Preview

How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Relate To Psychology

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
316 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Relate To Psychology
In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator has psychological repression since her husband does not listen to her thoughts and insists on the rest cure. The psychologist, Sigmund Freud, theorized three components of mind which really incorporates on the protagonist. I can analyze the narrator in two stages: when she is conscious at the beginning, she thinks she cannot persuade her husband that "congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good", so she writes hopelessly "But what is one to do?" and obeys her husband unwillingly; when she is unconscious, the narrator imagines that there is a forbidden woman in the yellow wallpaper, then she tears the wallpaper insanely and escapes the maison with the imaginary woman.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the author of “Tell Tale Heart”, Edgar Allen Poe, illustrated the characters in the perspective views of other people that they are mentally ill. When comparing and contrasting “Tell Tale Heart” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, they both focus on the concept of the descent from sanity to madness but each author has a different vocabulary and style.…

    • 244 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the reader is presented with the many different emotions and perspectives of the narrator as she sees images of a woman in the wallpaper. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, successfully makes this event interesting and significant. Some may see the lady behind the wallpaper as something the narrator sees because she is “crazy” or imagines for no other reason than boredom. However, only one thing must be true as various parts in the story allude and point to. The narrator is the woman trapped in the wallpaper, and the narrator reflects on her feelings of imprisonment within reality and her own mind.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The narrator in, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” suffers from depression, although her husband, who is a doctor, does not consider it an illness. Therefore, he keeps her on a strict rest cure. She is not allowed to do work of any form, not even care for her baby. All she allowed to do is rest in her room and breath in the air as prescribed by her husband. Because she spends most of her time in her room, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room and it drives her to insanity. The lack of creative stimulation and relationships with others causes the narrator’s obsession with the yellow wallpaper which leads her to believe she is trapped behind bars in this yellow wallpaper.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper” a woman is trapped in a colonial mansion where she cannot do anything on her own. She is forced to sit and do nothing. She is not allowed to interact with the outside world or even write, because it is considered to be too much for her and the cause of her nervousness. As this so called resting treatment continues she slowly begins to lose her mind.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the surface, the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper simply shows an insane woman who began suffering from depression after the birth of her child. The narrator was placed into a house, which was in the middle of nowhere, where she received dangerous treatment and often gets belittled by her husband, who is also her doctor. Her treatment required her not to do anything active, especially writing. Although some would conclude that the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is just about an insane woman struggling with post-partum depression and isolation, it shows the protagonists struggle with trying to break out of the mental constraints she has been placed under and her need for self-expression through her journal.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is written in the perspective of the narrator as her journal where she reveals her deepest most personal thoughts about herself and her life, yet she still remains a very mysterious character. Her name is never revealed, and the reason the author does not reveal her name is so the story of her struggle could represent the struggles of many other going through the same situation. It is clear from the beginning of the story that she is an unreliable narrator because it is mentioned that her husband who is a doctor has diagnosed her with temporary nervous depression with slight hysterical tendencies. She seems to be a very creative and sensitive person who is a writer, but she is forbidden from writing in her journal by her husband who thinks that too much mental stimulation will only make her condition worse.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    She later decayed from the oppression that stole her freedom. The main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” hung on to her husband because according to her, "it is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so". She depends on him and also fears him too. He took her freedom away and left her mentally worn down too. These stories talk about men who still had old-fashioned beliefs and convictions at a time when the attitudes and beliefs of the world were changing. The women suffered from the way they were treated by the men they were supposed to trust and love.…

    • 2498 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The protagonist, who is unnamed, struggles with postpartum depression, which is causing her to become mentally unstable. In her temporary three-month bedroom, the yellow wallpaper becomes more than just a sheet of paper on the wall. She envisions this imaginary woman (her shadow) on the paper struggling to escape some part of her life, but she struggles to become free from the lines within the pattern of the wallpaper. This character she is seeing is symbolic as it represents her oppressive life she is living under the supervision of her husband, John who happens to be a “high-standing” doctor (21). This projection of an imaginary woman eventually leads to the breakdown of the protagonists’ individual personality. Ironically, the narrator is…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thesis Statement – The narrator in “The yellow wallpaper” portrays an emptiness of life away from society which force her to initiate mental imagery and loses control of her mental state. Body A. Symbolism…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator must deal with several different conflicts. She is diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression and a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 221). Most of her conflicts, such as, differentiating from creativity and reality, her sense of entrapment by her husband, and not fitting in with the stereotypical role of women in her time, are centered around her mental illness and she has to deal with them.…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The main character in Charlotte P.Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, narrates her own life and describes her struggle with depression which by the end of the story evolved into insanity. Narrator’s husband, John, treats her like a small child, forbids her to express herself, and keeps her bound to restricted room. Due to her husbands actions she becomes physically, emotionally and socially isolated, which ultimately made her insane.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper, it can be inferred that the woman’s state of mind is slowly worsening. The woman in the story…

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When someone uses the word “insanity,” the human mind may potentially go many in many different directions when defining it. One person may claim that the definition is “doing something over and over again and expecting a different result,” however, many other people believe in using the words “crazy” or “mad” to associate with insanity. Insanity is many things, but overall, it is something that affects the human body and mind in horrid, terrifying ways over a period of time. What causes insanity? The main cause among mental instability and other causes, is isolation. Isolation can cause horrifying changes to the human body and mind and can cause a mediocre human being to go dashing into the embrace of insanity.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some people thinks being alone may shorten lives. But contrary to all beliefs isolation actually helps people make it through the day. Whether it is for an hour, 3 hours or even 5 hours. Isolation has its fair share of advantages. Being around people constantly can sometimes take a toll on people , so being alone for a while is well needed in today’s society. There’s so much going on today. Terrible things are happening everyday, it’s hard to not want to just get away from people and the social media.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout life there may be somethings that may make a person seem as they are going insane. In the story “The Yellow-Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the narrator is staying in a summer house with her husband, John. She is going through a nervous condition which is keeping her from working until she is well enough to do so. John takes diligent care of her as she is going through her illness and makes sure she is well taken care of. The room her and her husband are staying in, in the summer home, has yellow wallpaper. This yellow wallpaper seems to have a big effect on the narrator as she starts seeing a woman behind the wall. She only sees the women in the daylight doing odd things. At the end of the story the women behind the yellow wallpaper has got to her and makes her go crazy. She tears the wallpaper off to let the women out and makes her husband faint. In “The Yellow Wall-paper” the women suffers from anxiety, hallucination, and depression which causes her to go insane.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays