I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still... It keep me quiet by the hour" (Hunt, 179). With this, it is clear that Gilman sees herself as trapped in a very disruptive and confined world, one which ultimately drives her insane; also, this mysterious woman is a symbol of her physical self caught within a maze of confusion and despair, all because of the "yellow wallpaper" that clings to the walls of the nursery like some kind of dreadful disease. Finally, the narrator, driven mad by the wallpaper in the nursery, peels all of it away and says to her husband, "I've got out at last... And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"which results in her husband fainting at her feet, "right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time" (Hunt, 183). Without a doubt, Gilman the narrator as the woman behind the wallpaper is now completely mad, yet she has managed to escape her confinement behind the paper, a symbol of her exit from depression...
Unfortunately, since depression went relatively undiagnosed during the time that "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published, Gilman utilized symbolism as the only method to inform her readers that this disease was far more than "nervous agitation' and was in fact a very debilitating and life-altering condition.
As the narrator is denied access to the world and the normal expression of her individuality, so she becomes a true prisoner of the room with the yellow wallpaper. Her life and consciousness becomes more restricted until the wallpaper becomes an animated world to her. There is also the implied suggestion in this process of a conflict between the rational and logical world, determined and controlled by male consciousness, and
Weir Mitchell, is an allegedly 'wise' man of medicine" (Hume pp). The woman considers her child lucky because he does not have to occupy the room with the horrible wallpaper and stresses that it is impossible for her to be with him because it makes her very nervous (Hume pp). She believes that the room was once a nursery because of the bars on the windows and the condition of
Yellow Wallpaper Breaking Free: The Ironic Liberation of "Yellow Wallpaper" Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a quintessential feminist story, even though it can be interpreted on many levels within that rubric. The narrator is married and has a child; she is thus engaged in some of the strongest trappings of a patriarchal society. However, she is removed both physically and spiritually from her stereotyped role as wife and mother. The
For example, she edited feminist publications in San Francisco in 1894 and helped with the planning of the Women's Congresses of 1894-95. At the congress she met Jane Adams, the social reformer. Charlotte also toured the United States, lecturing on women's rights. Throughout the subsequent lectures and written works she was adamant about the need to reform the status of women in society. "Women are human beings as much as
Her mother gave her little affection, believing she would never know the pain of rejection if she never experienced love. (Vosberg para. 13) The clear need her character has for a family and for overt family support, as well as the suspicions that develop in her mind about the others in the house, reflect this sort of youth in many ways. The enclosed world of the protagonist is a representation of
Yellow Wallpaper" and Mental Illness in Women Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is an important short story that delves into the issue of mental illness. It illustrates how women and their problems are trivialized, with this closely related to the role that women have in society. Through the story, it is seen that women become prisoners of their mental illness because the medical community will not help them. This
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