Preview

The Yellow Wallpaper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1254 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Yellow Wallpaper
Literary Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Custom User Avatar
By aig123, Oak Lawn, IL

More by this author
Email me when aig123 contributes work
Literary Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Image Credit: Amy S., Roslindale, MA
Charlotte Perkins Gilman once said, “There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. Might as well speak of a female liver” (Brainyquote). Gilman’s belief that there really was no difference in means of mentality between men or women is strongly demonstrated through “The Yellow Wallpaper”. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who has a mental illness but cannot heal due to her husband’s lack of belief. The story appears to take place during a time period where women were oppressed. Women were treated as second rate people in society during this time period. Charlotte Perkins Gilman very accurately portrays the thought process of the society during the time period in which “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written. Using the aspects of Feminist criticism, one can analyze “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman through the dialogue through both the male and female perspective, and through the symbol found in the story.

To begin with, one can analyze “The Yellow Wallpaper” by examining the aspect of dialogue through the male perspective. Gilman makes a strong statement about males in society during her time period. The men are portrayed to really see women as children more than as individuals. This is made clear when the Narrator says, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- - slight hysterical tendency- - what is one to do?” (Gilman). Gilman shows the male perspective through dialogue because the Narrator explains that no matter what she says her husband shrugs away her illness. He strongly believes that his wife is being overly dramatic and that nothing is wrong. The typical

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay 1: The Yellow Wallpaper: Choose one or more incidents in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and explain what is disclosed and what is concealed in the story between the characters. How does this technique affect the reader's interpretation of the events in the stories? Compare an event from your life that is similar in terms of having both disclosed and concealed information. What did you learn from this?…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good 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 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.…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" to make determined statements about feminism and individuality. Gilman does so by taking the reader through the terrors of one woman's neurosis, her entire mental state characterized by her encounters with the wallpaper in her room.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The two homologous chromosomes pair along their length early in the first nuclear division. During this physical joining genetic exchange occurs between them in a process called __________.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is understood that the narrator is a woman who has a mental illness but cannot overcome it due to her husband’s controlling ways. Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the ideological victimization of many women of the early 19th century through a gothic tale of humor where women suffering from post-partum depression is isolated.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Who was Charlotte Perkins Gilman?Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an author of several books and a pioneer woman of suffrage reform. 2.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper Dialogue

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To start with, one can analyze “The Yellow Wallpaper” by examine the dialogue used through the male point of view. Gilman makes a strong statement about males in society during her time period. Charlotte believes that really see women as children more than as actual people. One can see this when the Gilman says, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- - slight hysterical tendency- - what is one to do?” (Gilman). Charlotte demonstrates the male point of view through dialogue by allowing the narrator to explain that regardless of what she says, her illness will be disregarded, basically shrugged off, by her husband.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literayure for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William E. Caine, and William Burto. 9th ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. 44-45. Print.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In later years the story was developed into a movie. The film follows closely to the script from the original story Gilman had wrote. However, many details and differences stand out. These differences include the narrative point of view, character expansion, character addition, and symbols.…

    • 571 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

    • 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
  • Better Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman 's descent into complete madness as a result of the rest and cure treatment. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the author presents a tragic story of a woman that suffers from what we can now have medically diagnosed as postpartum depression after the birth of her child and how she tries to regain her sanity from her husband John who truly had good intentions to make her well but instead it that eventually drives her to suicide. Gilman 's personal story is a resemblance to that of the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” with the exception that she did heal herself by not buying into Mr. Mitchell 's rest cure treatment, which he later altered his methods only after reading this story. Perhaps the suicide ending in this story would have been an alternate ending for Gilman if she had followed the rest cure treatment. Perhaps in her struggle to free the woman behind the wallpaper, the woman in the story frees herself from her husband 's demands and isolated treatment that drove her over the edge.…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist writer who wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the 1890’s. During this time period the woman were expected to keep the house clean, care for their children, and listen to their husbands. The men were expected to work a job and be the head of a household. The story narrates a woman’s severe depression which she thinks is linked to the yellow wallpaper. Charlotte Gilman experienced depression in her life and it inspired her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The short story is based on a woman, not given a name in the text, who is very dependent on her husband. The narrator plays a gender role that is degraded by her successful husband, who is a doctor, because she is a female. John ignores his wife’s accusations with the wallpaper and looks down on the fact that she cannot fulfill her duty as a woman, mother, or wife by treating and calling her childish names.…

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator must deal with several different conflicts. She is diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression and a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 221). Most of her conflicts, such as, differentiating from creativity and reality, her sense of entrapment by her husband, and not fitting in with the stereotypical role of women in her time, are centered around her mental illness and she has to deal with them.…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays