Yellow Wallpaper Depression

Words: 885
Pages: 4
Open Document
Charlotte Perkin Gilman was born July 3, 1860, and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Gilman was a novelist and woman rights activist during her time in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her father, Frederick Beecher Perkins is a relative of the Beecher family. Gilman is the niece of the legendary writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Gilman father abandoned the family, leaving Charlotte mother to rear two children alone. The family moved around constantly during her childhood, which results in her education suffering considerably. But the neglect of her father didn't stop her from being the best-known author that wrote thousands of the greatest works, from short journalism to nonfiction books. In 1884 Gilman married artist …show more content…
The experience from the disease believed to have inspired her to write the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." John, the doctor in the story, assumes to be Gilman doctor Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, who treated her while she was ill with neurasthenia. Dr. Mitchell forbade Charlotte to write suggesting she live as private life as possible. In the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator endures a disease call postpartum depression, which you can develop after childbirth. Nonetheless, the narrator illness gets worse by seeing female figures on the wallpaper on her bedroom wall and crawls on the floor looking for a way out. Consequently, the author Charlotte Gilman plans to inform readers on how she suffers from this disease after giving birth. Although, it took a while for the reader to understand the story. The story lies a tale of restraint and freedom told in complex symbolism as seen through the eyes of a raging narrator. When examining this story, Gilman added in some of her personal experience such as Charlotte was driving into delusion as a result of the Victorian “rest-cure,” prescribed by Dr. Mitchell which he thought would cure hysteria in women in those …show more content…
The wife transferred against her will to a room on the third floor of the home, which owners previously used as a playroom, gymnasium, and a nursery. The room has yellow wallpaper that serves as a prison where the narrator is a mentally ill person, restricted from the learning activities of reading and writing. The wife rebels against the constraints by keeping a secret journal. When John found her journal he felt she being disobedience to his orders, and he cruelly destroyed her diary. The narrator not having any social interactions are also minimums. The husband travels for different cases he may have in other cities, so the wife regularly left without emotional support from her husband. When John arrives home, his communications are rude, and he dismisses her concerns about her mental condition. The narrator role is clearly to support him and trust foolishly that her personal condition is progressing. John’s arrogant's does not allow him to see that his wife's disorder has worsened. Jennie (John's sister), who maintains the household, is another example of the limited role of women. She busies herself with decorating, managing the kitchen, and oversee Mary taking care of the narrator
Show More

Related Documents: Yellow Wallpaper Depression

Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

mothers can develop a mental health condition known as postpartum depression. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist has a mild feeling of depression after childbirth, and her husband John, a physician, mistreats her and believes that a change of scenery and employing the rest of the cure would improve her mental health. Subsequently, her mental health deteriorated and she ripped off the yellow wallpaper in the house. During this decline in her mental state, she recorded…

Words 806 - Pages 4

Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

In The Yellow Wallpaper, by Gilman, the narrator is most likely in a state of postpartum depression and lacking credibility to her private writings. Due to her mental illness, it is hard to take what she says at face value, as readers. The narrator has a child with her husband, John; she is not permitted to see due to her illness. She states how being with the baby makes her nervous; this implies the narrator is not stable enough to take care of her child. In the short story, the narrator expresses…

Words 650 - Pages 3

Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

born and can include seeing and hearing. In the short story, “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a young woman is diagnosed with severe mental illness and suffers from her husband's understanding and trust. The patient has postpartum depression because of the baby she had, a nervous disorder from the suspicion that her husband, and hallucinations as well. She starts to see things that aren't really there, like the wallpaper she has been observing for almost 3 months. The narrative suffers…

Words 587 - Pages 3

The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.” - Charlotte P. Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced depression in a time that society failed to accept people with mental illness, nor did they recognize its symptoms as those of a true physical condition. In addition, the “epidemic” of depression and mental illness in…

Words 549 - Pages 3

An Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

reason what is known as postpartum depression today was known as hysteria in the late 19th century. Postpartum depression is depression suffered by a mother after birth, while hysteria is exaggerated or uncontrolled emotions. Compared to how women are treated now and how they were treated back then it was worse in the late 19th century. Women were treated as insane or unworthy. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman we…

Words 1153 - Pages 5

Yellow Wallpaper Mental Health

In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane, a woman admitted to a mental institution, struggles with her depression in a hostile environment during an unaccepting era. Throughout the story, Jane must resist her urge to leave the room she has been placed in for rest, and ignore the inner struggle that the wallpaper in the room causes for her. Eventually, the wallpaper becomes the only thing anchoring her to reality. Charlotte Perkins Gilman also endeavored through depression and rest…

Words 976 - Pages 4

Essay on The Hidden Meaning

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. It is the story about an unidentified woman, who is the narrator possibly is named Jane, and her husband John. This fictional story which has a plot, a setting, a cast of characters, and a point of view which is told from the narrator. However, it is the way in which the story is told and the unexpected conclusion of the story that have. The yellow wallpaper in the story symbolizes the narrators marriage with her husband John. In the beginning…

Words 973 - Pages 4

Symbolism In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

“The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (Gilman, “Yellow Wallpaper” 469). For the narrator, this wallpaper becomes an obsession that feeds this unclean desire to continue writing despite her husband’s will and the wallpaper serves as a mirror that reflects the narrators desire to be free. It becomes quite comical how the narrator begins describing the wallpaper as she enters it for the first time. This behavior is usual with…

Words 1089 - Pages 5

yellow wallpaper

of The Yellow Wallpaper, used many literary devices to strengthen her story and develop the character of the narrator. The story is written in a first person point of view. The speaker/Narrator is portrayed as an anxious, depressed woman who is delusional. The author used the element of repetition in describing the yellow wallpaper, this shows that the wallpaper is of importance and how the speaker is paranoid and imaginative. The description of the wallpaper as “a smoldering unclean yellow...” helps…

Words 426 - Pages 2

Papers: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Realistic Story

Antonio Crespo 5-26-2013 Per.2 Mrs. Coleman The Yellow Wallpaper Very commonly a person is labeled insane due to behavior from the outcome of loneliness as well as depression. Therefore, in the case of the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a realistic story. The short story shows how not socializing, being excluded from the outside world and manipulation can increase Postpartum Depression. This moral makes the story realistic because cases similar to this occur…

Words 393 - Pages 2