“The Yellow Wallpaper” emphasizes a slow progression of the narrator’s character as she goes from relatively sane to completely psychotic; however, it also highlights her life, which she has no authority over, but still manages to free herself from the mental and physical constraints implemented by society and her husband, John. The unnamed narrator is unable to reach her full mental capacity, nor is she able to pursue her passion of writing or carry out normal, day-to-day activities due to her dominating husband and his prescription for the rest cure. Regardless of the narrator’s outward acceptance of the rest cure, the premature text establishes the narrator as a woman of defiant nature and with her advanced writing abilities, she unconsciously
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Behind this preface of a vulnerable girl, who is broken down by the overwhelming patriarchy of society and mentally stunted by her dominating husband, is a strong woman who finally breaks free from the shackles of her husband and society’s expectations as she defies the stereotypical image of women in the nineteenth century and symbolically tears down the yellow …show more content…
The narrator is so severely broken spiritually and mentally that she becomes one with the women who “takes hold of the bars” of her prison and “shakes them hard” in a frantic effort to get free (Gilman). This effort becomes reality as the narrator tears down the yellow wallpaper, symbolizing the stripping away of her husband and society’s confining principles. As she disposes of the wallpaper, she also rids herself from her all-powerful husband and the morals, which have been imposed upon her for all of her life. The wallpaper symbolizes the elements of family, medicine, and customs, as well as the domestic life that imprisons the narrator and many other women. With the wallpaper, her metaphorical prison, gone, she feels free to be her own person and free to discard of the mold that forces women to tend to the house and fit seamlessly into a “world of masculine order and domestic routine”: “‘I’ve got out at last...And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’” (Gilman; Johnson 523). After tearing down the wallpaper, the narrator experiences a rebirth during which she gains control not only over herself, but also over John, who faints during the resolution of the story. Against the stereotypical odds of the women being known to faint, John faints and the narrator disregards him and is able to “creep around as
Behind this preface of a vulnerable girl, who is broken down by the overwhelming patriarchy of society and mentally stunted by her dominating husband, is a strong woman who finally breaks free from the shackles of her husband and society’s expectations as she defies the stereotypical image of women in the nineteenth century and symbolically tears down the yellow …show more content…
The narrator is so severely broken spiritually and mentally that she becomes one with the women who “takes hold of the bars” of her prison and “shakes them hard” in a frantic effort to get free (Gilman). This effort becomes reality as the narrator tears down the yellow wallpaper, symbolizing the stripping away of her husband and society’s confining principles. As she disposes of the wallpaper, she also rids herself from her all-powerful husband and the morals, which have been imposed upon her for all of her life. The wallpaper symbolizes the elements of family, medicine, and customs, as well as the domestic life that imprisons the narrator and many other women. With the wallpaper, her metaphorical prison, gone, she feels free to be her own person and free to discard of the mold that forces women to tend to the house and fit seamlessly into a “world of masculine order and domestic routine”: “‘I’ve got out at last...And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’” (Gilman; Johnson 523). After tearing down the wallpaper, the narrator experiences a rebirth during which she gains control not only over herself, but also over John, who faints during the resolution of the story. Against the stereotypical odds of the women being known to faint, John faints and the narrator disregards him and is able to “creep around as