In Charlotte Perkins Gilman ‘s short narrative, “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” the scene takes topographic point in the nineteenth century at a “ holiday place ” during the summer months. The storyteller of the narrative late had a kid, and she is enduring from post-partum depression. Her hubby whom is a physician, recommend that they get off for a small piece because she needed her remainder. Throughout the narrative she describes in great item how she feels about the wallpaper that surrounds her in isolation, where she is non allowed to show herself through composing. Ultimately the scene she is in, and non being able to compose therapeutically along with the wallpaper drives her insane.
The chief scene occurs in a room upstairs. It is a au naturel room with bars along the Windowss. The walls are covered with this horrid xanthous wallpaper. “ The colour is rebarbative, about revolting: a smouldering dirty yellow, queerly faded by the slow-turning sunshine. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some topographic points, a sallow sulpur shade in others ” ( 722 ) . The bare room used to be an old baby’s room, which is dry sing she is enduring from post-partum depression. She is already mentally unstable. “ It was a baby’s room foremost, and so rumpus room and secondary school, I should judge, for the Windowss are barred for small kids, and there are rings and things in the walls ” ( 722 ) . It makes perfect sense to set her in isolation in a room that used to be some kind of kids ‘s room. The bed is nailed down to the floor, which makes it crystal clear that she is in a sanatorium. “ I lie here on this great immoveable bed-it is nailed down ” ( 725 ) .
The longer she sat in the bare room the more fixated she became with the xanthous wallpaper. The wallpaper consumed her life as the narrative progressed. The storyteller became even more disassociated with world. While she was in this drab room, she began to compose about her emotions and ideas. She hid her Hagiographas from her household because she did non desire them to be angry with her. “ There comes John ‘s sister. Such a beloved miss as she is, and so careful of me! I must non allow her happen me composing ” ( 724 ) . Her household believed it was best for her non to believe at all, that she should merely hold an idle head.
Towards the center of the narrative her Hagiographas are non every bit frequent as they were in the beggary of the narrative. This gives her more clip to be obsessed with the xanthous wallpaper. She describes the xanthous wallpaper in great item, of how she genuinely detested the paper. “ It is dull plenty to confound the oculus in following, pronounced plenty to constantly irritate and renege survey, and when you follow the square unsure curves for a small distance they all of a sudden commit suicide-plunge off at hideous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions ” ( 722 ) . She began to see a adult female behind the paper. There was a important difference in the manner she described the adult female behind the paper during the dark and twenty-four hours. “ There is one pronounced distinctive feature about this paper, a thing cipher seems to detect but myself, and that is that it changes as the light alterations ” ( 727 ) . During the twenty-four hours clip she would see the adult female out rolling the evidences in the gardens and by the bay. During the dark clip the adult female would be trapped behind the wallpaper once more.
Some people may reason that the true significance behind the narrative is non a true insane adult female, but a adult female who was seeking to interrupt through the ironss she was bound to, being from that clip period. The storyteller was merely seeking to show herself through the xanthous wallpaper, and she was willing to skin that wallpaper off to see what was underneath. Womans were 2nd category citizens back in those yearss. If a adult female wanted to be independent, and if she did non hold with the “ norm ” of society she was considered “ huffy. ” Peoples frequently thought an person were brainsick, if they had a different sentiment than the remainder of society. In actuality, society is merely scared of the unknown. However, one can comprehend that the narrative is about a adult female who is genuinely insane due to her environing environment. Her authorship had a curative consequence on her. Her household did non desire her to compose because they wanted her to hold an idle head. She was merely seeking to compose to better her unwellness. They would non allow her show herself, which sends her on a downward spiral. Her household believes an idle head will mend itself. The storyteller was locked up in a drab room with the grotesque wallpaper and isolated from society. Ultimately the paper consumed the storyteller ‘s life. She began to state the wallpaper was traveling, and as a consequence she went loony. “ But here I can crawl swimmingly on the floor, and my shoulder merely tantrums in that long smack around the wall, so I can non lose my manner ” ( 731 ) !
Society has come a long manner since the early nineteenth century. If a adult female suffers from postpartum depression in this twenty-four hours and age, society does non lock her up and throw away the key. This is what the storytellers ‘ household did to her. As clip went on the storytellers ‘ status deteriorated quickly. Her household believed an idle head would mend itself. If they would hold kept her at place around the babe, and society the upset would hold healed itself. If the storyteller would hold been given the opportunity to show herself through authorship, and non hold had to conceal it and finally halt authorship she would non hold gone insane. Ultimately the storyteller was driven to insanity. She became a merchandise of her ain environment. When person is secluded from society, and locked in a room with awful wallpaper, and the lone piece of furniture is a bed bolted to the floor. This person is besides non allowed to show their ideas and feelings through authorship ; finally they would travel brainsick excessively.
Work Cited
Gilman Perkins Charlotte. “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” . Exploring Literature. Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Frank Madden 4th erectile dysfunction. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 720-731
