Language and Meaning in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman expertly molds language to emphasize her meaning in her short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” Gilman uses it to emphasize the societal critique of the limitations of women contained in her writing. Gilman illustrates the dangers of forcibly removing a women’s own autonomy over her mind and her body, and delicately composes language to showcase these consequences.
Gilman crafts characters that embody the typical archetype of her time’s woman and man within her characters of John and his wife, the narrator. She then juxtaposes them through the dynamic of their relationship as husband and wife. Gilman establishes a very evident power hierarchy that she emphasizes in the narrator …show more content…
This begins to decompose and decay her mind, slowly depleting her sanity. This depletion becomes apparent in the syntax of her journal entries as more and more time passes under John’s care. The narrator’s initial journal entries show that she has a high level of education and a large breadth of knowledge. Her writing shows this education within the structure of this sentence from an early entry: “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition,” (486). The sentence is relatively lengthy and the complexities within the syntax becomes apparent within the use of the colon and dash. Most of her sentences follow this example with variances in length to keep the reader’s interest. The style of the narrator’s entries are incredibly informal, due to the short story being stylized as a private journal. The paragraph lengths can be incredibly short, occasionally being just one sentence. Despite this, the narrator’s syntax deconstructs and simplifies as time elapses and more of her sanity escapes her. Gilman creates a direct correlation between the amount of time spent under John’s care and the complexity and lengthiness of the narrator’s sentence structure. Her writing begins to read like a series of declarations rather than a steady flow of coherent thoughts. This is seen at the …show more content…
This wallpaper weighs heavily on the narrator’s mind making itself the first thing she notices as wrong, and immediately vocalizes this to John. John’s response drips with jest—he laughs at her concerns and diminishes her authority in the matter. He makes the claim that “nothing was worse” for her than to “give way to such fancies” forcing her to endure the wallpaper despite her reservations (488). John removes her authority to live in a space where she feels comfortable. Gilman crafts a parallel between John’s disregard for his wife’s physical and mental autonomy, and the presence of this oppressive wallpaper. The narrator has no say over her conditions despite the fact that she knows her own self better than anyone else. This symbol of male oppressions elaborates itself further when the narrator begins to notice a woman creeping about in the wallpaper. It’s clear that her mental state deteriorates rapidly, but in this state of delusion, her mind fabricates a character that mirrors her condition. The narrator not only notices this woman, but realizes that the wallpaper traps her and she “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” with the intention of “climb[ing] through,” (494). This women is trapped in the wallpaper just as the narrator is trapped in an oppressive society.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman expertly molds language to emphasize her meaning in her short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” Gilman uses it to emphasize the societal critique of the limitations of women contained in her writing. Gilman illustrates the dangers of forcibly removing a women’s own autonomy over her mind and her body, and delicately composes language to showcase these consequences.
Gilman crafts characters that embody the typical archetype of her time’s woman and man within her characters of John and his wife, the narrator. She then juxtaposes them through the dynamic of their relationship as husband and wife. Gilman establishes a very evident power hierarchy that she emphasizes in the narrator …show more content…
This begins to decompose and decay her mind, slowly depleting her sanity. This depletion becomes apparent in the syntax of her journal entries as more and more time passes under John’s care. The narrator’s initial journal entries show that she has a high level of education and a large breadth of knowledge. Her writing shows this education within the structure of this sentence from an early entry: “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition,” (486). The sentence is relatively lengthy and the complexities within the syntax becomes apparent within the use of the colon and dash. Most of her sentences follow this example with variances in length to keep the reader’s interest. The style of the narrator’s entries are incredibly informal, due to the short story being stylized as a private journal. The paragraph lengths can be incredibly short, occasionally being just one sentence. Despite this, the narrator’s syntax deconstructs and simplifies as time elapses and more of her sanity escapes her. Gilman creates a direct correlation between the amount of time spent under John’s care and the complexity and lengthiness of the narrator’s sentence structure. Her writing begins to read like a series of declarations rather than a steady flow of coherent thoughts. This is seen at the …show more content…
This wallpaper weighs heavily on the narrator’s mind making itself the first thing she notices as wrong, and immediately vocalizes this to John. John’s response drips with jest—he laughs at her concerns and diminishes her authority in the matter. He makes the claim that “nothing was worse” for her than to “give way to such fancies” forcing her to endure the wallpaper despite her reservations (488). John removes her authority to live in a space where she feels comfortable. Gilman crafts a parallel between John’s disregard for his wife’s physical and mental autonomy, and the presence of this oppressive wallpaper. The narrator has no say over her conditions despite the fact that she knows her own self better than anyone else. This symbol of male oppressions elaborates itself further when the narrator begins to notice a woman creeping about in the wallpaper. It’s clear that her mental state deteriorates rapidly, but in this state of delusion, her mind fabricates a character that mirrors her condition. The narrator not only notices this woman, but realizes that the wallpaper traps her and she “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” with the intention of “climb[ing] through,” (494). This women is trapped in the wallpaper just as the narrator is trapped in an oppressive society.