'The Yellow Wallpaper'

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is a masterpiece in the study of psychiatric disorder. The writer points out that according to the author herself, it was written to bring about a change in medical treatment of psychiatric patients in her time. The writer relates that the story revolves around a mentally ill woman whose condition is misdiagnosed and she is left to suffer in a room with yellow wallpaper. As her condition deteriorates, the patient starts having hallucinations that result in her seeing images trapped behind that wallpaper. The writer concludes that 'The Yellow Wallpaper' not only made a convincing case in favor of women liberation but also emerged as the first authentic account of insanity.

From the Paper:

"The fact that it was authentic cannot be denied since it was based on Gilman's life and thus the story received wide acknowledgement and acclaim. The discussion of madness in the story has been done to death but the subject still fascinates a large majority of Gilman's readers and critics alike. However it is the wallpaper itself that has not often received the attention it deserves. It has been described a prison etc but the fact that the very patterns on the wallpaper are found to have negative impact on a person's mental health was largely ignored. But the author must have been fully aware of the problem because the confusion and deterioration in her condition that she had witnessed was for real."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Carter, Susan N. "Wall-papers, Ceilings, and Dados." Household Art. Ed. Candace Wheeler. New York: Harper & Brother, 1893.
• Crane, Stephen. "George's Mother." Works. Ed. Wilson Follett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. 19-90.
• Crewe, Jonathan. "Queering 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Politics of Form." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 14.2 (fall 1995): 273-93.
• Crinson, Mark. Empire Building: Orientalism and Victorian Architecture. New York: Routledge, 1996.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist P, 1973.

More papers on 'The Yellow Wallpaper':

• Analytical Essay # 127732 : "Jane's Insanity in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• Essay # 89300 : "'The Yellow Wallpaper'"
• Book Review # 94713 : "Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• Essay # 71169 : "Settings in the "Yellow Wallpaper"

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