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Thesis for The Yellow Wallpaper

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General Education

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a young woman’s gradual descent into psychosis. " The Yellow Wallpaper" is often cited as an early feminist work that predates a woman’s right to vote in the United States. The author was involved in first-wave feminism, and her other works questioned the origins of the subjugation of women, particularly in marriage. "

The Yellow Wallpaper" is a widely read work that asks difficult questions about the role of women, particularly regarding their mental health and right to autonomy and self-identity. We’ll go over The Yellow Wallpaper summary, themes and symbols, The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, and some important information about the author.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Summary

"The Yellow Wallpaper" details the deterioration of a woman's mental health while she is on a "rest cure" on a rented summer country estate with her family. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout the story.

The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" begins the story by discussing her move to a beautiful estate for the summer. Her husband, John, is also her doctor , and the move is meant in part to help the narrator overcome her “illness,” which she explains as nervous depression, or nervousness, following the birth of their baby. John’s sister, Jennie, also lives with them and works as their housekeeper.

Though her husband believes she will get better with rest and by not worrying about anything, the narrator has an active imagination and likes to write . He discourages her wonder about the house, and dismisses her interests. She mentions her baby more than once, though there is a nurse that cares for the baby, and the narrator herself is too nervous to provide care.

The narrator and her husband move into a large room that has ugly, yellow wallpaper that the narrator criticizes. She asks her husband if they can change rooms and move downstairs, and he rejects her. The more she stays in the room, the more the narrator’s fascination with the hideous wallpaper grows.

After hosting family for July 4th, the narrator expresses feeling even worse and more exhausted. She struggles to do daily activities, and her mental state is deteriorating. John encourages her to rest more, and the narrator hides her writing from him because he disapproves.

In the time between July 4th and their departure, the narrator is seemingly driven insane by the yellow wallpaper ; she sleeps all day and stays up all night to stare at it, believing that it comes alive, and the patterns change and move. Then, she begins to believe that there is a woman in the wallpaper who alters the patterns and is watching her.

A few weeks before their departure, John stays overnight in town and the narrator wants to sleep in the room by herself so she can stare at the wallpaper uninterrupted. She locks out Jennie and believes that she can see the woman in the wallpaper . John returns and frantically tries to be let in, and the narrator refuses; John is able to enter the room and finds the narrator crawling on the floor. She claims that the woman in the wallpaper has finally exited, and John faints, much to her surprise.

Background on "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was a lecturer for social reform, and her beliefs and philosophy play an important part in the creation of "The Yellow Wallpaper," as well as the themes and symbolism in the story. "The Yellow Wallpaper" also influenced later feminist writers.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, known as Charlotte Perkins Stetsman while she was married to her first husband, was born in Hartford, CT in 1860. Young Charlotte was observed as being bright, but her mother wasn’t interested in her education, and Charlotte spent lots of time in the library.

Charlotte married Charles Stetsman in 1884, and her daughter was born in 1885. She suffered from serious postpartum depression after giving birth to their daughter, Katharine. Her battle with postpartum depression and the doctors she dealt with during her illness inspired her to write "The Yellow Wallpaper."

The couple separated in 1888, the year that Perkins Gilman wrote her first book, Art Gems for the Home and Fireside. She later wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1890, while she was in a relationship with Adeline Knapp, and living apart from her legal husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published in 1892, and in 1893 she published a book of satirical poetry , In This Our World, which gained her fame.

Eventually, Perkins Gilman got officially divorced from Stetsman, and ended her relationship with Knapp. She married her cousin, Houghton Gilman, and claimed to be satisfied in the marriage .

Perkins Gilman made a living as a lecturer on women’s issues, labor issues, and social reform . She toured Europe and the U.S. as a lecturer, and founded her own magazine, The Forerunner.

Publication

"The Yellow Wallpaper" was first published in January 1892 in New England Magazine.

During Perkins Gilman's lifetime, the role of women in American society was heavily restricted both socially and legally. At the time of its publication, women were still twenty-six years away from gaining the right to vote .

This viewpoint on women as childish and weak meant that they were discouraged from having any control over their lives. Women were encouraged or forced to defer to their husband’s opinions in all aspects of life , including financially, socially, and medically. Writing itself was revolutionary, since it would create a sense of identity, and was thought to be too much for the naturally fragile women.

Women's health was a particularly misunderstood area of medicine, as women were viewed as nervous, hysterical beings, and were discouraged from doing anything to further “upset” them. The prevailing wisdom of the day was that rest would cure hysteria, when in reality the constant boredom and lack of purpose likely worsened depression .

Perkins Gilman used her own experience in her first marriage and postpartum depression as inspiration for The Yellow Wallpaper, and illustrates how a woman’s lack of autonomy is detrimental to her mental health.

Upon its publication, Perkins Gilman sent a copy of "The Yellow Wallpaper" to the doctor who prescribed her the rest cure for her postpartum depression.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Characters

Though there are only a few characters in the story, they each have an important role. While the story is about the narrator’s mental deterioration, the relationships in her life are essential for understanding why and how she got to this point.

The Narrator

The narrator of the story is a young, upper-middle-class woman. She is imaginative and a natural writer, though she is discouraged from exploring this part of herself. She is a new mother and is thought to have “hysterical tendencies” or suffer from nervousness. Her name may be Jane but it is unclear.

John is the narrator’s husband and her physician. He restricts her activity as a part of her treatment. John is extremely practical, and belittles the narrator's imagination and feelings . He seems to care about her well-being, but believes he knows what is best for her and doesn't allow her input.

Jennie is John’s sister, who works as a housekeeper for the couple. Jennie seems concerned for the narrator, as indicated by her offer to sleep in the yellow wallpapered room with her. Jennie seems content with her domestic role .

Main Themes of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

From what we know about the author of this story and from interpreting the text, there are a few themes that are clear from a "Yellow Wallpaper" analysis. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was a serious piece of literature that addressed themes pertinent to women.

Women's Role in Marriage

Women were expected to be subordinate to their husbands and completely obedient, as well as take on strictly domestic roles inside the home . Upper middle class women, like the narrator, may go for long periods of time without even leaving the home. The story reveals that this arrangement had the effect of committing women to a state of naïveté, dependence, and ignorance.

John assumes he has the right to determine what’s best for his wife, and this authority is never questioned. He belittles her concerns, both concrete and the ones that arise as a result of her depression , and is said so brush her off and “laugh at her” when she speaks through, “this is to be expected in marriage” He doesn’t take her concerns seriously, and makes all the decisions about both of their lives.

As such, she has no say in anything in her life, including her own health, and finds herself unable to even protest.

Perkins Gilman, like many others, clearly disagreed with this state of things, and aimed to show the detrimental effects that came to women as a result of their lack of autonomy.

Identity and Self-Expression

Throughout the story, the narrator is discouraged from doing the things she wants to do and the things that come naturally to her, like writing. On more than one occasion, she hurries to put her journal away because John is approaching .

She also forces herself to act as though she’s happy and satisfied, to give the illusion that she is recovering, which is worse. She wants to be a good wife, according to the way the role is laid out for her, but struggles to conform especially with so little to actually do.

The narrator is forced into silence and submission through the rest cure, and desperately needs an intellectual and emotional outlet . However, she is not granted one and it is clear that this arrangement takes a toll.

The Rest Cure

The rest cure was commonly prescribed during this period of history for women who were “nervous.” Perkins Gilman has strong opinions about the merits of the rest cure , having been prescribed it herself. John’s insistence on the narrator getting “air” constantly, and his insistence that she do nothing that requires mental or physical stimulation is clearly detrimental.

The narrator is also discouraged from doing activities, whether they are domestic- like cleaning or caring for her baby- in addition to things like reading, writing, and exploring the grounds of the house. She is stifled and confined both physically and mentally, which only adds to her condition .

Perkins Gilman damns the rest cure in this story, by showing the detrimental effects on women, and posing that women need mental and physical stimulation to be healthy, and need to be free to make their own decisions over health and their lives.

The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis: Symbols and Symbolism

Symbols are a way for the author to give the story meaning, and provide clues as to the themes and characters. There are two major symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper."

The Yellow Wallpaper

This is of course the most important symbol in the story. The narrator is immediately fascinated and disgusted by the yellow wallpaper, and her understanding and interpretation fluctuates and intensifies throughout the story.

The narrator, because she doesn’t have anything else to think about or other mental stimulation, turns to the yellow wallpaper as something to analyze and interpret. The pattern eventually comes into focus as bars, and then she sees a woman inside the pattern . This represents feeling trapped.

At the end of the story, the narrator believes that the woman has come out of the wallpaper. This indicates that the narrator has finally merged fully into her psychosis , and become one with the house and domesticated discontent.

Though Jennie doesn’t have a major role in the story, she does present a foil to the narrator. Jennie is John’s sister and their housekeeper, and she is content, or so the narrator believes, to live a domestic life. Though she does often express her appreciation for Jennie’s presence in her home, she is clearly made to feel guilty by Jennie’s ability to run the household unencumbered .

Irony in The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper" makes good use of dramatic and situational irony. Dramatic literary device in which the reader knows or understands things that the characters do not. Situational irony is when the character’s actions are meant to do one thing, but actually do another. Here are a few examples.

For example, when the narrator first enters the room with the yellow wallpaper, she believes it to be a nursery . However, the reader can clearly see that the room could have just as easily been used to contain a mentally unstable person.

The best example of situational irony is the way that John continues to prescribe the rest-cure, which worsens the narrator's state significantly. He encourages her to lie down after meals and sleep more, which causes her to be awake and alert at night, when she has time to sit and evaluate the wallpaper.

The Yellow Wallpaper Summary

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of the defining works of feminist literature. Writing about a woman’s health, mental or physical, was considered a radical act at the time that Perkins Gilman wrote this short story. Writing at all about the lives of women was considered at best, frivolous, and at worst dangerous. When you take a look at The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, the story is an important look into the role of women in marriage and society, and it will likely be a mainstay in the feminist literary canon.

What's Next?

Looking for more expert guides on literary classics? Read our guides on The Cask of Amontillado and The Great Gatsby .

Need important and interesting quotes? Check out these 18 To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes and 9 Great Mark Twain Quotes .

For help analyzing literature and writing essays , read our expert guide on imagery , literary elements , and writing an argumentative essay .

Carrie holds a Bachelors in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, and is currently pursuing an MFA. She worked in book publishing for several years, and believes that books can open up new worlds. She loves reading, the outdoors, and learning about new things.

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A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, since he has forbidden her to write until she is well again, believing it will overexcite her.

Through a series of short instalments, we learn more about the narrator’s situation, and her treatment at the hands of her doctor husband and her sister-in-law.

To summarise the story, then: the narrator and her husband John, a doctor, have come to stay at a large country house. As the story develops, we realise that the woman’s husband has brought her to the house in order to try to cure her of her mental illness (he has told her that repairs are being carried out on their home, which is why they have had to relocate to a mansion).

His solution, or treatment, is effectively to lock her away from everyone – including her own family, except for him – and to forbid her anything that might excite her, such as writing. (She writes her account of what happens to her, and the effect it has on her, in secret, hiding her pen and paper when her husband or his sister come into the room.)

John’s suggested treatment for his wife also extends to relieving her of maternal duties: their baby is taken out of her hands and looked after by John’s sister, Jennie. Jennie also does all of the cooking and housework.

It becomes clear, as the story develops, that depriving the female narrator of anything to occupy her mind is making her mental illness worse, not better.

The narrator confides that she cannot even cry in her husband’s company, or when anyone else is present, because that will be interpreted as a sign that her condition is worsening – and her husband has promised (threatened?) to send her to another doctor, Weir Mitchell, if her condition doesn’t show signs of improving. And according to a female friend who has been treated by him, Weir Mitchell is like her husband and brother ‘only more so’ (i.e. stricter).

The narrator then outlines in detail how she sometimes sits for hours on end in her room, tracing the patterns in the yellow wallpaper. She then tells us she thinks she can see a woman ‘stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’ At this point, she changes her mind, and goes from being fond of the pattern in the yellow wallpaper to wishing she could go away from the place.

She tells John that she isn’t getting any better in this house and that she would like to leave, but he tells her she is looking healthier and that they cannot return home for another three weeks, until their lease is up and the ‘repairs’ at home have been completed.

Despondent, the narrator tells us how she is becoming more obsessed by the yellow wallpaper, especially at night when she is unable to sleep and so lies awake watching the pattern in the wallpaper, which she says resembles a fungus.

She starts to fear her husband. She becomes paranoid that her husband and sister-in-law, Jennie, are trying to decipher the pattern in the yellow wallpaper, and she becomes determined to beat them to it. (Jennie was actually checking the wallpaper because the thought it was staining their clothes; this is the reason she gives to the narrator when asked about it, anyway. However, the more likely reason is that she and John have noticed the narrator’s obsession with looking at the wallpaper, and are becoming concerned.)

Next, the narrator tells us she has noticed the strange smell of the wallpaper, and tells us she seriously considered burning down the house to try to solve the mystery of what she smell was. She concludes that it is simply ‘a yellow smell!’ We now realise that the narrator is losing her mind rather badly.

She becomes convinced that the ‘woman behind’ the yellow wallpaper is shaking it, thus moving the front pattern of the paper. She says she has seen this woman creeping about the grounds of the house during the day; she returns to behind the wallpaper at night.

The narrator then tells us that she believes John and Jennie have become ‘affected’ by the wallpaper – that they are losing their minds from being exposed to it.

So the narrator begins stripping the yellow wallpaper from the walls, much to the consternation of Jennie. John has all of his wife’s things moved out of the room, ready for them to leave the house. While John is out, the narrator locks herself inside the now bare room and throws the key out the window, so she cannot be disturbed.

She has become convinced that there are many creeping women roaming the grounds of the house, all of them originating from behind the yellow wallpaper, and that she is one of them. The story ends with her husband banging on the door to be let in, fetching the key when she tells him it’s down by the front door mat, and bursting into the room – whereupon he faints, at the sight of his wife creeping around the room.

That concludes our attempt to summarise the ‘plot’ of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ begins by dangling the idea that what we are about to read is a haunted house story, a Gothic tale, a piece of horror. Why else, wonders the story’s female narrator, would the house be available so cheaply unless it was haunted? And why had it remained unoccupied for so long? This is how many haunted house tales begin.

