. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote her stories from experience, but added fictional twists along the way to make her stories interesting.