Character Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

Good Essays

Open Document

Open Document

View Writing Issues

1141 Words

Grammar

Grammar

Plagiarism

Plagiarism

Writing

Writing

Score

Score

Character Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

The narrator in, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” suffers from depression, although her husband, who is a doctor, does not consider it an illness. Therefore, he keeps her on a strict rest cure. She is not allowed to do work of any form, not even care for her baby. All she allowed to do is rest in her room and breath in the air as prescribed by her husband. Because she spends most of her time in her room, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room and it drives her to insanity. The lack of creative stimulation and relationships with others causes the narrator’s obsession with the yellow wallpaper which leads her to believe she is trapped behind bars in this yellow wallpaper.
John, the narrator’s husband, believes the narrator does not …show more content…
Subsequently, she becomes used to all of the room’s features except for the wallpaper. The other symbols of confinement do not bother her as much as the wallpaper. At first just the ugly pattern and order of the wallpaper bothers her, however as time passes, she begins to believe the wallpaper has eyes that stare at her. This leads her to admit, “This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!” The wallpaper begins to influence her mental state for the reason that she has no other mental stimulation. Without other stimulation from others or work, the wallpaper remains all the narrator focuses on and it begins to push her to …show more content…
The further she focuses on it, the more obsessed she becomes. She begins to observe how it varies in different light and notices a sub pattern within the wallpaper. This she perceives as a positive side to the wallpaper. All of this stimulates her mind and she even becomes excited about life because of the wallpaper. As she continues to study the wallpaper, she notices that the woman in the wallpaper is behind bars and shakes the bars powerfully. Since she only focuses that wallpaper, she begins to put herself in the place of that woman she claims to observe. Had she been taken away from that house or given other activities, she would not have continued with the delusion that she is in the

Continue Reading

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

Good Essays
The Yellow Wallpaper - the Physical and Mental Health Aspects Essay Example
- 726 Words
- 3 Pages
The Yellow Wallpaper - the Physical and Mental Health Aspects Essay Example

The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman published in 1899 is a story that depicts physical, and mental illness as well as the factors surrounding seclusion and what it can do to a person. Some of the changes that were occurring in the story such of that as the changes in the wallpaper, reflect the changes that were occurring in her at the time. The description and attitude change to be drawn with the thinking of the narrator. A balance of positive and negative imagery also plays a role in the story. There is a progression of change throughout the story and during this time the narrator is unable to give an accurate description because of her mental state.…
- 726 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Good Essays
The Yellow Wallpaper Character Assessment
- 667 Words
- 3 Pages
The Yellow Wallpaper Character Assessment

The short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is written in the perspective of the narrator as her journal where she reveals her deepest most personal thoughts about herself and her life, yet she still remains a very mysterious character. Her name is never revealed, and the reason the author does not reveal her name is so the story of her struggle could represent the struggles of many other going through the same situation. It is clear from the beginning of the story that she is an unreliable narrator because it is mentioned that her husband who is a doctor has diagnosed her with temporary nervous depression with slight hysterical tendencies. She seems to be a very creative and sensitive person who is a writer, but she is forbidden from writing in her journal by her husband who thinks that too much mental stimulation will only make her condition worse.…
- 667 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Better Essays
Yellow Wallpaper Symbols
- 1818 Words
- 8 Pages
Yellow Wallpaper Symbols

Throughout the story, she emphasizes one pattern while repressing another, and then the emphases goes to a different part of the pattern. She regroups her own impressions to make pictures, and becomes obsessed with trying to find a meaning. When the narrator caught Jennie staring at the wallpaper, seeming to try and find out a pattern herself, she states, "and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!" (37). The pattern also changes with the time of day and the amount of light in the room, as well as the type of light used. She gives us a huge clue when she talks about how at night the wallpaper and its patterns becomes barriers, keeping the woman trapped, and during the day she remains quiet. As she slowly becomes more and more wrapped up in the patterns, she says that her life is "very much more exciting now than it used to be" (37). She slowly decreases her distinguishing between herself and the woman behind the wallpaper. She even talks about them as one, saying "and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper" (39). She remains conscious in her quest to be the only one who finishes the job, claiming the next day to Jennie that she simply just let the wallpaper get the best of her and decided that she was going to destroy it so it could no longer torture…
- 1818 Words
- 8 Pages
Better Essays