And this will turn out to be true, in many ways – the story is often included in anthologies of horror fiction, and there is a ‘haunting’ of a kind going on in the story – but as ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ develops we realise we’re reading something far more unsettling than a run-of-the-mill haunted house story, because the real ghosts and demons are either inside the narrator’s troubled mind or else her own husband and her sister-in-law.

Of course, these two things are linked. Because one of the ‘morals’ of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ – if ‘moral’ is not too strong a word to use of such a story – is that the husband’s treatment of his wife’s mental illness only succeeds in making her worse , rather than better, until her condition reaches the point where she is completely mad, suffering from hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. So ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a haunted house story … but the only ghosts are inside the narrator’s head.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ borrows familiar tropes from a Gothic horror story – it ends with the husband taking an axe to the bedroom door where his cowering wife is imprisoned – but the twist is that, by the end of the story, she has imprisoned herself in her deluded belief that she is protecting her husband from the ‘creeping women’ from behind the wallpaper, and he is prepared to beat down the door with an axe out of genuine concern for his sick wife, rather than to butcher her, Bluebeard or Jack Torrance style.

Narrative Style

As we mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around. But it also has the effect of shifting the narrative tense: from the usual past tense to the more unusual present tense.

Only one year separates ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ from George Egerton’s first volume of short stories , which made similarly pioneering use of present-tense narration in order to depict female consciousness.

The literary critic Ruth Robbins has made the argument that the past tense (or ‘perfect tense’) is unsuited to some modes of fiction because it offers the ‘perspective that leads to judgment’: because events have already occurred, we feel in a position to judge the characters involved.

Present-tense narration deters us from doing this so readily, for two reasons. First, we are thrown in amongst the events, experiencing them as they happen almost, so we feel complicit in them. Second, because things are still unfolding seemingly before our very eyes, we feel that to attempt to pass judgment on what’s happening would be too rash and premature: we don’t know for sure how things are going to play out yet.

Given that Gilman is writing about a mentally unstable woman being mistreated by her male husband (and therefore, given his profession, by the medical world too), her decision to plunge us headlong into the events of the story encourages us to listen to what the narrator is telling us before we attempt to pronounce on what’s going on.

The fact that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is narrated in the first person, from the woman’s own perspective and in her own voice, is also a factor: the only access we have to her treatment (or mistreatment) and to her husband’s behaviour and personality is through her: what she tells us and how she tells it to us.

But there is another narrative advantage to this present-tense diary structure: we as readers are forced to appraise everything we are told by the narrator, and scrutinise it carefully, deciding whether we are being told the whole story or whether the narrator, in her nervous and unstable state, may not be seeing things as they really are.

A good example of this is when, having told us at length how she follows the patterns on the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room, sometimes for hours on end, the narrator then tells us she is glad her baby doesn’t have to live in the same room, because someone as ‘impressionable’ as her child wouldn’t do well in such a room.

The dramatic irony which the narrator cannot see but which we, tragically, can, is that she is every bit as impressionable as a small child, and the yellow wallpaper – and, more broadly, her effective incarceration – is clearly having a deleterious effect on her mental health. (The story isn’t perfect: Gilman telegraphs the irony a little too strongly when, in the next breath, she has her narrator tell us, with misplaced confidence, ‘I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.’)

In the last analysis, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is so unsettling because it plays with established Gothic horror conventions and then subverts them in order to expose the misguided medical practices used in an attempt to ‘treat’ or ‘cure’ women who are suffering from mental or nervous disorders. It has become a popular feminist text about the male mistreatment of women partly because the ‘villain’, the narrator’s husband John, is acting out of a genuine (if hubristic) belief that he knows what’s best for her.

The whole field of nineteenth-century patriarchal society and the way it treats women thus comes under scrutiny, in a story that is all the more powerful for refusing to preach, even while it lets one such mistreated woman speak for herself.

10 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”

I absolutely loved this story. read it a few times in a row when I first crossed paths with it a few years ago –

“The Yellow Wallpaper” remains one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. Excellent analysis!

Fantastic book.

I cringe every time this story appears on a reading list or in a curriculum textbook. It’s almost hysterical in tone and quite disturbing in how overstated the “abuse” of the wife is supposed to be. It’s right up there with “The Awakening” as feminist literature that hinders, instead of promoting, the dilemma of 19th century women.

How is it overstated?

To witness the woman’s unraveling and how ignored she is, to me, a profound statement how people with emotional distress are not treated with respect.

Pingback: ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: A Summary of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Story – Interesting Literature

Terrific analysis. Gothic fiction is always open to many forms of reading and particularly for feminist reading – as openly presented by Angela Carter’ neo-gothic stories (which I would love to read your analyses of one day Oliver!). ‘the Yellow Wallpaper’ I think is the go-to story for most feminist commentators on Gothic fiction – and rightly so. I can’t help notice the connections between this story and the (mis)treatments of Sigmund Freud. Soooo much in this story to think about that I feel like a kiddie in sweet shop!

Thank you as always, Ken, for the thoughtful comment – and I completely agree about the links with Freud. The 1890s really was a pioneering age for psychiatric treatment/analysis, though we cringe at some of the ideas that were seriously considered (and put into practice). Oddly enough I’ve just been rearranging the pile of books on the floor of my study here at IL Towers, and The Bloody Chamber is near the top of my list of books to cover in due course!

I will wait with abated breath for your thoughts! I love Angela Carter :)

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Analysis of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by C. Perkins Gilman

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Like Kate Chopin's " The Story of an Hour ," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's " The Yellow Wallpaper " is a mainstay of feminist literary study. First published in 1892, the story takes the form of secret journal entries written by a woman who is supposed to be recovering from what her husband, a physician, calls a nervous condition.

This haunting psychological horror story chronicles the narrator's descent into madness, or perhaps into the paranormal, or perhaps—depending on your interpretation—into freedom. The result is a story as chilling as anything by Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King .

Recovery Through Infantilization

The protagonist's husband, John, does not take her illness seriously. Nor does he take her seriously. He prescribes, among other things, a "rest cure," in which she is confined to their summer home, mostly to her bedroom.

The woman is discouraged from doing anything intellectual, even though she believes some "excitement and change" would do her good. She is allowed very little company—certainly not from the "stimulating" people she most wishes to see. Even her writing must happen in secret.

In short, John treats her like a child. He calls her diminutive names like "blessed little goose" and "little girl." He makes all decisions for her and isolates her from the things she cares about.

Even her bedroom is not the one she wanted; instead, it's a room that appears to have once been a nursery, emphasizing her return to infancy. Its "windows are barred for little children," showing again that she is being treated as a child—as well as a prisoner.

John's actions are couched in concern for the woman, a position that she initially seems to believe herself. "He is very careful and loving," she writes in her journal, "and hardly lets me stir without special direction." Her words also sound as if she is merely parroting what she's been told, though phrases like "hardly lets me stir" seem to harbor a veiled complaint.

Fact Versus Fancy

John dismisses anything that hints of emotion or irrationality—what he calls "fancy." For instance, when the narrator says that the wallpaper in her bedroom disturbs her, he informs her that she is letting the wallpaper "get the better of her" and refuses to remove it.

