Preview

Summary: The Yellow Wallpaper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
396 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary: The Yellow Wallpaper
"The Yellow Wallpaper (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a 6,000-word short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.[2] It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's health, both physical and mental.

Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Foregoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment she is forbidden from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Imagine being locked in a room, what would you do? In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman a husband keeps his wife locked in a yellow wallpapered room, after his wife spends many days in the room,she begins to have delusions after examining the yellow papered room every day. These delusions help her escape the prison her husband…

    • 63 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was published in 1892 after Gilman suffered from “a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia” (Gilman, “Why I wrote”) and was placed under the care of Silas Weir Mitchell. Mitchell’s cure for women with Gilman’s affliction were told to “live as domestic life as far as possible, have but two hours’ intellectual life a day and to never touch a pen, brush, or pencil again” (Gilman, “Why I wrote”). While following Mitchell’s advice, Gilman’s condition slowly worsened and only after she returned to working did her health improve. Using the knowledge she gained from the experience, Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The short story features a woman by the name of Jane, who is…

    • 1417 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The narrators husband John first demonstrated his insensitivity to his wives's feelings as they were moving in the house. While selecting a bedroom, she had wanted one downstairs. "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But wall paper and slept on a bed that was nailed to the floor.…

    • 1119 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the woman is the narrator and she tells the readers about her peculiar experience with the yellow wallpaper.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    'The Yellow Wallpaper' is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who in her lifetime produced many short stories, novels, essays and poetry. She was born in 1860 in Connecticut, USA and was brought up by a single mother. After giving birth to her daughter Katherine in 1884 she fell into a deep, post-natal depression and was told to go on the 'rest cure'. This is a period spent in inactivity with the intention of improving one's physical or mental health. While it did arise her depression, this 'cure' almost drove Gilman mad. She wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper' in 1892 to show the horrors of the 'rest cure'.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    the yellow wallpaper

    • 2731 Words
    • 11 Pages

    "The story was wrenched out of Gilman 's own life, and is unique in the…

    • 2731 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and how this led to the limitation of freedom, leading to confinement of many women during this time. It illustrates the male superiority over the female and the elimination of a voice and a say for these women regarding their own lives. The short story is structured to appear a bit creepy and horrific, but within this method the author created a strong female character who, even though is slowly deteriorating psychologically, is trying to fight the pressure that society in the nineteenth century is placing on her and also the pressure of her own husband. The style that the author was trying to create is clear through her use…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wall-paper: And Other Stories - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Google Books." Google Books. Web. 21 Nov. 2012.…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Charlotte Perkin Gilman is internationally known for her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilman was born on July 3, 1860. After marriage, she endured depressions several times shortly after her first daughter was born. Gilman suffered from mental breakdowns which soon lead to melancholia. Her personal experiences, dealing with post-partum depression, are what inspired Gilman to write the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This story revolves around the main character, Jane, and how she copes with her illness. Jane suffers from post-partum depression, and to “cure” this illness, she is kept isolated from the world. In this short story there are many influences that impact the conflict of the story. Social influences are present in the story as Jane is kept isolated from the world. Also, cultural events in the story, related to the Victorian era, when women were treated unequally, built up the storyline. Finally, several personal events in Gilman’s past are shown throughout the story and add to the story’s conflict. Therefore, Charlotte Perkin Gilman incorporates several aspects of her own life into her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” that becomes evident through the explanation of the Gilman’s universal truth that treating women inhumanely will only result in negative outcomes; it is the reverse cure for an illness.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The narrator is a young, upper-middle class woman, newly married and mother. She is undergoing care for depression by her husband John, who is a physician. The narrator is a complete contrast to her husband. From the very beginning, you easily notice that the narrator is an imaginative and highly expressive woman. It is rather clear in the short story that the narrator allows herself to be inferior to men, especially her husband, John. Him being a physician, he believes that the “resting cure” is the best solution.…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Johnson suggests "The Yellow Wallpaper" contains Gothic themes such as "confinement and rebellion, forbidden desire and 'irrational' fear . . . the distraught heroine, the forbidding mansion, and the powerfully repressive male antagonist". Gilman uses these Gothic elements to unleash the nineteenth-century woman writer from the domestic, social and psychological confinements of patriarchal society. The focus of the story moves continuously inward, describing the narrator's absorption into the Gothic world of chaos and…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is gothic psychological short story written in journal-style with first-person narrative. Other elements used in the story are symbols, irony, foreshadowing, and imagery. “The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. Her husband, a physician, puts her on “rest cure of quiet and solitude.” (Wilson 278). This cure consisted of the narrator being confined to rest in one room and forbidden to do any physical work, read, write, or have any other type of mental stimulation. She secretly kept a journal to write in. The wallpaper in the room irritated the narrator to the point of her asking her husband to replace it. The wallpaper soon becomes a distraction. References to the yellow wallpaper become more frequent and keep developing through the course of the story as the narrator gives way to insanity.…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Readers are first introduced to Jane’s suffering when she mentions that even her husband did not believe she’s sick, but believes, instead, that its insignificance warrants no serious attention (161). An established and recognized physician, John curbs her creativity and writing, reasoning that it will only worsen her condition. Careful examination reveals that he stifles her creativity and intellect and forces her into the domesticated position of a powerless wife. This is shown by John’s inhibition of Jane from writing and the dismissal of her complains about the house, resulting in Jane being angry with him (162). However, she writes that she takes “pains to control herself –…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman engages the audience into the inner self of a young mother and wife throughout the story. The story has grown from a remedy to depression to a female defiance to a male society. Gilman’s purpose in writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” shows the courage a woman had to demonstrate a positive change in her self-identity and free her from the social, domestic, and psychological confinement that were placed on women in the 1800’s. By writing the story from a first-person feministic point of view the narrator shows the struggle of women’s independence and individuality in a male dominated society through gender stereotype that exist between the society and the protagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”…

    • 3424 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 1134 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and John Clive’s film “The Yellow Wallpaper” are similar and different in many aspects. The main plot for example, is extremely similar in both versions. John, one of the main characters, is a doctor and tries to help his wife, the narrator, from depression he believes she suffers from. His treatment requires virtually no activity, and that she does nothing at all for several weeks. In order to make this possible, John purchases a large estate, which is isolated and quiet. He is constantly in and out of the house due to his job, so he creates a strict schedule for his wife to abide by. His possessive control over his wife’s actions is apparent in both the short story and film. It is his control that causes his wife to sneak around, for example beginning her secretive journal, which she believes relieves her mind. Clearly, these two people are not meant to be together due to their opposing views. By the end of the story, John had driven Charlotte so mad that he caught her tearing the wallpaper off the wall in her room. The little aspects are what differed between the short story and film. Things like how the house maid acted, different symbolisms, and the intentions of different characters are obvious examples. However, the similarities in John’s character between the short story and film of “The Yellow Wallpaper” are the most important portion in analyzing these two pieces. How he treats his wife, the narrator, and how he is portrayed are the main similarities in his character.…

    • 1134 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays