Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a fictional short story written in 1892. It is a narrative of journal entries of a woman, who remains nameless, that retreats to a beautiful summer home while her home is being renovated. During her stay, she is accompanied by her husband John, the Nanny, Mary, and sister-in-law named Jennie. The nameless narrator has been diagnosed, by her husband, with nervous depression. The author first portrays John as a loving, doting husband who loves his wife and only wants her to rest and get well. He controls every aspect of her treatment and limits her activities and has prescribed the “resting cure” in order for her to heal faster. Through this treatment the madness sets in due to lack of any
Gilman was a women’s rights activist who encouraged women to gain economic independence (Biography.com.) The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is completely dependent on her husband. John, who is a physician, is incredibly controlling and does not take her or her illness serious. He in a way treats her as if she were a child, referring to her as “blessed little goose” and “little girl.” When she does express her unhappiness with being isolated he mocks her by saying “Bless her little heart, “she shall be as she pleases! But now let’s improve the shining hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning!” (Gilman 478). John now shows that he in fact has no respect and does not value her opinion of thoughts on the subject of her illness. He has his own agenda and will see it through for his own personal satisfaction. She is silenced at this point and acknowledges that she is a little afraid of her husband. Through the suffering of the women, Gilman is able to relate the common issues of oppression that women experienced during her time and allow the reader to feel some type of pity for the character in her story. The author is making an intentional connection with a realistic scenario women may have faced in the late 1800’s and the oppressed narrator. Now after acknowledging that the narrator is depressed and lives a life of constant oppression it is easy to
By understanding Gilman’s personal struggles a reader can make the conclusion that the narrator was a representation of her thoughts, feelings, and ideas about how women were perceived and treated during her time. Gilman closely related the narrator’s illness and state of oppression. When asked why she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman stated, “It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked”.