John doesn't simply dismiss things he finds fanciful though; he also uses the charge of "fancy" to dismiss anything he doesn't like. In other words, if he doesn't want to accept something, he simply declares that it is irrational.

When the narrator tries to have a "reasonable talk" with him about her situation, she is so distraught that she is reduced to tears. Instead of interpreting her tears as evidence of her suffering, he takes them as evidence that she is irrational and can't be trusted to make decisions for herself.

As part of his infantilization of her, he speaks to her as if she is a whimsical child, imagining her own illness. "Bless her little heart!" he says. "She shall be as sick as she pleases!" He does not want to acknowledge that her problems are real, so he silences her.

The only way the narrator could appear rational to John would be to become satisfied with her situation, which means there is no way for her to express concerns or ask for changes.

In her journal, the narrator writes:

"John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him."

John can't imagine anything outside his own judgment. So when he determines that the narrator's life is satisfactory, he imagines that the fault lies with her perception. It never occurs to him that her situation might really need improvement.

The Wallpaper

The nursery walls are covered in putrid yellow wallpaper with a confused, eerie pattern. The narrator is horrified by it.

She studies the incomprehensible pattern in the wallpaper, determined to make sense of it. But rather than making sense of it, she begins to identify a second pattern—that of a woman creeping furtively behind the first pattern, which acts as a prison for her.

The first pattern of the wallpaper can be seen as the societal expectations that hold women, like the narrator, captive. Her recovery will be measured by how cheerfully she resumes her domestic duties as wife and mother, and her desire to do anything else—like write—is something that would interfere with that recovery.

Though the narrator studies and studies the pattern in the wallpaper, it never makes any sense to her. Similarly, no matter how hard she tries to recover, the terms of her recovery—embracing her domestic role—never make sense to her, either.

The creeping woman can represent both victimization by the societal norms and resistance to them.

This creeping woman also gives a clue about why the first pattern is so troubling and ugly. It seems to be peppered with distorted heads with bulging eyes—the heads of other creeping women who were strangled by the pattern when they tried to escape it. That is, women who couldn't survive when they tried to resist cultural norms. Gilman writes that "nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so."

Becoming a Creeping Woman

Eventually, the narrator becomes a creeping woman herself. The first indication is when she says, rather startlingly, "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight." Later, the narrator and the creeping woman work together to pull off the wallpaper.

The narrator also writes, "[T]here are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast," implying that the narrator is only one of many.

That her shoulder "just fits" into the groove on the wall is sometimes interpreted to mean that she has been the one ripping the paper and creeping around the room all along. But it could also be interpreted as an assertion that her situation is no different from that of many other women. In this interpretation, "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes not just a story about one woman's madness, but a maddening system.

At one point, the narrator observes the creeping women from her window and asks, "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?"

Her coming out of the wallpaper—her freedom—coincides with a descent into mad behavior: ripping off the paper, locking herself in her room, even biting the immovable bed. That is, her freedom comes when she finally reveals her beliefs and behavior to those around her and stops hiding.

The final scene—in which John faints and the narrator continues to creep around the room, stepping over him every time—is disturbing but also triumphant. Now John is the one who is weak and sickly, and the narrator is the one who finally gets to determine the rules of her own existence. She is finally convinced that he only "pretended to be loving and kind." After being consistently infantilized by his comments, she turns the tables on him by addressing him condescendingly, if only in her mind, as "young man."

John refused to remove the wallpaper, and in the end, the narrator used it as her escape.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” and Women’s Pain

Charlotte Gilman wrote her famous short story in response to her own experience having her pain belittled and misunderstood by a male physician.

The woman is ill, but nobody believes her. She sits in a room with yellow wallpaper, unable to convince the men around her that her suffering is real. “You see he does not believe I am sick!” she writes of her doctor husband.

That cry, uttered by the unnamed protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” could just as well be that of Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus , or Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick . Both memoirs, published this year, focus on women whose physical symptoms are downplayed and disbelieved. And both carry uncomfortable echoes of Gilman’s creepy story.

The tale, which follows its protagonist’s slow descent into madness as she gradually discerns a woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper of her sickroom, has long been heralded as a feminist masterpiece, a cry against the silencing patriarchy. But literary scholar Jane F. Thrailkill warns against looking too hard for those meanings in the text . Instead, she focuses on Gilman’s own insistence that medical gender distinctions hurt female patients.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” comes from Gilman’s own struggle with a “nervous disorder,” a depression for which she was treated by a physician named S. Weir Mitchell. It was a new diagnosis at the time, and when physicians treated women with complaints for which they could find no obvious source, they turned to new diagnostic techniques and treatments.

Mitchell was entirely interested in the body, not what women had to say about their own symptoms. His signature “rest cure” relied on severe restriction of the body. Patients were kept completely isolated, fed rich, creamy foods and forbidden to do any kind of activity, from reading a book to going on a walk. “Complete submission to the authority of the physician” and enforced rest were seen as part of the cure.

But Mitchell was no women’s specialist. In fact, writes Thrailkill, he honed his medical skills during the Civil War, treating soldiers who became “hysterical” or developed symptoms like phantom limbs after amputations, surgeries, and traumatic battles. As a result, Gilman was treated with what Thrailkill calls “a model of disease articulated through experience with male bodies.” Mitchell likened the strain of the nineteenth-century home to that of war and his female patients to vampires who sucked the life out of everyone around them.

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Gilman bucked hard against her treatment and Mitchell’s misogynistic reign. Nonetheless, notes Thrailkill, she shared some of his views. Like Mitchell, Gilman believed that psychological conditions were physical ones. But she used that belief to push for equality both in medical treatment and in life. Women’s brains are no different than men’s, she argued, and women should be able to sidestep a stifling home life in favor of a professional career.

Today, it’s more common for women to document their pain through memoir as opposed to fiction. Books like Sick and Ask Me About My Uterus insist on gender parity in medicine, while also situating women’s pain within a patriarchy that stifles and silences. Thrailkill encourages readers to try reading “ The Yellow Wallpaper” literally. Gilman, she writes, wanted the story to shock readers—specifically, her own doctor—into changing their treatment of women.

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CMP102 - Composition 2 - Sherf

Nineteenth Century Women
Researching the Story of an Hour

Researching the Yellow Wallpaper

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman yields the thesis of Victorian housewives being oppressed psychologically. The in-class activity incorporates the analysis, discussion and deconstruction of specific quotes from primary text that is the catalyst of the thesis. And thus,the thesis directs the research and the specific construction of the annotated bibliography.