Read More
Good Essays
The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis
- 817 Words
- 4 Pages
The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman creates a setting where I personally can interpret John as a typical villain, restraining his wife from all her creative work, which could help in her recovery. In this story, the first person narration encourages the reader to fully trust the narrator’s point of view. This comes in handy as the plot becomes more complicated, especially when she begins to drown in her depression and lose her grasp over reality. In one moment, the narrator cries, “The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper (9)!” Here, from my point of view, the yellow wallpaper begins to consume the narrator and she begins to develop an unhealthy obsession with it. As the story progresses, every action of the narrator is related to the yellow wallpaper--this should make the reader question if there could be omissions in the narrator’s version of events. This again can be relatable to the readers, since it is quite easy for us to become obsessed with something, even though it is something we extremely despise like the…
- 817 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Powerful Essays
Conflicts of the Narrator- the Yellow Wallpaper
- 1469 Words
- 6 Pages
Conflicts of the Narrator- the Yellow Wallpaper

The most obvious conflict the narrator has to deal with is living in the room with the yellow wallpaper and differentiating creativity from reality. The narrator becomes fond of the wallpaper and feels an excessive need to figure out the pattern. She says, “I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I have ever heard of” (Gilman 224). Her days become preoccupied with the wallpaper and she feels a distinct connection to it. While she tries to decode the wallpaper’s pattern, her creativity allows her to see a face in the wallpaper. She says, “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Gilman 223). As she continues to study the wallpaper, she comes to believe that she sees a woman creeping in the chaotic wallpaper who is trapped behind it: “The front pattern does- and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Gilman 227). She begins to have a bond with this woman and can relate to her. The woman in the wallpaper is essentially the narrator. They are similar in the sense that they are both trapped and unable to escape. Towards the end of the story, the narrator reaches a state of insanity where she can no longer differentiate herself from the figure she sees in the wallpaper. She tells us, “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is…
- 1469 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays

Read More
Better Essays
The Yellow Wallpaper Madness Essay
- 978 Words
- 4 Pages
The Yellow Wallpaper Madness Essay

By following a pattern on a yellow wallpaper her mind slowly develops illusion that there is a woman behind the wallpaper that wants to be freed.…
- 978 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays

Read More
Good Essays
Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And Eveline
- 611 Words
- 3 Pages
Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And Eveline

The short stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Eveline” James Joyce both deal struggles of a female protagonist. Both women deal with oppression based on gender and societal norms but their outlook, outside influences, and personal struggles are vastly different. The point of view in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is in first person from a journal written by a mother who is suffering from depression. She is isolated from the world by her husband John and brother, both of whom are licensed physicians, that order her to minimal activity, which is believed to cure her of depression and hysterical tendencies she suffers from (Gilman 746).…
- 611 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Good Essays
Life For Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- 951 Words
- 4 Pages
Life For Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

It is within the wallpaper that the narrator finds her hidden self and her eventual freedom. Her obsession with the paper begins subtly and then consumes both the narrator and the story. Once settled in the gothic setting, the narrator is dismayed to learn that her husband has chosen the top-floor nursery room for her. The room is papered in horrible yellow wallpaper, the design of which “commits every artistic sin”. The design begins to fascinate the narrator and she begins to see more than just the outer design. At first she sees “bulbous eyes” and “absurd unblinking eyes . . . everywhere”. The wallpaper consumes the narrator offering up more intricate images as time passes. She first notices a different colored sub-pattern of a figure beneath the top design. This figure is eventually seen as a woman who “creeps” and shakes the outer pattern, now seen as bars. This woman-figure becomes essentially the narrator’s doppelganger or double trapped behind the bars of her role in…
- 951 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Good Essays
The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- 584 Words
- 3 Pages
The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

She has paced the room so many times you can see where the floor has gotten worn down along with scratches on the walls. Not being able write and talk to other humans is driving her insane. She becomes so dehumanized throughout the long periods without human interaction she beings to see a woman in the yellow wallpaper. She soon discovers that the woman in the wallpaper is her. The symbolic representation of the woman in the wallpaper is to show that she herself is trapped and needs to be free.…
- 584 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Better Essays
What Does The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolize
- 1564 Words
- 7 Pages
What Does The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolize

Significance of Symbolism in the Yellow Wallpaper Throughout the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the idea of a woman struggling to discover freedom and strength to express herself while being isolated and restricted by an overruling power. The gothic tail was first published in 1892, during an era when women were oppressed and seen as inferior to men. During this time, women lacked the opportunity to have roles greater than mothers and homemakers, resulting in many hardships. The narrator receives a prescribed cure of ‘home rest’ to overcome her sickness by a high standing doctor, her husband. John Bak, who studies literature, states in his article that “John prescribed what many nineteenth-century physicians…
- 1564 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays

Read More
Good Essays
In Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter Of Maladies?
- 1570 Words
- 7 Pages
In Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter Of Maladies?

