Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlie Perkins

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlie Perkins Gilman, a Connecticut native who lived through the late 19th century and suffered severely from depression. The Yellow Wallpaper, written as a diary, recounts the daily life of a mental health patient and her relationship with her husband, a physician, as well as her growing obsession with the yellow wallpaper. The perspective of the narrator to allows the readers to have an inside look into the feelings of a mental health patient. In the Yellow Wallpaper, Perkins uses the development of the toxic relationship between the narrator and John, her husband, to convey that the treatment of mental illness in women in the late 19th century was ineffective due to the blatant disregard …show more content…
Towards the end of the story, the narrator begins to speak up for herself stating, “my appetite may be better in the evening when you are here but worse in the morning when you are away!” however, John continuing to disregard her, replies, “bless her heart she shall be as sick as she pleases”(Perkins 305). Although the narrator begins to address her internal conflict by confronting John about her condition she is met with John’s condescending tone emphasizing that he doesn't believe she's sick even saying that she will be “as sick as she pleases” causing her to feel helpless because as his wife she must see him as an authority figure even though he is hindering her progress. At the end of the story, the narrator no longer respects John as an authoritative figure. The narrator falls into a state of hysteria admitting how John makes her feel. The narrator says, “‘I've gotten 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!”(Perkins 313). Perkins conveys the last stage of the narrator's devolution by taking her internal struggle and displaying its external effect on her. The symbolism of the narrator believing she is the lady in the wallpaper conveys that she saw herself not as John's wife but as his prisoner. This emphasizing how trapped the narrator always felt by her …show more content…
Through the choice to include the internal struggle faced by the narrator and the contrasting perspectives of the narrator and John on her mental illness, Perkins gives us insight into the ineffectiveness of mental health treatment during the late 19th century due to its blatant disregard for the feelings and health of mental health patients by authority figures. The internal struggle of the narrator allows the reader to understand the full impact of the treatment of mental health by authoritative figures during the 19th