The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper
What would you do if you had no say in your marriage? What if you could not influence your own life? What if you are locked behind bars and no one believes you? The narrator deals with these problems throughout the short story “The Yellow wallpaper”, which is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1899.
The Yellow Wallpaper is written in a strict first-person narration. It is also written as a journal of the main character’s stay. The narration is focus entirely on her own thoughts and feelings. That means all the information we get throughout the story goes through the narrator’s shifting consciousness. The short story’s tone is rather important for the interpretation. The narrator is in a state of anxiety for the entire story, mixed with a bit of sarcasm, anger and desperation. The sarcasm is the most important tone of the short story, especially in references about her husband, John: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (p. 1, l. 10). No one expects that in a marriage, not a healthy one at least. The fact that he laughs of her condition shows the reader that he thinks it is a silly harmless condition. The narrator does not find her condition funny, but via the irony she keeps a distance from her problems. However, beside the fact that the narrator uses the irony to keep a distance from things, the narrator could also be using the irony to provoke a debate in that time.
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.
What would you do if you had no say in your marriage? What if you could not influence your own life? What if you are locked behind bars and no one believes you? The narrator deals with these problems throughout the short story “The Yellow wallpaper”, which is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1899.
The Yellow Wallpaper is written in a strict first-person narration. It is also written as a journal of the main character’s stay. The narration is focus entirely on her own thoughts and feelings. That means all the information we get throughout the story goes through the narrator’s shifting consciousness. The short story’s tone is rather important for the interpretation. The narrator is in a state of anxiety for the entire story, mixed with a bit of sarcasm, anger and desperation. The sarcasm is the most important tone of the short story, especially in references about her husband, John: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (p. 1, l. 10). No one expects that in a marriage, not a healthy one at least. The fact that he laughs of her condition shows the reader that he thinks it is a silly harmless condition. The narrator does not find her condition funny, but via the irony she keeps a distance from her problems. However, beside the fact that the narrator uses the irony to keep a distance from things, the narrator could also be using the irony to provoke a debate in that time.
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.