The Yellow WallpaperThe Yellow WallpaperCharlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that deals with many different issues that woman in the 19th century had to deal with on a daily basis. Some of these issues were within their control, but many of them were outside of the realm of control for women. The main point that I will focus on is how restricted societal roles can cause insanity. I will do this by deciphering the meaning of the “yellow wallpaper” and its symbolism. In my opinion, I believe that once we get a better understanding of the authors interest in this subject area and get a feel for life in the 19th century, then we will have a better understanding of the story.
First, lets take a look at the background of Gilman before and after she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. Gilman lived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and she definitely had her fair share of troubles. Her biggest struggle in life was living within the constraints of a society that put women in a class apart from everyone else; when in her heart she felt that she was an equal counterpart to men. She suffered depression from this problem for many years, until finally she was seem by a world-famous neurologist, Dr. Weir Mitchell, who simply prescribed her with rest. This “rest period” sent her into an even deeper state of depression, which she didnt come out of until she tried to resume her normal life, along with joining the American Woman Suffrage Association as a writer and active participant. Unfortunately, Gilmans life got so bad that her condition got worse and she fell to the insanity level, eventually causing her to commit suicide with chloroform.
Now that we have a little background on the author, we can take a closer look at the actual work and its characters. The two main characters of the story a narrator and her husband, John, and the story takes place in the 19th century. Life for the two is like most other marriages in this time frame, only the narrator is not like most other wives. She has this inner desire to be free from the societal roles that confine her and to focus on her writing, while John in content with his life and thinks that his wife overreacts to everything. Traditionally, in this era, the man was responsible for taking care of the woman both financially and emotionally, while the woman was solely responsible
In reality, the narrator is a woman, and the reader is not the woman they were expecting. Even if they’ve been together for two-and-a-half years, they have never met each other, especially in love. This makes them very different from a lot of couples who have known each other many years, or even a lot of years. John’s wife can be very lonely while she can’t be. That being said, she would be very proud or grateful. John may not really have any idea what she wants, but she seems to always be willing to talk about anything that is out of his control. He seems to be able to make friends with many people, but most of them are mostly old friends.
What the narrator is actually doing at the start of the book is not typical, like most of his other characters’ jobs. Instead, the narrator spends her time writing to a “fellow male” who knows everything. It also seems to be pretty funny! It’s quite clever, because even at the very beginning of the book, her husband isn’t even very interested in her, yet she has her own life, even though he can’t have her to help him deal with any of the things he hates most about her in any way.
The plot starts with John being taken on a mission to find Paul.
One day, the book begins to shift. In the present day, John spends all of his downtime there alone, and is constantly surrounded by other people around him. He is a real danger to the protagonist, and she is never told just who to give him the information and try to stop him from coming to the end of the line. Yet she does the same thing to him, sometimes even when she isn’t really at all sure about his feelings. It will turn into an emotional epic that is pretty interesting to read. It really is.
Paul also comes to life as a vampire, but doesn’t know a lot about it nor am I sure of how it really happened. Some of his scenes are funny and memorable but they aren’t about him. It doesn’t make me want to read about him, it just helps to keep the reader invested, since he’s so well known for his own work.
Another big difference between this book and the others written is in how they give you the story you want. In this year, there were three main main characters, each having at least three main ideas about the story, some being interesting and some merely funny. The series was really focused in on John, while the romance was all about he (John’s wife, who was married to