Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer introduces and analyzes the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Specifically, the writer critically analyzes the literary elements of the story along with women's concerns specific to the period when the story was written in 1891. The writer notes that Gilman's story is the tragic tale of a woman's descent into madness at the hands of the men in her life, specifically her doctor and her husband, who control her every movement until she goes mad. The writer points out that women at the turn of the 20th century had very little say in their own lives, and were usually at the mercy of their husbands for their living conditions, relationships, and even taking care of their own family, just as the woman in the story is. The writer discusses that women were beginning to stand up for themselves and demand better treatment, and many critics feel Gilman's work is one of the classic feminist works of all time, and especially of the period.

From the Paper:

"Finally, the symbolism of the wallpaper in the story adds to the tense atmosphere that clearly exists between the narrator and her husband. The wallpaper is a very real symbol of the societal issues that keep them apart. The narrator begins to fear her husband, and even hate him a little, and she begins to hide things from him that she knows he would not approve of or condone. The wallpaper is the visual symbol of the barrier that exists between them because of the mores and beliefs of a society that devalues women instead of empowering them, and that is another reason this is such a disturbing story.
"Interestingly, the wallpaper itself, which becomes almost a character in itself in the story, was beginning to go out of fashion at the time Gilman wrote this story."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gilman, C.P. (1999). The yellow wallpaper. The Harper Single Volume of American Literature (3rd ed.). McQuade, D., Atwan, R., Banta, M., Kaplan, J., Minter, D., Stepto, R., Tichi, C., & Vendler, H. (Eds.). New York: Longman. pp. 1735-1746.
• --. (1913). Why I wrote the yellow wallpaper. Retrieved from the College of Staten Island Web site: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/whyyw.html 16 Oct. 2007.
• Hume, B. A. (2002). Managing madness in Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper". Studies in American Fiction, 30(1), 3+.
• Roth, M. (2001). Gilman's arabesque wallpaper. Mosaic (Winnipeg), 34(4), 145+.

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