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Call Number: ebook ISBN: 9781776510481 Publication Date: 2009

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The yellow wall-paper" and the history of its publication and reception : a critical edition and documentary casebook by Julie Bates Dock Call Number: ebook ISBN: 0271074108 Publication Date: 1998 Since its publication in 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" has always been recognized as a powerful statement about the victimization of a woman whose neurasthenic condition is completely misdiagnosed, mistreated, and misunderstood, leaving her to face insanity alone, as a prisoner in her own bedroom. Never before, however, has the story itself been portrayed as victimized. In this first critical edition of Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper," accompanied by contemporary reviews and previously unpublished letters. Julie Bates Dock examines the various myth-frames that have been used to legitimize Gilman's story. The editor discusses how modern feminist critics' readings (and misreadings) of the available documents uphold a set of legends that originated with Gilman herself and that promulgate an almost saintly view of the pioneering feminist author. The documents made available in the collection enable scholars and students to evaluate firsthand Gilman's claims regarding the story's impact on its first audiences. Dock presents an authoritative text of "The Yellow Wall-paper" for the first time since its initial publication. Included are a textual commentary, full descriptions of all relevant texts, lists of editorial emendations and pre-copy-text substantive variants, a complete historical collation that documents all the variants found in important editions after 1892, and a listing of textual sources for more than one hundred reprintings of the story in anthologies and textbooks.
A very different story : studies on the fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman by Val Gough and Jill Rudd Call Number: ebook ISBN: 1781380422 Publication Date: 1998 The main focus of this essay collection is Gilman's utopianism, but there are examinations, too, of Gilman and issues of women's health, and of domestic labour in her work, but all of them provide a valuable context in which to study her fiction.
The Yellow Wall-Paper The original text
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper"—Writing Women EDSITEment! The best of the humanities on the web.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper": A Poetics of the Inside Dr. Beth Snyder-Rheingold, 1999
Feminist Gothic in "The Yellow Wallpaper" A model essay from Lone Star College

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The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte perkins gilman, everything you need for every book you read..

Mental Illness and its Treatment Theme Icon

Reading the series of diary entries that make up the story, the reader is in a privileged position to witness the narrator’s evolving and accelerating descent into madness, foreshadowed by her mounting paranoia and obsession with the mysterious figure behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper.

As the portrayal of a woman’s gradual mental breakdown, The Yellow Wallpaper offers the reader a window into the perception and treatment of mental illness in the late nineteenth century. In the style of a Gothic horror story, the tale follows the gradual deterioration of its narrator’s mental state, but it also explores the ways that her husband John’s attempted treatment aggravates this decline. In one sense, then, the story is a propaganda piece criticizing a specific way of ‘curing’ mental illness. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of the story, suffered from post-partum depression and, in circumstances very similar to those of the story’s narrator, was prescribed a ‘rest cure’ by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, who is mentioned by name in her tale. She underwent a mental breakdown as a result of this enforced idleness, which forbade any form of writing or work outside of the domestic sphere. The forced confinement of the story’s narrator, and her husband’s injunctions against writing or other activity, mirror this ‘rest cure’ in the author’s life.

John, the narrator’s husband, serves also as her de facto doctor. As such, he is a model of traditional attitudes toward mental illness. He is driven purely by practicalities, prescribing self-control above all else, and warning against anything that he sees as indulging his wife’s dangerous imagination or hysteria. His refusal to acknowledge his wife’s concerns about her own mental state as legitimate, or to listen to her various requests – about their choice of room, receiving visitors, leaving the house, her writing or, of course, the wallpaper – ultimately contributes to her breakdown, as she finds herself trapped, alone, and unable to make her inner struggles understood. This feeling of powerlessness, of an inability to communicate, is portrayed with special horror to inspire empathy in a progressive reader, who may have been moved to reconsider methods such as the rest cure of Weir Mitchell.

Mental Illness and its Treatment ThemeTracker

Mental Illness and its Treatment Quotes in The Yellow Wallpaper

John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?

Gender Roles and Domestic Life Theme Icon

He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.

I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more. He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get.

The paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it. It is stripped off—the paper—in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.

John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious. I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him.

There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing. She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!

But, on the other hand, they connect diagonally, and the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror, like a lot of wallowing seaweeds in full chase.

Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there; and I did not make out a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had finished.

If we had not used it, that blessed child would have! What a fortunate escape! Why, I wouldn't have a child of mine, an impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds. I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.

Of course if you were in any danger, I could and would, but you really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really much easier about you.

On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind… You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream.

At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.

It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house—to reach the smell. But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the COLOR of the paper! A yellow smell.

There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. A streak that runs round the room. It goes behind every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long, straight, even SMOOCH, as if it had been rubbed over and over. I wonder how it was done and who did it, and what they did it for. Round and round and round—round and round and round—it makes me dizzy!

And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.

I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once.

I have found out another funny thing, but I shan't tell it this time! It does not do to trust people too much.

John knows I don't sleep very well at night, for all I'm so quiet! He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind. As if I couldn't see through him!

Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it! All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision!

I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try. Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued.

I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard! It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please! I don't want to go outside. I won't, even if Jennie asks me to. For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way.

"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!

The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis

Table Of Contents

Introduction : How the author’s own experience influences the story
The setting of the story’s opening
How the protagonist becomes trapped and bored
Gilman’s intention why she wrote the story
Gilman’s childhood experience with her mother
Similarity of the author’s and the protagonist’s family situation
Role of the narrator’s husband and his sister in her life
Weir Mitchell’s recommendations concerning the “rest cure”
Details and symbolism of the narrator’s “prison”
The story’s impact on real life
Conclusion : How the book had the effect the author intended
Works cited

Thesis Statement for The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis Statement: In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the plot is written in first person. The unnamed narrator , through her depression and illness feels trapped in her life being locked in a room with this yellow wallpaper. After tearing off the wallpaper and seeing the woman behind the design escape she too has the epiphany that she is also free. I. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s depression and treatment influenced her writing. A. Charlotte Gilman endured a rough childhood. B. Her married life and her child have influenced her writing. C.

She suffered from severe post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter. . The narrator and protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” reveals parts of her own life in this story. A. She suffers from a mental illness, and she beings to turn mad. B. Gilman expressed her illness but the husband dismissed what she was saying. I. The narrator and her husband move into a country house for the summer. A. The narrator discusses her husband John and how he is the reason that she has not gotten better. B. The narrator, Jane, discusses her husband John and her sister in law Jennie and what they do for her. IV.

John believes that the best way to cure his wife is with bed rest, for which he keeps her locked up in the room. A. We learn more about the “rest cure,” and explain how it was used in Gilman’s life as well as in “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” B. Since the woman in the story is on bed rest, she is bored often so she becomes obsessed with the wall paper. V. There are many symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” but the most important seems to be the yellow wallpaper itself. A. Critics perceive the symbols in the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” B. The narrator believes there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper. VI.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in hopes of, “saving people from being driven crazy,” (Rena Korb/Short Stories for Students). A. What was the point in “The Yellow Wallpaper” being written? B. An explanation on the criticism written about “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” V. Conclusion The life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman significantly influenced her writing. The trials she had to overcome during her life made her the author that she was. Growing up, Gilman endured a difficult childhood. While

Gilman was still an infant her father, Frederic Beecher Perkins, abandoned his wife and children.

Throughout Gilman’s life her mother suffered from an illness. Gilman was left to do things most children would never have to do on their own, like teach herself to read. Gilman’s mother showed no affection to her children, because she didn’t want to hurt them like her husband had done to her. Gilman lived a life like the unnamed narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”; a life of isolation and loneliness. Gilman was married in 1884 and had one child, a daughter. Many months after the birth of her daughter, Gilman suffered from post-partum depression.

