Ms. Sophrin
Modern Literature
23 September 2014
(Title)
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman presents to the audience an inmate who is insane and crazy. Also Gilman focuses her writing on the topic of a male-dominated society. The women during the late 1800’s did not have the same rights as men. The woman's rights were not equal to men. The women lack a majority vote in any major decision. This book was written before the Woman Suffrage movement and the ratification of the 19th amendment. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman's attempts to show the ill effects of cultural restrictions and forced inactivity on women's lives during the late Victorian age” (Joyce/Wilson 1). Charlotte Perkin Gilman tells her own personal story in the “Yellow Wallpaper”. In the Yellow …show more content…
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a narrative study of Gilman's own “nervousness” and depression. Gilman first experienced this depression and nervousness when she gave birth to her first daughter. Gilman wrote this short story to show the world what the women of the Victorian era were experiencing. She also wrote this short story to show society the victimized women of postpartum depression and other maladies. The women of this era were experiencing the condition “rest cure”. Gilman wrote this short story about her own depression. Gilman portrays herself as the narrator: "Gilman's experience with the "rest cure" is reflected in the experience of the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper". (Esposito 1). The narrator and Gilman are very much the same: both experience the same condition and are mistreated by their spouses. Gilman portrays her real life husband as the character “John”. Gilman talks about her life with her husband: “It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral homes for the summer” (P.647). Gilman portrays John and the narrator as a family of the middle class in