“The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story showing how one woman’s life is drastically changed after childbirth. C.P. Gilman writes about the woman’s internal, as well as external, hardships as a woman of the Victorian era with postpartum depression. In the story’s set era, when psychology was a relatively new concept, the narrator’s family is unsure of how to deal with her newly acquired “condition” (C. P. Gilman 1). Their ignorance and lack of knowledge ultimately lead to the narrator’s mental breakdown. By analysing “The Yellow Wallpaper,” readers can see what has caused the narrator’s madness and how it was increased, how the expectations of Victorian women have affected her, and what frustrates and drives her.
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator’s madness is referred to using many names but few of that time fully knew what she was suffering from; this lack of knowledge is one reason she did not recover. The narrator’s “condition” (1) is referred to as a “slight hysterical tendency” (2), a “temporary nervous depression” (2), and a …show more content…
Victorian women would have been in charge of servants, entertaining guests, and decorating the house; but, instead of the narrator being able to do these things, Jennie takes on these roles. The narrator even states that, “Jennie sees to everything” (4) and we can clearly see that Jennie has fully stepped into the narrator’s position. Jennie has more control over the household than the narrator does and this causes a conflict between them. In addition to control, Jennie has much more agency than the narrator and talks to her brother, the narrator’s husband, more than the narrator does. In the end, the narrator says she will refuse Jennie’s wishes (10) and in doing so we can see that it is an attempt to reclaim some of Jennie’s power for
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator’s madness is referred to using many names but few of that time fully knew what she was suffering from; this lack of knowledge is one reason she did not recover. The narrator’s “condition” (1) is referred to as a “slight hysterical tendency” (2), a “temporary nervous depression” (2), and a …show more content…
Victorian women would have been in charge of servants, entertaining guests, and decorating the house; but, instead of the narrator being able to do these things, Jennie takes on these roles. The narrator even states that, “Jennie sees to everything” (4) and we can clearly see that Jennie has fully stepped into the narrator’s position. Jennie has more control over the household than the narrator does and this causes a conflict between them. In addition to control, Jennie has much more agency than the narrator and talks to her brother, the narrator’s husband, more than the narrator does. In the end, the narrator says she will refuse Jennie’s wishes (10) and in doing so we can see that it is an attempt to reclaim some of Jennie’s power for