In that time it was thought to be a mental illness. Gilman would tell her husband that she was sick and he would just dismiss everything she said. After only four years of marriage they separated which was very uncommon; in 1894 they divorced. Gilman moved to California where she started writing stories and sent her daughter to live with her father. After moving to Pasadena, California, she started taking part in social reform movements; which is the reason why “The Yellow Wallpaper,” has so much to do with social reform in the nineteenth century. The story is comprised of ten diary-like entries and written in the first person, thus giving the impression that the narrator is writing her own story in which she is also the protagonist” (Feminism in Literature). As the reader of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we can also see many aspects of Gilman’s life in the life of the unnamed narrator. The first sign we see of similarity is the way she treats her child. In Gilman’s life she neglected her daughter just like the unnamed narrator neglected her son. We barely even hear of her son in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” so it shows just how unimportant the baby was to her.

Also, the illness that Gilman suffered is nearly identical to the narrator’s illness; the only difference is the level of madness the narrator reaches. At the narrator’s worst stage she was almost animal-like, with the way she was crawling around the room on all fours. “The act of creeping is also a culminating illustration of the protagonist’s disaffection with her husband” (Feldstein). “Her husband, the force that keeps her in the home, has become an inanimate object, one that only gets in the way of her ‘path by the wall, so that [she] had to creep over him’” (Short Stories for Students).

As the narrator is driven further into madness, she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper. Another similarity is the likeness of character in the husbands. The narrator expresses to her husband that she is sick and all he does is dismiss what she says. The narrator is then forced to comply with her husband and go back up to the bedroom where she is cut off from everything; any kind of companionship is gone and she is not allowed to be a wife or a mother. Gilman’s husband was also dismissive of her complaints. The unnamed narrator is married

to John who is a physician.

He believes that the “rest cure” is the best way to fix the illness that the narrator is suffering from. The narrator is treated like a child throughout the entire story by her husband, John. She is isolated; not allowed to feed herself or even bathe herself. The narrator believes that the fact that her husband is a physician is the main reason why she hasn’t gotten better, she writes in her journal, “…perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman).

Then there is Jennie who sees the narrator slowly deteriorate. Jennie is John’s sister and stays at the house to help watch the narrator while John is away at work. She has pretty much taken over the mother role for the newborn baby, because the narrator is not allowed to take care of her child. The narrator sees Jennie as a great housekeeper. The “rest cure” is designed to remove women who are depressed, from stress and all daily activities in her life. “…women such as Jane were separated from their children, kept in bed, hand-fed, bathed, and massaged” (Barth).

Charlotte Gilman was sent to see Weir Mitchell, the physician, who had invented the “rest cure”. She was locked up in a mental institution; after one month of being there she was said to be cured. Mitchell gave Gilman the instructions, “Live as domestic a life as possible… Have two hours’ intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live” (Stories for Students). Being on bed rest one can imagine how boring it would become and that is exactly when the narrator started to become obsessed with the wallpaper.

She would sit there and look at it day in and day out. Throughout the story all she can talk about is how disgusting the wallpaper is; it’s the only thing on her mind. She talks about this figure that she can see just in the perfect light, she says it looks like a woman. Being locked up in the bedroom she starts hallucinating and since she has little human contact, her mental state diminishes rapidly. There are not many symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper;” although the ones that are used are of great importance.

The wallpaper itself specifically represents the narrator’s state of mind and generally symbolizes how society viewed women in the nineteenth-century. Other symbols would be: all the little details of the nursery; the barred windows and the nailed-down bed. “The nursery is said to represent nineteenth-century society’s tendency to view women as children, while the barred windows symbolize the emotional, social, and intellectual prison in which women of the era were kept. Finally, the bed is said by some critics to represent repressed female sexuality” (Stories for Students).

The reason for writing “The Yellow Wallpaper,” stems from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s personal history with what was classified as mental illness in

the times that she lived. Post-partum depression is a legitimate diagnosis in the twenty-first century, unlike in the nineteenth century. It is treated today with medication and talk therapy but in prior centuries it was considered “hysteria. ” The physician, S. Weir Mitchell, treated Gilman with what he considered the proper healing method. Gilman needed to show that S. Weir Mitchell’s methods were wrong for her type of condition.

Overall, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “was written as a critique of the medical treatment prescribed to women suffering from a condition then known as ‘neurasthenia’” (Short Story Criticism). In fact, “Many years later I was told that the great specialist had admitted to friends of his that he had altered his treatment of neurasthenia since reading ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’” (Feminism in Literature). The story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” seems to have been a story written before society could accept it. It didn’t receive any critical acclaim until the 1920’s. In fact, no one seemed to take it seriously at all before that time.

It seemed to just be a story written by a self-serving feminist, rather than a true account of a woman’s suffering. In the more progressive time, the 1920’s women’s suffrage was at an all time high and Gilman’s work spoke to all women. In several sources they compared her literary style to Edgar Allen Poe. Her use of description and illustration seemed “Poe-esque. ” Once Gilman’s story was taken seriously it became a frightening commentary on misuse of power, the power both of the medical community and the “patriarchal” society in which she lived.

In conclusion, “critics illuminate the sociocultural, psychological, and linguistic dimensions of Gilman’s literary pierce as well as explore its place within literary tradition” (Feminism in Literature). And in the words of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “It has to my knowledge saved one woman from a similar fate – so terrifying her family that they let her go out into normal activity and she recovered. ” What Charlotte Perkins Gilman set out to do by writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” is exactly what she accomplished. Works Cited Page Barth, Melissa E. “The Yellow Wallpaper. Masterplots: Short Story Series, Revised Edition Salem Press, 2004. Pg 1-2. Print. Feldstein, Richard. “Reader, Text, and Ambiguous Referentiality in ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper. ’. ” The Captive Imagination: A Casebook on “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” Ed. Catherine Golden. New York. Feminist Press, 1992. Pg. 307-318. Rpt in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 201. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2013 “Gilman, Charlotte Perkins: Title Commentary. ” Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jeffrey W.

Hunter. Vol. 5: Detroit: Gale, 2005. Pg. 507-528. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” Perrine’s Story and Structure: An Introduction to Fiction. Eds. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. 13th Ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. Pgs. 279-293. Print. “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Pg. 279-292. Print. “The Yellow Wallpaper. ” Short Story Criticisms. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 62. Detroit: Gale. 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2013.

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The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols

There is no one major theme of The Yellow Wallpaper, but a few central ones: feminism and gender roles, freedom of expression, and mental illness.

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🎵 the yellow wallpaper themes.

The Yellow Wallpaper tackles several themes relevant in modern times. The central conflict in the short story is the main character’s lack of agency resulting from her being a product of the patriarchal setting . Her inability to express herself is exacerbated even further by the need to conform to societal norms of the time.

Mental Illness in The Yellow Wallpaper

Although the mental illness is never given a name, it’s clear from the context that the main characte r is suffering from postpartum depression . It was poorly understood at the time, and the most common treatment was the so-called “rest cure,” which didn’t work. Charlotte Perkins Gilman , the author, learned it the hard way and described it in her short story.

