Summary Of Charlotte Perkins Stetson's The Yellow Wallpaper

Sitting for hours upon hours staring at wallpaper can make one feel like they are distant from the real world or just plain crazy. The nameless wife, who is also the narrator, name is diagnosed with temporary nervous depression. Her husband, who is her doctor, decides to rent a “colonial mansion” (Stetson 647), as she refers to it for a couple months. At first, she found the house “queer” or suspicious but does not know why. John, her husband, thinks that the isolation of his wife in this room all day is the best remedy for her to heal from her depression. She spends countless hours staring at the wallpaper and begins to become more uneasy about it. She believes there is a woman trapped in the wallpaper who is begging to be set free. A few …show more content…
The wife not having a name is like her not having an identity and losing herself. Maybe the author did not tell us her name because she cannot distinguish who she really is and her purpose. Charlotte Perkins Stetson the author of The Yellow Wallpaper wrote this short story in the late 1800’s when the “bed rest cure,” was the best remedy for curing any type of sickness and being isolated much like the wife in the story. According to Saylor.org women are “innately weaker,” and “less capable of taking care of themselves.” Women of the late 1800’s did not have much say and were looked at as subdued. Stetson reveals this throughout the story from when the wife did not want to question her husband about his diagnosis to her not voicing her opinion about her getting worse. Relationships stay the just about the same but the wife makes a drastic change at the end as a whole when she locks the door to continue to peel of the paper she does not want to be interrupted and expresses bizarre behavior. As an antihero the narrator shows signs of doing what others say and demand. Back to women not being able to care for themselves she is left to rely on her superior counterpart which is also her …show more content…
The wife is diagnosed with nervous depression and is automatically restricted to bed rest and isolation prescribed by her husband. This type of depression can come from many different things but reading the story you may conclude it came from her having a child as many women become depressed after having a baby. John begs his wife “for our child’s sake” (Stetson 652), makes one believe that her sickness is effecting the child. Gradually through the story she goes from needing interactions with society, to becoming one with the wallpaper. After freeing the woman from the paper she exclaims “I’ve got out at last,” her proclaiming this made it seem as though she is the woman in the paper. Another sign of Paranoid Schizophrenia is lacking apathy. The wife is very concerned about her condition and but as she continues to focus on the wallpaper she finally gives in and believes that “perhaps it is the paper” (Stetson 653), that is driving her insane. From this point on she never tries to justify anymore of her actions or how she is living for her temporary nervous depression.
The Yellow Wallpaper guides the reader through a woman’s transition from sickness to mental incapacity. Analyzing the wife and focusing on her illness, description, and conflicts she seems to make the readers aware of how women were treated back in the late