He takes her away to the countryside and locks her away in a room that would have driven even a healthy person mad. He cuts off all ties with the outside world by locking her in the eerie room, and the consequences of this is that she is actually driven ma45wqewrad. In the 1890’s a woman’s first and last job was motherhood, that was mostly all the woman were considered good for. Science was not as advanced either so when the main character has a child and develops post-partum depression, her husband sees it as something that requires the “rest cure”. When placed in her room the narrator describes it to the audience as something so unpleasant, it foreshadows the trouble it will bring. She states, “It is a big airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways…I should judge for the windows are barred for little children” (Gilman 365). She starts off by talking about the room this way to help visualize the setting in which she was forcibly placed. The narrator also goes on saying how “the color is repellent, almost revolting: a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the sow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (Gilman 365). She continues to talk about the room but more specifically the wallpaper in such an intense manner to…
- 1570 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Good Essays
Gender Inequality In The Yellow Wallpaper
- 1198 Words
- 5 Pages
Gender Inequality In The Yellow Wallpaper

Initially, Jane describes the paper as “repellant, almost revolting...a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.” (Stetson 649). John initially intends to repaper the room but later decides not to, stating that “[Jane] was letting it get the better of [her]” (Stetson 649). Stetson starts to show that the wallpaper represents the manner in which the needs, opinions and voices of women were suppressed by men in society. John continues “nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies...after the wallpaper was changed, it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs and so on.” (Stetson 649). The quote shows the internal fear in men that led to the inferior treatment of women and discrimination in society in an attempt to prolong the patriarchy. Therefore, the yellow wallpaper essentially represents the domestic prison that prevented social mobility amongst women. The woman behind the wallpaper that Jane sees as her condition worsens is an attempt by the author to paint a vivid picture of the injustice against…
- 1198 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays

Read More
Better Essays
Death By Landscape Analysis
- 1296 Words
- 6 Pages
Death By Landscape Analysis

Before this point unfolds, maybe the protagonists were perceived as just maybe being "a little off," or "weird," but afterwards, they are undoubtedly loonies in any reader's mind. This point occurs in "The Yellow Wallpaper" when the narrator reaches the conclusion that the pattern has two depths: An empty depth on a farther plane in which a woman lives, and an intricate frontal plane with pattern used like the bars of a jail cell to keep this woman caged. She states her delusion in her journal; "I didn't realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, the dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman. By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling, it keeps me quiet by the hour" (86). Obviously, wall paper is one dimensional, so it is quite impossible for it to move, much less for a woman to live inside of it. These ideas are taken one step further when the narrator actually begins to believe that she is the woman being trapped in the wall paper. Her paranoia leads her to believe her husband and maid want to trap her inside the wall paper- all leading up the final scene in which the narrator rips the paper off the wall and exclaims, "'I've gotten out at last…in spite of [my husband] and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so [they]…
- 1296 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays

Read More
Satisfactory Essays
Thoughts On The Short Story 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
- 485 Words
- 2 Pages
Thoughts On The Short Story 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

Throughout the short story the women becomes obsessed with the wallpaper. She examines it to the point where she starts to have illusions that there is someone in the wallpaper. The climax of this story is when the woman starts to peel of the wallpaper after locking herself in her room. She has come to the point where she believes that someone is trapped within the wallpaper, which she believes later on it is she.…
- 485 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays

Read More
Good Essays
Gothic Horror
- 810 Words
- 4 Pages
Gothic Horror

She loses her grip with the present, as the wallpaper becomes a bigger focus that reality itself. She traces the patterns with her mind and stays focused on them for very long periods of time saying “I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion” (Gilman). After time goes on, she is positive someone is trapped in the wall paper and tells her husband. John is skeptical as he knows his wife is ill. Eventually the narrator becomes consumed with the idea of a woman behind the wallpaper to the point she does not even sleep at night. Haney states that she even begins writing her own thoughts over the wallpaper because “she lacks such a voice so she practically recoups her loss by writing it on the wall”. One can assume that the woman is the narrator and the wallpaper is her husband as he is constantly holding her back like the wallpaper does the women behind it. People who lose their mind often feel trap in their own thoughts, or as in the narrator’s case behind a symbolic sheet of…
- 810 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays

Read More

Related Topics