“But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 1

The Yellow Wallpaper as an Autobiography

The Yellow Wallpaper is a semi-autobiographical story, as evidenced in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper . The writer posted this short article to address some of the questions readers had been mailing to her. Specifically, people were amazed by the apparent authenticity of the main character’s experience. Could it be that Gilman managed to grasp the details so masterfully precisely because she had experienced them firsthand?

As Gilman states in the article, she wrote the short story not to shock and appall the public with its gothic horror mental illness extravaganza. Instead, it was planned to be a cautionary tale against the use of “rest cure” for women diagnosed with postpartum depression. She was indeed a survivor of this novelty treatment, the newest invention of the most venerable psychiatrist in the city. After Gilman gave birth to her firstborn, she could not enjoy motherhood. As it was revealed in her autobiography, while holding her baby, she felt nothing but pain.

Upon consulting with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, she was diagnosed with “nervous exhaustion,” aka “ neurasthenia ,” and the freaky escapade was on. Gilman was forcefully bedridden for an entire month with no visitors allowed, being fed fat-rich products to give her body extra sustenance. She was forbidden to get up from bed, read, write, talk, and she couldn’t even feed herself. After four weeks of this torture, she went home and proceeded to follow the “solemn” instructions of the “wise man.”

Live as domestic a life as possible. Have but two hours’ intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live.

According to Gilman, after three months of such life, she “came so near the borderline of “utter ruin” that she “could see over.” Recognizing the danger, she “cast the noted specialist’s advice to the winds and went to work again – work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite.”

After recovering her strength, Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper adding some colorful details for a more significant expressive effect. She actually “never had hallucinations or objections” to her “mural decorations.” Gilman wrote the story not “to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.” The public was impressed by the bold descriptions of a descent into madness. There were instances of abandoning the treatment, which the author was notified of to her great joy. It was also said that the “noted specialist” went on to alter “his treatment of neurasthenia since reading The Yellow Wallpaper ” – although he “never acknowledged it.”

Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper

The question of gender is all-prevalent in The Yellow Wallpaper . The story is often regarded to commend feminism because the author portrays the relationship between the wife and the husband. Both assume their respective gender roles . The husband is rational, right, authorial, always confident, never uncertain. The wife is timid, shy, and submissive. She looks up to her husband as her senior, questions her judgment, and prioritizes his needs and feelings over hers.

“John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 1

This rigid distribution of roles eventually results in a disaster. The feminist discourse doesn’t necessarily imply that having such dynamics in a couple is ultimately wrong. According to feminist critique, what is wrong is to force it upon all people, as expected in a patriarchal society. When the expectations go astray, and the reality kicks in, one might expect a massive failure.

The patriarchal setting doesn’t taint just the interpersonal relationships, though. It’s evident from the story that the very system is contaminated by this way of thinking. It’s not just the personal and professional agency of women that is in jeopardy – the unbiased perception of their words is critical to their very well-being. The patriarchal set of mind clouds the medical judgment of male doctors and disallows medical professionals to evaluate things correctly. The Yellow Wallpaper tackles the “rest cure” question specifically. If the doctors cared to listen to their female patients, it would be evident that this treatment doesn’t work. But if a doctor intends to go the “confident patriarch” way, then the feelings and opinions of his female patients cease to matter.

The treatment you’ve prescribed works because you are always right and because you said so. Take the narrator’s husband, John, for example.

“If a physician of high standing, and one’s husband, assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 1

John’s being ashamed of his wife’s not society-friendly condition, as well as his unwavering confidence in his judgment, resulted in his complete blindness to the progression of his wife’s sickness. And when it was too late, who was to blame – the husband for being so rigid-thinking, so narrow-minded? The wife for not finding the strength to stand up for herself? Or the patriarchal society that produced those two individuals in the first place?

Freedom of Expression in The Yellow Wallpaper

One of the major themes explored in The Yellow Wallpaper is freedom of expression . The main character of the story is denied it every step of the way. As a woman, she is expected to assume a submissive position and to prioritize the wants of others before hers. Then, her desire for self-expression is regarded as not just unnecessary but actively hazardous.

A woman has no place to do mental labor in the patriarchal setting because her primary function is that of a wife and a mother, a servant to the family, and the husband.

Once she upsets this “natural order,” all sorts of weirdness and disorder is to be expected, hence the ban on mental activities for the narrator.

“I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 2

The particular tragedy of this situation is that the narrator herself internalizes this way of thinking. She accepts the control of society and her husband over her life and her decisions. The conflict between how things are and she chooses to interpret them is the main reason for the eventual misfortune. Her entire being reacts to the harmful environment she is in. She seeks to express the things she cannot share with anybody through writing a secret diary, which, of course, is not nearly enough. She feels anger towards her husband for not listening to her, for constantly putting her down, for making her suffer because “it’s doing her good.” But the idea that the husband is always right is so deeply ingrained in the narrator that she doesn’t believe her feelings and sweeps them under the carpet.

“I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wallpaper!” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 2

The immense shame of her disability makes matters even worse. The narrator keeps telling herself how her husband loves her and how her feelings are uncalled for. The only way for her psyche to free itself is by breaking. Only when she goes mad can she express her anger with being locked up and her distrust of her captors freely.

🌈 Symbols in The Yellow Wallpaper

The most profound image in the story is that of the yellow wallpaper. It’s the most well-described thing from the narrator’s surroundings, being the source of her unhealthy fixation. She finds an excuse to practice her writing skills, coming up with the most colorful, detailed, and creative ways to describe what has captivated her imagination.

“This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 2

Nevertheless, the wallpaper is not the source of pleasure for the disturbed mind of the narrator. On the contrary, she hates it. In her mind, the wallpaper symbolizes everything unpleasant there is.

What Does the Yellow Wallpaper Symbolize?

The yellow wallpaper is what the narrator gets unwillingly fixated on to give herself the mental exercise she is deprived of. The yellow color of the wallpaper is disgusting and reminds of all things yellow that are foul. But the absolute horror, according to the narrator, is the pattern – the prison bars of the room where she’s caged.

“The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper did move…” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 3

The Woman behind the wallpaper is trapped by the pattern and shakes it like prison bars, trying to get out.

The narrator is trapped in the room with the thing she hates. Just like her, the Woman behind the wallpaper is trapped behind the pattern. In the end, the narrator tears down the wallpaper, helping the Woman behind the wallpaper, who is at this point herself, to get out.

Thus, she symbolically frees herself from the pressure of societal norms she has been forced to adhere to. Unfortunately, this act is not therapeutic but a final step towards a complete mental breakdown. Only by becoming the Woman behind the wallpaper can the narrator be finally free to do what she pleases.

Imagery in The Yellow Wallpaper

The story’s primary focus is on the wallpaper. Its imagery is vivid: the color, repellant shades of yellow; the pattern, slanting waves of optic horror; a shadow figure, stooping down and crawling. The picture contrasts with the idyllic descriptions of the house and the surroundings. It symbolizes the perceived peacefulness of family life versus the hidden sorrow and suffering of the narrator.

🌎 The Yellow Wallpaper: Setting

The Yellow Wallpaper is set in America of the late 19th century . It presents a realistic depiction of contemporary social relationships of the time. The story is centered in a desolate mansion, as it’s customary for the Gothic genre narrative. The room where the Woman spends most of her time symbolizes the prison of social pressure crushing the narrator.

