Character Analysis: The Yellow Wall-Paper
Lisa Victor
English 223 Final Class Essay:
The text I chose to develop and expand on was The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This psychologically complex tale is written from a diary-style, narrative viewpoint of a woman suffering from a serious case of depression. She is being involuntarily and coercively imprisoned within the compound of her summer home by her physician husband, who is attempting to treat her with the experimental “resting cure” that was popularly used in the Nineteenth Century for a variety of mental disorders. I have chosen to elaborate on the specific breakdown of the faulty procedures involved in this type of treatment: within this specific text, as well as throughout its practice in the …show more content…
The main character may have begun her treatment solely with characteristics of what would be modernly diagnosed as clinical depression. However, her forced isolation (only being able to see her husband, and her sister-in-law, who made an occasional visit to the house to help with upkeep and cleaning) caused her to increasingly veer towards the brink of totally losing her mind. While she was technically confined to the comforts of a summer mansion estate (seemingly an ideal “rest” spot), she was symbolically and metaphorically trapped in a mental asylum-which was the common destination given to most of the women in her situation during this time. On page 808, at the very beginning of the story, the main character describes her persuasively influenced place of dwelling: “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity-but that would be asking too much of …show more content…
One of the frenzied woman’s most frequently and repetitiously mentioned domestic components is the corroding and peeling yellow wall paper. This easily over-looked household element plays a highly critical, valuable and significant role as a theme and symbol (as well as title) for this chillingly descriptive narrative. The mentally unhinged central character describes her attentive focus on this crumbling aspect of her forcibly chosen summer retreat an assortment of times during this text. One of these examples is portrayed on page 815, when our hysterical lead character states: “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing…The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of a fungus. If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions-why, that is something like it. That is,
English 223 Final Class Essay:
The text I chose to develop and expand on was The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This psychologically complex tale is written from a diary-style, narrative viewpoint of a woman suffering from a serious case of depression. She is being involuntarily and coercively imprisoned within the compound of her summer home by her physician husband, who is attempting to treat her with the experimental “resting cure” that was popularly used in the Nineteenth Century for a variety of mental disorders. I have chosen to elaborate on the specific breakdown of the faulty procedures involved in this type of treatment: within this specific text, as well as throughout its practice in the …show more content…
The main character may have begun her treatment solely with characteristics of what would be modernly diagnosed as clinical depression. However, her forced isolation (only being able to see her husband, and her sister-in-law, who made an occasional visit to the house to help with upkeep and cleaning) caused her to increasingly veer towards the brink of totally losing her mind. While she was technically confined to the comforts of a summer mansion estate (seemingly an ideal “rest” spot), she was symbolically and metaphorically trapped in a mental asylum-which was the common destination given to most of the women in her situation during this time. On page 808, at the very beginning of the story, the main character describes her persuasively influenced place of dwelling: “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity-but that would be asking too much of …show more content…
One of the frenzied woman’s most frequently and repetitiously mentioned domestic components is the corroding and peeling yellow wall paper. This easily over-looked household element plays a highly critical, valuable and significant role as a theme and symbol (as well as title) for this chillingly descriptive narrative. The mentally unhinged central character describes her attentive focus on this crumbling aspect of her forcibly chosen summer retreat an assortment of times during this text. One of these examples is portrayed on page 815, when our hysterical lead character states: “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing…The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of a fungus. If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions-why, that is something like it. That is,