Confinement In The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper introduces a lesson of freedom and confinement to the audience. The story is explained as an avoidable mental tragedy, resulting from faulty decision making by a suffocating force. Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the tale through narrator Jane Doe, a newlywed finding herself in a battle against the harmful effects of depression. Doe is the center of the novel, as a woman connected with her condition and mind capacity. We learn the story in a pre recorded submission of the narrator's secret diary after an atrocious proposition of confinement caused a literal breakdown. In hindsight Jane's condition could have been avoided, however false knowledge led to deeper sufferings and a silver lining emerges as a liberating
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In the beginning of the novel John indicates the term based on his point of view of Jane's so called nervousness over temporary life. As a result, the Doctor husband's authoritative knowledge forced Jane into a backfiring treatment. John diagnosed her with “hysterical tendencies” and placed a restriction on her mind as a solution regarding her condition. Though husband and wife, Jane and John's personalities differ extremely as John carries himself as a practical, reasonable, and factual man. His unknowing sense of arrogance is displayed as Jane revisits his forceful language. Jane hears him in his head demanding orders and telling her what to think while she blindly obeys. Johns egotism is on full display when he stated to Jane, “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. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (Gilman 12). Because of his respected command he convinced Jane that absolute rest in a confined room would be the most effective way to treat her depression. The effect of John's words led any of Jane’s emotion and opinion cast as mentally ill. The biggest irony is how his treatment actually led to a mental
In the beginning of the novel John indicates the term based on his point of view of Jane's so called nervousness over temporary life. As a result, the Doctor husband's authoritative knowledge forced Jane into a backfiring treatment. John diagnosed her with “hysterical tendencies” and placed a restriction on her mind as a solution regarding her condition. Though husband and wife, Jane and John's personalities differ extremely as John carries himself as a practical, reasonable, and factual man. His unknowing sense of arrogance is displayed as Jane revisits his forceful language. Jane hears him in his head demanding orders and telling her what to think while she blindly obeys. Johns egotism is on full display when he stated to Jane, “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. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (Gilman 12). Because of his respected command he convinced Jane that absolute rest in a confined room would be the most effective way to treat her depression. The effect of John's words led any of Jane’s emotion and opinion cast as mentally ill. The biggest irony is how his treatment actually led to a mental