Breaking Through the Wallpaper
Breaking through the Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in a large mansion on the outskirts of a small rural town sometime during the late 1800’s. The main character and narrator of the story is a young woman who remains unnamed. The narrator explains that she was brought to the mansion by her husband John who is a physician. John believes that the narrator has nervous depression and feels that she will be best treated using a method called the rest treatment. The rest treatment, as the name suggests, entails that she rests often, has little contact with others, and refrains from all engaging activities including writing. Although in spite of this suggestion the narrator writes in secret, and the story is read as almost journal like entries from the point of view of the narrator. Almost immediately she begins to describe the awful peeling and unpleasant yellow wallpaper in her room. She describes feelings of insecurity, and uncertainty, she is at times afraid of the wallpaper and other times infatuated with it, but always it is there. She tries to talk with her husband about her diffident feelings, but he does not understand her nor does he attempt to try. As time slips by her obsession with the yellow wallpaper seems to grow side by side with her feelings of anxiety. The narrator’s feelings about the yellow wallpaper symbolize her true feelings about herself, her family, and her illness as her grip on reality slips during the course of her treatment. The narrator’s descriptions of the wallpaper begin as a mere dislike. She finds the color ugly and the pattern chaotic and senseless; in much the same way that her own illness seems senseless and tiresome. Her husband believes she has a nervous depression, and so he whisks her away to the large mansion in the middle of nowhere, and she is allowed to do nothing but rest. She doesn’t think it is such a bad way to be treated, and it may even do her some good, but
Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in a large mansion on the outskirts of a small rural town sometime during the late 1800’s. The main character and narrator of the story is a young woman who remains unnamed. The narrator explains that she was brought to the mansion by her husband John who is a physician. John believes that the narrator has nervous depression and feels that she will be best treated using a method called the rest treatment. The rest treatment, as the name suggests, entails that she rests often, has little contact with others, and refrains from all engaging activities including writing. Although in spite of this suggestion the narrator writes in secret, and the story is read as almost journal like entries from the point of view of the narrator. Almost immediately she begins to describe the awful peeling and unpleasant yellow wallpaper in her room. She describes feelings of insecurity, and uncertainty, she is at times afraid of the wallpaper and other times infatuated with it, but always it is there. She tries to talk with her husband about her diffident feelings, but he does not understand her nor does he attempt to try. As time slips by her obsession with the yellow wallpaper seems to grow side by side with her feelings of anxiety. The narrator’s feelings about the yellow wallpaper symbolize her true feelings about herself, her family, and her illness as her grip on reality slips during the course of her treatment. The narrator’s descriptions of the wallpaper begin as a mere dislike. She finds the color ugly and the pattern chaotic and senseless; in much the same way that her own illness seems senseless and tiresome. Her husband believes she has a nervous depression, and so he whisks her away to the large mansion in the middle of nowhere, and she is allowed to do nothing but rest. She doesn’t think it is such a bad way to be treated, and it may even do her some good, but
Cited: Gillman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Boston: Small & Maynard, 1899. Web. B+ Interesting discussion. The essay holds together nicely (though you do slip a little too heavily into plot summary in the middle, but you do regain focus at the end). I would suggest that you go back and look at the openings and closings of paragraphs—as these could be much more effective.