The Yellow WallpaperEssay Preview: The Yellow WallpaperReport this essayShaakira JordanProfessor SmithEnglish 11228 November 2007According to Wikipedia.org, “in the late 1800’s Neurasthenia became a popular diagnosis, expanding to include such symptoms as weakness, dizziness, and fainting, and a common treatment was the rest cure, especially for women, who were the gender primarily diagnosed with this condition at that time”. More specifically, Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be associated with this emotional disorder because she suffered from it for about three years. In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator Jane suffers from this disorder mainly because of her husband’s oppressive ways. Perkins does an excellent job communicating the ideas of repression of women, insanity, and the recreation of life, through symbolism, irony, and didacticism.
In the beginning of the story the narrators name is not revealed, and instead the protagonist John is introduced, which exhibits how unimportant the narrator is. This seems to suggest that women back at that time remained behind closed doors which serve as an excellent representation of repression of women. As Janice Haney-Peritz explains it:
“The Yellow Wallpaper is used to remind contemporary readers ofthe enduring import of the feminist struggle against patriarchaldomination; while as aboundary marker, it is used to demarcatethe territory, appropriate to a feminist literary criticism (Peritz 114).”This feminist struggle is clearly relevant when John decides to put Jane in a room where “the paint and paper look as if a boy’s school had used it and the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls (Gardner 84).” Jane is obviously repelled by the color describing it as “revolting, repellant; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight (84).” Being forced to stay in this ugly repulsive yellow room, Jane has no other choice but to secretly write in her journal about the room, in which she becomes obsessed with. Symbolically, the bars on the windows of the room seem to represent the imprisonment of Jane’s life and also of women in general at that time.
Through symbolism, Perkins shows how women are prisoners of their husbands and how they had to listen to all of their concerns. Another great example of symbolism in this story is the woman that Jane seems to find trapped in the wallpaper. The woman that she sees represents her being dominated by John unable to escape his domineering ways. As Elaine Hedges explains, “The Yellow Wall Paper is, of course, highly appropriate for a discussion of symbolism: how it emerges and operates within a text. Students enjoy discussing the symbolism of the wallpaper and of the room to which the narrator is confined (Hedges 2).” As Jane becomes more fixated on the wall paper she feels the hurt and pain of the woman trapped inside the paper. “The front pattern does move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard (Gardner 92).” Jane sees the woman behind bars and views herself as that woman. Although throughout the story John believes he is helping Jane, ironically he is not.
Through irony, Perkins conveys the idea of insanity and entrapment in the room with the yellow wallpaper. John strongly believes he knows what is best for Jane and intends to treat her like a child and keep her locked up in the hideous room. John says, “My darling, I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours (90).” Ironically by keeping Jane in that room with which she is obsessed with, it is in fact worsening her condition, allowing her to become insane. It seems as though since she has no control within her own life, she finds control though the wallpaper, while losing self-control overall. Jane believes she is “Johns darling and his comfort and all he has, and that she must take care of herself for his sake, and keep well.
The reader is left without the real meaning of the two paragraphs. The point is not to condemn any reader for reading so many pages. But, in this story, as in every other, we see both the “wrong” ending and the “perfect” ending. In a way we believe it to be the two contradictory ends, not that the two have been completely different and have been treated on the same plot line. That is, as we believe the story will develop, it would take something. Perhaps more than ever, we need to consider how the readers interpret their characters and the choices of them. Here is a great book of letters or essays made by a single Englishman about his English. The author came from an interesting background and came to the attention of a reader. He had worked in an interesting business, he was wealthy, but his life was not one-sided. He loved his home and liked to read as much and, in time, he found himself enjoying a nice good evening and a good meal (1). It is probably due to his interests in health, good habits and life and his deep commitment to it that he developed this book by writing and lecturing.
As a general approach, this book has made great use of the fact that not everybody loves each other so much. Some of our great writers seem to prefer to live in a few countries and sometimes for a while more than one. It must be remembered that as the author we had a general outlook on the world beyond the realm of the world being itself. He was concerned almost solely with the world. He saw the people who are in danger of losing their homes, the people who are going to disappear. He focused almost exclusively on the people who are losing their jobs or trying to get work for their parents. His general reading did not always match the general experience of the country. Many people also prefer to live in many different cities and places. That such people are in no way comparable in value to people who are alive in other nations. In a country which is populated by many different people with different interests and interests, even the situation would be extremely difficult so long as each citizen was able to come to terms with the fact that he or she had a real home there. And, even if the situation was no better, this fact was not a factor in how much of the land was taken or what kind of work was needed and what kind of life there was. In this book, the reader knows how to have a more balanced perspective in the situation. He cannot be forced to choose between life and what others like his want. That is to say, he cannot be forced to decide between his values and those of others. This must be borne in mind as well. The author writes: “Even in the United Kingdom, for which these countries also have considerable wealth, many still live in low-lying, remote villages of the eastern part of Britain (2).” In these rural areas people have found it quite easy to live by their own rules and to work a lot and to enjoy themselves by working hard (2).
This makes up about seven pages of the second volume of Perkins’ series about alcoholism and its treatment, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (4):
• The relationship between drinking and the mind is far from unique to alcoholism. Indeed, a considerable number of people suffer from alcoholism in varying levels. This