The Yellow Wallpaper

Name : Course Name : Instructor’s Name : Date of Submission : The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935 The “yellow wallpaper” is an autobiographical account of a woman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who had a clinical depression and was determined to fight for her selfhood. Her life was not settled because of her troubled relationship. She had issues with her mother, her father and even her daughter. The story brings is brought forth to the audience has a journal which is kept against the husband (doctor) directions. He, the husband, believes her wife’s issue (nervous condition) is as a result of the intellectual effort she is after. During the time of writing of this story women were under oppression from men, who perceived them as housekeepers. The author’s main intention of writing the story was self satisfaction from the knowledge that the doctor (Dr. S. Weir Mitchell might) changed his treatment. Again it was her agenda was to ensure people were not driven crazy like her and it worked (line 20). The narrator who is mentally distressed is brought for a ‘rest cure’ in a country house by her husband. Her husband ensures she is in the top floor where the children could not disturb her; social contact is limited. The husband is too blind to realize the wife’s mental distress which is as a result of his altitude towards her. She rarely received visitors, only Henry and Julia her cousin rarely visited her. The husband also prohibits her to writer her journal, however, she does under cover. The wallpaper first becomes the woman’s companion (it was the only entertainment she has) but later she is disgusted by wallpaper that covered the whole empty room. The woman’s deteriorating mental state is expressed through the reflection wallpaper. She is mad about the wallpaper that she continuously sees every day and night. This novel has very few characters; a couple (the narrator and her husband who are the main character).the narrator, the main character, portrays her state through a young women who is hospitalized. The young woman represents, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who was a feminist pioneer in those days. The narrator undergoes changes in this book. First, she is a very submissive woman to her husband but finally she rebels against the sy...