Yellow Wallpaper
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a writer, lecturer and social activist during the 19th century. Gilman was recognized for her feminist ideals, and argued for equal treatment of women. Gilman spoke out during a time where women were not encouraged to have outside interests beyond the home, and spoke on numerous issues, including women’s physical and mental health. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Gilman’s short stories, poetry, essays, plays, and critiques deal with women topics that are still relevant to contemporary issues.
Summary:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in effort to shed light on important psychiatric health concerns of women during the 19th century. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a collections of journal entries from a woman who is diagnosed as suffering from “temporary nervous depression.“ She is instructed by her physician husband John, to rest and have essentially no stimulation in a small room inside their house. With restriction from any activity she enjoys, the narrator ultimately becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in the room, leading to her insanity. At the end of the story, the narrator is so unstable, she convinces herself there is a woman trapped inside the wallpaper and she must free her. In conclusion, the reader makes the connection that the narrator is now “free” and identified herself at the woman in the wallpaper.
Before depression and more specifically postpartum depression, were understood, women of the 19th century were instructed to undergo a “rest cure”. According to the article ““Bed Rest Wouldn’t Do for Pioneering Feminist” found in USA Today, Gilman essentially wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” as semi-autobiographic attack of physician, Dr. Weir Mitchell and his ideas on this unfair treatment. The “rest cure” was simply resting in bed with no outside contact to the world, and little to no mental stimulation. In extreme cases, women
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a writer, lecturer and social activist during the 19th century. Gilman was recognized for her feminist ideals, and argued for equal treatment of women. Gilman spoke out during a time where women were not encouraged to have outside interests beyond the home, and spoke on numerous issues, including women’s physical and mental health. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Gilman’s short stories, poetry, essays, plays, and critiques deal with women topics that are still relevant to contemporary issues.
Summary:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in effort to shed light on important psychiatric health concerns of women during the 19th century. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a collections of journal entries from a woman who is diagnosed as suffering from “temporary nervous depression.“ She is instructed by her physician husband John, to rest and have essentially no stimulation in a small room inside their house. With restriction from any activity she enjoys, the narrator ultimately becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in the room, leading to her insanity. At the end of the story, the narrator is so unstable, she convinces herself there is a woman trapped inside the wallpaper and she must free her. In conclusion, the reader makes the connection that the narrator is now “free” and identified herself at the woman in the wallpaper.
Before depression and more specifically postpartum depression, were understood, women of the 19th century were instructed to undergo a “rest cure”. According to the article ““Bed Rest Wouldn’t Do for Pioneering Feminist” found in USA Today, Gilman essentially wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” as semi-autobiographic attack of physician, Dr. Weir Mitchell and his ideas on this unfair treatment. The “rest cure” was simply resting in bed with no outside contact to the world, and little to no mental stimulation. In extreme cases, women
Cited: “Bed Rest Wouldn’t Do for Pioneering Feminist.” USA Today Magazine, 139.27777 (2010): 4-5. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, (20122):1. Cox F. Brett. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ and the History of Its Publication and Reception” Science Fiction Studies, 261.1 (1999): 137-139 "Piazza." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 14 June 2012. "Felicity." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 14 June 2012.