Pares 1 Modesto Pares ENC 1102 Professor Jacobs April 9, 2014 The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilmans

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story about a woman named Jane, who, with her husband, John, whom spent three months in a summer home for Jane to destress, but she ends up losing her sanity instead. Gilman wrote this story to serve as a warning to people undermining others illnesses or their cries for help. The Yellow Wallpaper is full of personal information based on the authors own life, as well as underlying themes and hidden symbols. Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper is a suspense story filled with massive amounts of information from Gilmans personal life; one could even almost call it autobiographical. In the mid-1800s Gilman fell into the same mental illness that her character, Jane, suffered from, which was some kind of intense nervousness, and was prescribed the same treatment as Jane in The Yellow Wallpaper (Students); for Gilman the act of writing was what restored her health. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the act of writing was taken away from Jane, because her husband, John disagreed with it. At one point in the story, Jane even says: I did for a while write in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good dealhaving to be so sly about it, or else met with heavy opposition (Gilman). One can only assume that the heavy opposition is John. This quote is very ironic because in an essay written by Gilman titled: Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman states that writing helped her cure her own mental issues. (qtd in Korb)

Pares 2 Gilmans Essay did not stop there, in that very same essay Gilman goes on to write that: her reason for writing the horrifying story was to address the common nineteenth-century practice of the rest cure for women with nerve problems (Students). In an article called: An overview of The Yellow Wallpaper the author, Rena Korb, stated that in an interview, Gilman Said: I wrote the story to save people from being driven crazy. (Korb) Gilmans use of her personal life gives The Yellow Wallpaper information and a certain view that other authors would not have been able to successfully give if they did not have that personal connection. Also, during the time that Gilman was going through her mental issues, she was married to a doctor, just like Jane was. The main difference between The Yellow Wallpapers Jane and Charlotte Perkins Gilman is that Gilman ended up divorcing her husband after the rest treatment did not work and got better; whereas Jane, stayed with John, and gradually got worse, until she inevitably went insane. (Kerr) You can also see Gilmans portrayal of women in this time through the way that she made the character Jane out to be: weak minded, and dependent on John for almost everything. Gilmans grand-aunts were both very active in womens rights during this time. Gilman portrayed Jane as a woman who was eager to please her husband while she ignored her own well-being. In doing so, Jane doomed herself and fell deeper into her illness, instead of ignoring John. Gilman did the opposite, left her husband and got better; one can see what Gilmans true feelings are towards women, in the outcome of The Yellow Wallpaper. In the ending of The Yellow Wallpaper Jane winds up losing her sanity, this shows that Gilman beliefs if a woman depends on a man for every single thing in her life, then she will surely be doomed. Symbolism is another part of The Yellow Wallpaper; one perfect example of symbolism is when Jane refers to: the heavy bedstead, the barred windows, and the gate at the

Pares 3 end of the stairs(Gilman). The bedstead, barred windows, and gate are all symbols of Janes incarceration or her entrapment in the room with the yellow wallpaper. Jane also says there is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes at you upside down (Kerr). This spot eventually, for Jane, turns into a woman she must free; that spot is a symbol for Jane, and when she does finally free that woman, it is like she is freeing herself from that house or that place. In an article titled: His and hers: Mental breakdown as depicted by Evelyn Waugh and Charlotte Perkins Gilman the author states: Gilmans I comes increasingly close to identifying the ominous skulking figure in the wallpaper as herself; this just helps prove that the yellow wallpaper is also a physical representation of Janes mental illness/state. As Janes mind worsens, so does her obsession with the wallpaper and when it reaches a breaking point, she tears away at it, that symbolizes her mind finally giving out. Another symbol in The Yellow Wallpaper is Janes diary; Janes diary is a way for her to share her feelings and express herself. The diary also acts as a personal confidant for Jane, she treats it almost like a real person and writes in it like so; For example, when Jane writes: I will take a nap now or there is sister on the stairs!(Gilman) These quotes show that she thinks of her diary almost as another person and writes/speaks to it like so, so the diary is a symbol of someone Jane can trust and talk to. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story with multiple themes, ranging from doctors undermining patients, to negligent spouses. In The Yellow Wallpaper Jane first tells her husband, then her brother of her illness and she says: You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do? .... My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing (Gilman). These quotes show just how much her husband and her brother, both high-regarded physicians, just ignore Jane and her illness. As a result of undermining Janes

Pares 4 illness, she eventually becomes sicker and loses her sanity. Another theme in The Yellow Wallpaper is spouses ignoring their significant other; John, Janes husband, constantly ignores her cries for help and believes that she is over-reacting. For example: when Jane asks John to change the wallpaper in the house he replies that she is letting it get the better of her, and that nothing is worse for a nervous patient than to give away to such fancies (Gilman). This constant ignorance of Janes illness is a huge part of why she becomes worse. Instead of paying attention to Jane, John lets her try to heal by herself with no support; where if he did give her some support, and actually treated and watched her, Jane might not have lost her mind. Another theme in The Yellow Wallpaper is that men are smarter or stronger than women. In an analysis written by Melissa Barth, Barth states that: At the time if the story, most people believed that women were delicate and prone to madness if overstressed (Barth). In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many examples of her own life in this short story such as: her history with mental illness, and her previous relationships. Along with her own real-life experiences, Gilman uses underlying themes such as: doctors neglecting their patients and spouses ignoring their loved ones, just to name a few. Lastly, Gilman uses many symbols to show Jane, the main characters entrapment, for example: Gilman uses barred windows to show that Jane is stuck in the room, and the yellow wallpaper to stand as a physical representation of Janes mind. The Yellow Wallpaper is full of personal information based on the authors own life, as well as underlying themes and hidden symbols.

Pares 5 Works Consulted

Barth, Melissa E.The Yellow Wallpaper. Masterplots: Short Story Series, Revised Edition. 2004. Literary Reference Center. Web. 3 March 2014 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Kelly J. Mays.Shorter 11th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2013.478-489. Print Kerr, Calum A. "Literary Contexts In Short Stories: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. Korb, Rena. "An overview of 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Post, Stephen L. Literature and Medicine 9: 172-180. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism.Vol. 146. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Students Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman. New York: Facts on File, 2008. 445-446. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.