📍 The Yellow Wallpaper: Point of View

The point of view in The Yellow Wallpaper is first-person . The author chooses to present the story through the narrator’s eyes to give an intimate insight into her world. It’s the best way to make the reader feel for the sick Woman and see the world she lives in through her eyes, casting away judgment.

🖋️ The Yellow Wallpaper: Literary Devices

The author of The Yellow Wallpaper uses several literary devices in the story, such as personification , simile , and dramatic irony . They all serve the purpose of communicating to the reader the impending horror of the narrator’s gradual descent into madness. There are common Gothic elements in the story, such as first-person narration, a lonely house, and suspense.

Feminist Gothic in “The Yellow Wallpaper” | – Lone Star College
Feminist Criticism, “The Yellow Wallpaper” – JSTOR
A Feminist Reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper – BYU ScholarsArchive
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper — Feminist Literary Criticism
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: a gothic story
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What is a thesis statement for "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte
This thesis could say something like the following: in " The Yellow Wallpaper ," Gilman shows that, just like men, women need intellectual stimulation to stave off depression and that depriving ...
The Yellow Wallpaper Essay
The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis Statement Examples 📜. Here are five examples of strong thesis statements for your essay: 1. "In 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays the damaging effects of the patriarchy on women's mental health, highlighting the need for autonomy and self-expression." 2. "The symbolism of the yellow ...
Thesis for The Yellow Wallpaper
Thesis for The Yellow Wallpaper. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a powerful and thought-provoking work of literature that has captivated readers for decades. Through the story of a woman's descent into madness, Gilman explores the themes of gender roles, mental illness, and the oppressive nature of patriarchal society.
The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples
Here you'll find a heap of excellent ideas for The Yellow Wallpaper essay. Absolutely free research paper and essay samples on The Great Gatsby are collected here, on one page. We will write a custom essay specifically. for you for only 11.00 9.35/page. 808 certified writers online.
63 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topics & Examples
Think about it when you will write your thesis statement. ... You can find a lot of examples to support The Yellow Wallpaper essay thesis on subordination. Here are some of them: the narrator stays in the room with the yellow wallpaper, although, she doesn't want to stay there. Her husband does not allow her to stay in one of the others.
The Yellow Wallpaper Essays and Further Analysis
An afterword to The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Feminist Press, 1973, pp. 37-63. ... What is a thesis statement for "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman?
Understanding The Yellow Wallpaper: Summary and Analysis
The Yellow Wallpaper Summary. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of the defining works of feminist literature. Writing about a woman's health, mental or physical, was considered a radical act at the time that Perkins Gilman wrote this short story. Writing at all about the lives of women was considered at best, frivolous, and at worst dangerous.
A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) 'The Yellow Wallpaper', an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, since he has forbidden….
The Yellow Wallpaper: Study Guide
Overview. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that was first published in 1892. It is a pivotal work of feminist literature that explores the mental and emotional challenges faced by women in the 19th century. The story is presented in the form of a series of journal entries written by an unnamed woman likely ...
Analysis of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by C. Perkins Gilman
Catherine Sustana. Updated on March 29, 2020. Like Kate Chopin's " The Story of an Hour ," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a mainstay of feminist literary study. First published in 1892, the story takes the form of secret journal entries written by a woman who is supposed to be recovering from what her husband, a physician ...
The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes
The Evils of the "Resting Cure". As someone who almost was destroyed by S. Weir Mitchell's "resting cure" for depression, it is not surprising that Gilman structured her story as an attack on this ineffective and cruel course of treatment. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is an illustration of the way a mind that is already plagued with ...
The Yellow Wallpaper: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Yellow
Indeed, "The Yellow Wallpaper" draws heavily on a particularly painful episode in Gilman's own life. In 1886, early in her first marriage and not long after the birth of her daughter, Charlotte Perkins Stetson (as she was then known) was stricken with a severe case of depression. In her 1935 autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins ...
"The Yellow Wallpaper" and Women's Pain
The tale, which follows its protagonist's slow descent into madness as she gradually discerns a woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper of her sickroom, has long been heralded as a feminist masterpiece, a cry against the silencing patriarchy. But literary scholar Jane F. Thrailkill warns against looking too hard for those meanings in the text.
Symbolism in "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins ...
Thesis Statement When reading the story, it becomes evident that Gilman was deeply concerned about the role of women as well as the psychological pressure they experienced. For this reason, one can make a conclusion that Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper is to be analyzed based on symbolical interpretations the author wanted her readers to become ...
The Yellow Wallpaper Themes
Alongside its exploration of mental illness, The Yellow Wallpaper offers a critique of traditional gender roles as they were defined during the late nineteenth century, the time in which the story is set and was written. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent feminist, who rejected the trappings of traditional domestic life and published extensively about the role of women in society, and ...
Researching the Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman yields the thesis of Victorian housewives being oppressed psychologically. The in-class activity incorporates the analysis, discussion and deconstruction of specific quotes from primary text that is the catalyst of the thesis.
Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper': Point of View Essay
The wallpaper is "ripped," "soiled," "unclean yellow," "revolting," and "formless sort of figures.". These descriptions of the wallpaper are symbolic of the shapeless and suffocating life that the Narrator leads. It symbolizes a filled with life with harsh memories. "Soiled" symbolizes the burial act, thus representing ...
Mental Illness and its Treatment Theme in The Yellow Wallpaper
Below you will find the important quotes in The Yellow Wallpaper related to the theme of Mental Illness and its Treatment. First Entry Quotes. John is a physician, and PERHAPS— (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.
The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis
The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis Statement: In the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the plot is written in first person. The unnamed narrator, through her depression and illness feels trapped in her life being locked in a room with this yellow wallpaper. After tearing off the wallpaper and seeing the woman behind the ...
Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols Essay
The Yellow Wallpaper: Symbolism. Gilman has given well-elaborated insights on the meaning of the Yellow Wall-Paper. "She has done this in a slow yet steady pace to release the metaphors that are a clue to the Yellow Wallpaper as a symbol of her husband's authority and dominance" (Gwynn & Zani, 2007, p.71).
62 Essay Topics on The Yellow Wallpaper
3 min. 609. Welcome to The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topics page prepared by our editorial team! Here you will find an extensive list of essay ideas on the short story! Literary analysis, themes, comparison, characters, & more. Get inspired to write your own essay! We will write a custom essay specifically. for you for only 11.00 9.35/page.
The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols
The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols. by IvyPanda Updated on: Aug 13th, 2023. 9 min. 9,731. There is no one major theme of The Yellow Wallpaper, but a few central ones: feminism and gender roles, freedom of expression, and mental illness. We will write a custom essay specifically. for you for only 11.00 9.35/page.

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The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols

🎓 References

Mental Illness in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper as an Autobiography

Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper

Freedom of Expression in The Yellow Wallpaper

🌈 Symbols in The Yellow Wallpaper

What Does the Yellow Wallpaper Symbolize?

Imagery in The Yellow Wallpaper

🌎 The Yellow Wallpaper: Setting

📍 The Yellow Wallpaper: Point of View

🖋️ The Yellow Wallpaper: Literary Devices

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