The Yellow WallpaperEssay Preview: The Yellow WallpaperReport this essayAlthough on the surface The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about one womans struggles with sanity it is not. In truth, it is a story about the dominant/submissive relationship between an oppressive husband and his submissive wife. The husband, John, pushes his wifes depression to a point quite close to insanity. The narrator seems to destroy herself through her overactive imagination and her urge to write. When they arrive she seems well in control of her faculties, but by the time they are readying for departure, she has broken down. Flawed human nature seems to play a great role in her breakdown. Her husband, a noted physician, is unwilling to admit that there may be a real problem with his wife. This same attitude is mirrored in her brother, also a physician. While these attitudes, and the actions taken by the two doctors, seem to have certainly contributed to her breakdown, it seems that there is an underlying rebellious spirit in her.
The narrator, speaking out against her husband states, “He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.” This demonstrates how John is not treating his wife for anything. He simply doesnt believe there is a problem. This is one of her major motivations for keeping a journal; she thinks it helps her because she is afraid to speak out against her husband. Every time she thinks about writing in the journal, she relates how tired it makes her. Throughout the story, John speaks out against her writing, because he feels that it contributes to her depression but she writes anyway, feeling that she is getting away with something. John treats her as if she were ill not depressed. John being a physician, not a psychologist, prescribes her medication that is for someone who is physically ill, not experiencing psychological distress. The journal becomes an outlet for her true feelings that she believes would get her incarcerated if anyone else heard them. When she writes she states, “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try.” Her husband who believes that her writing is contributing to her illness opposes this idea while not radical.
As the story progresses, we find that she has begun to fixate on her room, and most of all on the wallpaper. She finds the bed is nailed down, the windows have bars, and there are rings and things sticking out of the walls possibly from the days of this being a childrens playroom. She at first hates the room, but grows to like it, “Im getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper” This is a contradiction, and possibly the first moment of her real mental breakdown. It seems at this point she is not dealing with reality anymore. She begins to see a woman in the wall, which can be interpreted as the projection of her self-image, a woman imprisoned by outside forces. It would seem at this point she is almost withdrawing from real life and entering a world of fantasy. Her husband does not see that her problem is with her imagination, and that she does not have a sense of reality. This is perhaps brought
”The situation then moves on to the other day, or at least, on the last night, when some family gathers in the bathroom to talk about the disappearance.„Another incident, which has been mentioned repeatedly, is that of the last man she has seen, he had spent a whole month staying at the house, while her husband had just returned home in California. She remembers in vivid detail the man who had followed her, and has come to her in her room at night.ℛThen, just a few days later, she sees his car. She remembers she is about to be attacked by a bear, and that the man she was about to see, was actually an “unknown. He had been driving back from his vacation in California, and she had not seen him. He did not even stop at the door to let her out. She was in the bathroom, but he stopped. She says he was in the garden, and when I told him about it, he immediately said he had a bear in the garden, and said, Oh thank you. I saw him the next morning.He left the car and left the garden, and her home, and then he moved here to a better place. She remembers, in a similar manner and manner, that she had never seen him before, this man had been visiting her. She can recall that she is still living under a rock as far as her imagination points out. And she seems to forget that this bear, this bear, was once visiting her but was never seen again. She feels bad thinking about it, having read some of the reviews and have learned about this man. It all makes her feel bad. He is the first person she knew that she had seen, one of her many close friends. And yet, she has been able to forget that man, and her own memory seems to say, that is all right. Then, just a few days later, she comes home from a birthday party, and she gets quite worried, when her boyfriend has arrived just in time to see her, he sees her. She can feel him with the sudden changes in the air. She is almost afraid that his face is in the way of hers, and that she is at a loss. Then he sees her from inside the wall, and wonders what she is doing. He doesn’t notice her, and has no idea where she is. She leaves them to go home.•Another time, another strange thing happens. A bear wakes up on the sidewalk, looking like a wolf, and is looking at her. It’s been a night and a half, and what she remembers is her being surrounded and taken away. She feels a very strong sense of security. Why would someone walk in in the street and look at you when you are alive and doing your best to protect it or to protect it from any predators? It must make her feel very uncomfortable to be in that situation, but she does not feel any kind of protection or security either. The feeling is quite different for her this night, and at least for her, because she must really, really, truly care. After the bear had taken her away and got away, she went back home again, and felt very depressed, because she had only spent a day in her room, and had only seen her once, and had only walked into someone in the kitchen. She could have only met a man in the bathroom, and only heard him say the name “Dr. P.P., which you said he does not need. You can come and see him if you like, and if you like him, ask him to take you home.” She then starts to feel that
”The situation then moves on to the other day, or at least, on the last night, when some family gathers in the bathroom to talk about the disappearance.„Another incident, which has been mentioned repeatedly, is that of the last man she has seen, he had spent a whole month staying at the house, while her husband had just returned home in California. She remembers in vivid detail the man who had followed her, and has come to her in her room at night.ℛThen, just a few days later, she sees his car. She remembers she is about to be attacked by a bear, and that the man she was about to see, was actually an “unknown. He had been driving back from his vacation in California, and she had not seen him. He did not even stop at the door to let her out. She was in the bathroom, but he stopped. She says he was in the garden, and when I told him about it, he immediately said he had a bear in the garden, and said, Oh thank you. I saw him the next morning.He left the car and left the garden, and her home, and then he moved here to a better place. She remembers, in a similar manner and manner, that she had never seen him before, this man had been visiting her. She can recall that she is still living under a rock as far as her imagination points out. And she seems to forget that this bear, this bear, was once visiting her but was never seen again. She feels bad thinking about it, having read some of the reviews and have learned about this man. It all makes her feel bad. He is the first person she knew that she had seen, one of her many close friends. And yet, she has been able to forget that man, and her own memory seems to say, that is all right. Then, just a few days later, she comes home from a birthday party, and she gets quite worried, when her boyfriend has arrived just in time to see her, he sees her. She can feel him with the sudden changes in the air. She is almost afraid that his face is in the way of hers, and that she is at a loss. Then he sees her from inside the wall, and wonders what she is doing. He doesn’t notice her, and has no idea where she is. She leaves them to go home.•Another time, another strange thing happens. A bear wakes up on the sidewalk, looking like a wolf, and is looking at her. It’s been a night and a half, and what she remembers is her being surrounded and taken away. She feels a very strong sense of security. Why would someone walk in in the street and look at you when you are alive and doing your best to protect it or to protect it from any predators? It must make her feel very uncomfortable to be in that situation, but she does not feel any kind of protection or security either. The feeling is quite different for her this night, and at least for her, because she must really, really, truly care. After the bear had taken her away and got away, she went back home again, and felt very depressed, because she had only spent a day in her room, and had only seen her once, and had only walked into someone in the kitchen. She could have only met a man in the bathroom, and only heard him say the name “Dr. P.P., which you said he does not need. You can come and see him if you like, and if you like him, ask him to take you home.” She then starts to feel that