“The Yellow Wallpaper”: How Mental Illness Takes Over
Mental illness is a disease that causes slight to severe disorders in thought and behavior (“Mental Illness and the Family”). This results in an incapability to manage or cope with life’s ordinary routines. Just as mental illness affects the person that has it, it also affects the surrounding family members. Mental illness in “The Yellow Wallpaper” represents the chaos that can be created in the person and the family members.
The suffering of a man knowing that his soul mate is insanely sick is the worst that could happen to a person, especially if he is the doctor and husband of that person. This is what Kate Chopin represents in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The narrator, an unnamed woman, reveals …show more content…
The description the narrator gives of the color of the wallpaper is “the color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.” Since the moment the narrator walked in it said “I don’t like our room a bit.” This chaotic and unsoothing room is the backdrop of the story but also represent the chaos that is overtaking her. From the start the narrator and reader could tell it was not going to be a great thing to stay in that horrid place. The narrator also states “I never saw a worse paper in my life.” Although the narrator said all of that, it was just the beginning of the long weeks the narrator had ahead of her. This eventually hurts the narrator big time because she does not really like staying in that room. The wallpaper also messes with her mind as well, causing her severe issues.
The narrator’s mental illness makes the reader identify well with what she is saying. Although the narrator may act and verbally say things out of the normal it is common for a person with mental illness, “The outward signs of a mental illness are often behavioral. A person may be extremely quiet or withdrawn” (“Mental Illness and the Family”). The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” had those behavioral problems and at times had emotional breakdowns as well. This break away from “normal” effects the patient and the family and …show more content…
The statement from the short story would be “the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper DID move.” At this point of the story is when the reader starts to realize the character is actually hallucinating, because in no possible way could there be a person behind a wallpaper. For a family member to watch a loved one hallucinate things that are not really there is really hard to watch. It hurts them deep down as well as it hurts the person hallucinating, just as the narrator says there is a person behind the wallpaper there really isn’t and it affects her and messes with her brain. It also causes fear within her.
“I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness.” Copes along with “strong feelings of anger” (“Mental Illness and the Family”). At this point in the short story the narrator is getting angry at the wallpaper as if it had done something to her. This is common for a person like her that has a mental illness issue. It affects her severely and messes with her emotions. Just as she gets mad
Mental illness is a disease that causes slight to severe disorders in thought and behavior (“Mental Illness and the Family”). This results in an incapability to manage or cope with life’s ordinary routines. Just as mental illness affects the person that has it, it also affects the surrounding family members. Mental illness in “The Yellow Wallpaper” represents the chaos that can be created in the person and the family members.
The suffering of a man knowing that his soul mate is insanely sick is the worst that could happen to a person, especially if he is the doctor and husband of that person. This is what Kate Chopin represents in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The narrator, an unnamed woman, reveals …show more content…
The description the narrator gives of the color of the wallpaper is “the color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.” Since the moment the narrator walked in it said “I don’t like our room a bit.” This chaotic and unsoothing room is the backdrop of the story but also represent the chaos that is overtaking her. From the start the narrator and reader could tell it was not going to be a great thing to stay in that horrid place. The narrator also states “I never saw a worse paper in my life.” Although the narrator said all of that, it was just the beginning of the long weeks the narrator had ahead of her. This eventually hurts the narrator big time because she does not really like staying in that room. The wallpaper also messes with her mind as well, causing her severe issues.
The narrator’s mental illness makes the reader identify well with what she is saying. Although the narrator may act and verbally say things out of the normal it is common for a person with mental illness, “The outward signs of a mental illness are often behavioral. A person may be extremely quiet or withdrawn” (“Mental Illness and the Family”). The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” had those behavioral problems and at times had emotional breakdowns as well. This break away from “normal” effects the patient and the family and …show more content…
The statement from the short story would be “the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper DID move.” At this point of the story is when the reader starts to realize the character is actually hallucinating, because in no possible way could there be a person behind a wallpaper. For a family member to watch a loved one hallucinate things that are not really there is really hard to watch. It hurts them deep down as well as it hurts the person hallucinating, just as the narrator says there is a person behind the wallpaper there really isn’t and it affects her and messes with her brain. It also causes fear within her.
“I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness.” Copes along with “strong feelings of anger” (“Mental Illness and the Family”). At this point in the short story the narrator is getting angry at the wallpaper as if it had done something to her. This is common for a person like her that has a mental illness issue. It affects her severely and messes with her emotions. Just as she gets mad