John Ames Mitchell

“The Yellow Wall-paper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is written in first person and consist of numerous journal entries. The narrator of the story is a woman who struggles with herself because she suffers from a nervous condition and faces depression. She is confined in an isolated house, on bed rest. She states that the house “is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (844). This house is separated from real life and society and her emotional…

exposed how the ‘rest cure’ was harmful to women which sparked a social movement to ban the ‘rest cure’. To be more specific, The Yellow Wallpaper is symbolic in that the story contains; John, the bars on the window, and the wallpaper as symbols to express what contributes to the overall theme of mental degeneration. John is used in The Yellow Wallpaper as a symbol of the patriarchy of the society of the time, which in the psychiatric field only proved to hurt women instead of heal them. This is…

When Jane and her family first arrive to the temporary house, she wonders about the mysterious house. John suggests that Jane sleeps in the attic room of the house but the room seemed more like a prison than a playroom. Jane describes some features of the room such as “the windows being barred for the little children” (Gilman 474). She also explains how…

Feminist struggles One heroine is fighting for her physical independence and another one is fighting for her mental independence. According to critics, women were considered to be “weak bodies and impressible minds” which make them “predisposed to any physical and/ or mental disease that could affect their fragile emotional state” (Treichler, 61). This is the same thing of which Jane became the victim when she tells “if a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and…

oppression and deteriorated mental states. John employs his patriarchal and doctoral standings to diagnosis his wife as mentally ill, thus restricting her in misogynistic gender roles. Through John’s actions, his sister Jennie becomes complicit in confining the woman, as she sees that when women do not stay within the parameters of typical femininity, they are given detrimental treatments that generate and worsen mental illness. The woman internalizes John and Jennie’s actions until her mental…

Depression brought out the worst aspects of sexism by complicating the roles of women and discrimination and hardships in the workplace and in society. These issues are all depicted through the character of Curley’s wife in the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Mother, daughter, aunt, grandmother, sister- alll are different roles that women are expected to carry out during the Great Depression. Women are portrayed as mothers first in most every book, including Hapke's analysis of a…

I did.” (Gilman 315). Second, whenever the narrator mentions her husband, John, she is very contradictory. In one moment she is mentioning how practical John is while complaining about his trivializing of her illness. Later, the author says “Dear John! He loves me very dearly!” and reminiscences on how well her husband has treated her. Shortly after this, the narrator writes “the fact is I am getting a little afraid of John” (Gilman 311). The narrators inconsistency with her discretion of her…

(Gilman). These strange findings allude the fact that this room is a “rest cure” room of her era and not simply a tattered room because the rest of the house and garden are beautiful. The rest cure method was popularized the physician Silas Weir Mitchell, who primarily used it to treat “nervous women, who as a rule are thin, and lack blood” (9) through “rest, systematic feeding, and passive exercise” (10). This prescription not only makes her stay in this terrifying room but it also completely…

In the short story of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gillman writes an intriguing story that brings to light how women were identified through domestic roles in the Victorian era. She shows through a haunting experience and progression of the “resting-cure.” Through dark symbolism, descriptive and repetitive diction, and setting of events taken place, readers are able to understand how those roles denied women their freedom and independence. Throughout the story, Gillman shows…

The first person narration in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” allows the reader to gain an understanding of the main character through her dialogue, actions, and thoughts. Throughout the story, the narrator thoroughly describes the setting, which changes in her mind, over the course of her stay in the rental house. This change in the narrator's perception of the house and the world outside of her bedroom can allow readers to understand her feelings of isolation, depression,…