The Yellow Wallpaper

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is living her life with a lot of anxiety and depression. Not only is she living with “nervous depression” (Gilman 29), but she is also living with her husband, John, who is constantly belittling her about her illness, and her thoughts in general. The narrator is slowly getting crazier as the story goes on, and yet no one believes her that her illness is real and she should get help. Johns tells her that doing…

questioned that a husband has a higher status than his wife and more control over her in their marriage. Close to the end of the nineteenth century, the unjust distribution of power between a husband and his wife was an accepted part of society. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the damaging effects of the subordination faced by women within the confines of marriage as shown through the gradual deterioration of the main characters mental state as a direct result of the…

The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is a young married woman who is receiving treatment for postpartum depression. Her husband, who happens to also be her doctor, is treating her condition with the rest cure; a relatively common treatment for mental disorders during the late 1800s. As required by this treatment, she is to refrain from all intellectual and creative tasks, as they will hinder her recovery. Though her husband loves her and is well-meaning in his care, he fails to see that this…

The Ghost Story of the Narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a tale of the Gothic tradition. Gilman wrote this story in a somewhat subversive manner, detailing the disturbing and ridiculous nature of medical treatment, specifically the “rest cure” that was popular during the Victorian Era. It could be argued that the narrator is a ghost herself, made that way by the repression of her individuality by her husband and society. The form…

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a semi-autobiographical short story that describes a time in which the unnamed narrator suffers from depression following the birth of her baby. Her husband, who’s a doctor, misdiagnoses her and prescribes her with “the rest cure”. Meanwhile, the husband goes away to work while the wife is locked away in this bedroom with barred windows and yellow wallpaper. During all her time spent in this room she becomes so infatuated over the yellow…

In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” there is a thought after question of whether the husband of a woman is trying to help her, or trying to ruin her. Within the short story, a women, that was kept from the outside world, goes insane while living in a mansion for some time. After reading the story, I believe that the husband was truly trying to help his wife, when he kept her away from the outside world. One way that her husband tried to help her, was by keeping her away from society.…

Part I. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a chilling psychological tale written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Through a feminist lens, Gilman uses this story to emphasize both the position of married women during the nineteenth century as well as the medicinal practices of the time. Like the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman too suffered from a form of depression. Following her diagnosis, she was prescribed the Rest Cure that eventually drove her to her own mental destruction. Jane, the…

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story that is told by a first person narrator, Jane, where she describes in her journal entries the yellow wallpaper in her room. Jane suffers from a nervous depression condition and her illness gives a clear insight into her situation in society and in her own marriage. She devotes these journals to describe how the bed rest treatment deprives her sanity and how the yellow paper begins to alter the longer she is inside the room. The pattern and designs of the…

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her personal experiences to write a story about a woman losing her sanity because of the rest cure. This “cure” was a widely trusted medical treatment at the time and the truths behind it were unknown to the general public. As Calum A. Kerr writes in the essay, “Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’," the aftereffects of the rest cure deeply disturbed Gilman and took her to a place that she…

The Yellow Wall-Paper Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper is a quintessential example of how housewives were treated and oppressed in late 1800’s America. The Yellow Wall-Paper is written as a journal narrated by a depressed house wife in the late 19th century. She begins the story with diagnosed depression and a nervous condition from her husband, who is a doctor, as they spend the summer renting out a colonial mansion. This depression takes a turn for the worse when the stories…