The Yellow Wallpaper Essays (970 words) - Mental Illness In Fiction

The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story has a gothic presence that shows how a woman?s oppression, by her husband, drives her soul away, leaving her insane and in a world of delusion. The narrator of this story is a new mother, most likely suffering from post-partum depression; of course this was unheard of during the time era of this story. Her husband, John, is a physician who believes she is afflicted by nothing more than a self induced nervous condition. In hopes of her recovery he takes her to a country home where she is isolated and can rest and be quiet. At first, he comes across as a caring husband but soon it?s evident that his caring attitude is more of a condescending one. He patronizes and shrugs off every request or expression she makes, leaving her like a mindless robot. She spends most of her time isolated in a bedroom that she loathes because of the ugly yellow wallpaper that covers the walls and the bars on the windows. Alone in an unhealthy environment, her voice being unheard, along with the childish treatment from her husband and suffering from a mental illness all play a part in her breakdown and loss of reality. The narrator is passionate about writing but John clearly states to his wife that she is not to be writing, for it will only impede her recovery. However, the narrator tries to continue writing in secrecy resulting in feelings of great exasperation. Removing her passion of writing is more of a punishment than of a caring protection for her rehabilitation and sure to be an ingredient for her psychotic behavior. Her isolation and loneliness are evident when she says, ?It is so discouraging to not have any advice or companionship about my work?. Moreover, the limitations that John has placed upon his wife, such as allowing her no freedom to express her thoughts verbally or on paper and no human interaction are causing the narrator a great deal of anguish. These are large contributing forces in her definitive mental instability that are plummeting her to madness. Although the woman's insanity is being profoundly affected by John's confinement and restrictions, the surroundings he has placed in her only add to the woman further spiraling into insanity. The room that her husband has chosen for her to reside in has foul yellow wallpaper on the walls that the woman dreads. Being locked in the room day in and day out, with nothing to entertain her, the woman begins to use the ambiguous designs on the wallpaper and shadows cast from the moonlight to see another world. The wallpaper becomes a sort of panacea, during the day it is her solace and at night it becomes a dark insidious world but one that interacts with her. Her delusional mind begins to see a woman, then more women and eventually her sanity drifts to a place where she sees herself in the wallpaper. Additionally, the windows in the room are barred up, giving the illusion of an asylum. This makes the woman feel as if she or the mysterious woman within the wallpaper is imprisoned. When eve ning falls the shadows that are cast about the room give the presence of movement and of strange objects, in her eyes. She begins to identify with this unreal world because it interacts with her, unlike her husband, John. All human beings need interaction of some sort to identify with and as a means to communicate. The woman lacks this because of the controlled grip her husband has on her. The wallpaper becomes her escape from the reformatory she is trapped in. As the wallpaper is slowly being peeled away so is her connection and submission to John. She is feeling comfortable and in touch with her surroundings and less with John and world outside of the bedroom. The term ?creep? is used throughout the story for different contexts such as when she is describing the smell of the wallpaper and says, ?It creeps all over the house?. Additionally, when she describes her movement at night she states, ?John was asleep and I hated to