The Yellow Wallpaper as a Guide To Insanity and Madness

The Yellow Wallpaper as a Guide To Insanity There comes John, and I must put this away- he hates to have me write a word (p659). As evident by the above quote, Gilman places the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper as secluded as she could be; she is placed in a large house, surrounded only by her husband and by little help (Jennie), when it is unfortunately clear that her relationship with her husband is based on distance and misunderstanding: It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so(p 663). Gilman further confines her narrator as it becomes clear that the poor soul has absolutely no one to talk to; that is, no one who can understand her. The narrator is cornered by her†¦show more content†¦Any other perspective that she could have reached (such as her husband or hired help) is biased from the core! That is, biased from the narrators point of view. In some cases of mental illness the subject questions its own reality, yet the narrator is positively sure about her o wn. The narrator does not even waste her time on trying to get a second or third opinion. She knows what she sees, and she sees a woman figure behind the horrific wallpaper. Her tone is rather calm for such a discovery, and that is the second aspect of her tone; she is fully comfortable with her imaginary world; far more comfortable than she is in her real world. Throughout the story, Gilman holds us attentive and sympathetic due to the specific positioning of the narrator; the narrator confides in us and us alone. The whole story is told as journal entries and personal thoughts. In reading the journal entries we fell privileged and intimate. Yet it is the personal thoughts that actually hold us captive in the realm of lunacy, a literal invitation into an insane mind in which we have no other option rather than actually seeing the twisted world that she sees, through her own eyes. To further establish the role of the narrator, we must now clarify the meaning of the story. The latter objective becomes easily feasible, for Gilmans Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper leaves little place for argument. It was not intendedShow MoreRelatedCharlotte Perkins Gilman s The Yellow Wallpaper1666 Words   |  7 PagesImagine being waited on hand and foot in a mansion, yet removed from society, your own baby and any work that arouses your mind. Such is the life of the wife in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, whose husband diagnoses her with a temporary nervous depression and leaves her to his improper care which includes isolation, lots of medication and a strict suspension of mental stimulation. The short story reflects the excessive power of men over their wives during the nineteenth centuryRead MoreGender as Portrayed in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† 1339 Words   |  6 Pageshave undergone constant, but sometime subtle, revisions throughou t generations. Gender roles can be defined as the expectations for the behaviors, duties and attitudes of male and female members of a society, by that society. The story, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† is a great example of this. There are clear divisions between genders. 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Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilman s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, it is rather ambiguous to which of these two nightmarish scenarios the narrator is enduring. From the beginningRead More Feminism, Womanhood, and The Yellow Wallpaper2218 Words   |  9 PagesFeminism, Womanhood, and The Yellow Wallpaper      Ã‚  Ã‚   The Victorian period in American history spawned a certain view of women that in many ways has become a central part of gender myths still alive today, although in a diluted way. In this essay, some characteristics of this view of women, often called The Cult of True Womanhood, will be explored with reference to Thomas R. Dew Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences Between the Sexes (1835). Some of the feminist developments arising