The Yellow Wallpaper Point Of View

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the author of a very intriguing story called “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story is a very haunting and psychological kind of story that gives you a feminist point of view. This story is about a wife who is sick and a husband who is a doctor. He diagnosed her with a mental illness, and tells her she just needs to rest, and she will become better. The husband locks her in an upstairs bedroom, with bars, and with yellow wallpaper. She soon become kind of obsessed and very fascinated with this wallpaper. She even begins to see women figures that seem to be stuck in the wallpaper, waiting to be freed from it. We soon realize that she is one of the women that is trapped as well. The only way she sees that she can be freed …show more content…
This could be part of the reason she was so called “crazy”. She couldn’t even think for herself; she always had her husband to do it for her. According to the story, the narrator says “I sometimes fancy that in my condition, if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house” (437). She is so brained washed that in the middle of her thought, she lets herself interrupt with instructions from John. This woman has basically let John take control of her thoughts. This could have made her feel useless, and could have possibly been the reason for her strange behavior. In an article, Karen Ford says, “Each time I have taught The Yellow Wallpaper, students insist that it describes the progression of one person's neurosis, for instance that it is the tale of one woman's mental breakdown caused specifically by postpartum depression” (Ford 309). The roles each gender plays is a big theme in this story. This story was written in the late 1800s, and this was not the best time to be a woman. The …show more content…
At first I was a little confused, and I didn’t really get the meaning of the story. After doing a lot of research, there was so much to think about. It was quite overwhelming, so overwhelming that it took me a while to choose which direction I was going to go in. I chose to talk about the gender roles in this story because of how different males and females are rated today. I found it interesting reading all the research about how life is today verses in the 1800s. After reading this material, I can say I have a much better understanding of the story. I can completely understand where this author is coming from. Even though it’s a haunting and odd read, I’m glad it was written. It could just maybe help someone who is going through the same thing