Unsettling Atmosphere in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
Analyse how Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates an unsettling atmosphere in The Yellow Wallpaper and discuss any wider issues the novella confronts.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is an enigmatic representation of a female hero overcoming the repression of being branded insane. Gilman's use of a woman's mental illness to portray for the reader how women were viewed and their rights distinguished during the time it is set and how her moments with the wallpaper define all of this in her bedroom.
The literary mechanisms used as early as the opening of the story give a representation of the relationship she has with her husband and the insecurities that she holds. With the way that mental illness was viewed in the late 19th century, this could have been purposeful by Gilman in a society that was unfair in its treatment of women. As the heroin, she is obviously cut off from the community she lives in, her husband believing it is for her own good. However, it can be understood from the narrator, the woman herself, that it is for the benefit of the image of her husband. His picture painted of him is one of self-absorbed, yet caring. It is very confusing in the opening what his motives are and how he views the world, as his actions come across as caring and loving, yet patronising and embarrassed. This creates an uncomfortable and unsettling narrative of their relationship at times.
The backbone of the short story are Gilman's descriptions of the wallpaper that is in her room, and the interest that she holds in it. The fact that Gilman creates such an animated and dark representation of an inanimate object, the wallpaper, makes for unsettling reading at times with critics claiming that it could drive you crazy just by reading it. But the aim of the text is to create a story about alternative interpretation and individual expression, which she is successful in creating in an unsettling manner, by using the wallpaper.
It is apparent within these
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is an enigmatic representation of a female hero overcoming the repression of being branded insane. Gilman's use of a woman's mental illness to portray for the reader how women were viewed and their rights distinguished during the time it is set and how her moments with the wallpaper define all of this in her bedroom.
The literary mechanisms used as early as the opening of the story give a representation of the relationship she has with her husband and the insecurities that she holds. With the way that mental illness was viewed in the late 19th century, this could have been purposeful by Gilman in a society that was unfair in its treatment of women. As the heroin, she is obviously cut off from the community she lives in, her husband believing it is for her own good. However, it can be understood from the narrator, the woman herself, that it is for the benefit of the image of her husband. His picture painted of him is one of self-absorbed, yet caring. It is very confusing in the opening what his motives are and how he views the world, as his actions come across as caring and loving, yet patronising and embarrassed. This creates an uncomfortable and unsettling narrative of their relationship at times.
The backbone of the short story are Gilman's descriptions of the wallpaper that is in her room, and the interest that she holds in it. The fact that Gilman creates such an animated and dark representation of an inanimate object, the wallpaper, makes for unsettling reading at times with critics claiming that it could drive you crazy just by reading it. But the aim of the text is to create a story about alternative interpretation and individual expression, which she is successful in creating in an unsettling manner, by using the wallpaper.
It is apparent within these