📖[PDF] The Yellow Wallpaper von Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Perlego (2024)

FAQs

What is the meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman? ›

The main theme of The Yellow Wallpaper centers around the mental, emotional, and physical harm caused by the limited role women were allowed to play in society and their own families during the Victorian era. The unnamed narrator is not allowed self-expression, autonomy, or a voice in her marriage.

The story describes a young woman and her husband. He imposes a rest cure on her when she suffers "temporary nervous depression" after the birth of their baby. They spend the summer at a colonial mansion, where the narrator is largely confined to an upstairs nursery.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman won much attention in 1892 for publishing “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a semi-autobiographical short story dealing with mental health and contemporary social expectations for women.

Horrifyingly, Gilman was inspired to write 'The Yellow Wallpaper' because of her own experiences with postpartum depression, and with the then very well-known “rest cure” which had been popularised in the 19th century, and was prescribed for her, by Dr Silas Weir Mitchell.

Why does John faint at the end of the story? John faints at the end of the story because the narrator's erratic and destructive behavior shocks him. He cannot believe that his wife, whom he presumed was improving in her condition, has fallen into such animalistic behavior.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the female narrator goes through a temporary nervous depression due to childbirth; in an attempt to help, her husband prescribes for her a treatment where she is confined to an old nursery room with yellow wallpaper for three months.

The moral of the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is that women should be given a say in their recovery instead of being dismissed, controlled, or infantilized during their recovery from mental health issues.

The story ends with the narrator believing she herself has emerged from the wallpaper. Most analyses commonly state that this ending depicts her descent into a full-fledged psychosis. And yet, readers may also come to an inverse conclusion.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story told from the perspective of a woman facing the tribulations of mental illness. She is moved to the country by her husband for a “fresh-air cure” which not only fails, but worsens her condition.

Jane hates the yellow wallpaper because she spends so much time in the room that its color and patterns irritate her. She is mentally ill and thinks the lines on the wallpaper commit suicide.

Did she have a baby in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›

Yes, the story indicates that Jane has a baby in "The Yellow Wallpaper," but the child is not present or allowed to be with its mother during her psychological recovery.

The narrator—whose name may or may not be Jane—is highly imaginative and a natural storyteller, though her doctors believe she has a “slight hysterical tendency.” The story is told in the form of her secret diary, in which she records her thoughts as her obsession with the wallpaper grows.

Self-Expression, Miscommunication, and Misunderstanding

Alongside questions of gender and mental illness in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the simple story of a woman who is unable fully to express herself, or to find someone who will listen.

The yellow wallpaper symbolizes society and patriarchy. The narrator hates the wallpaper. She spends hours staring at it, trying to figure out a pattern, so she can understand it. This represents someone examining the patriarchal society, trying to find a solid reason for it and failing.

The irony in this situation is that despite John's certainty that he's doing the right thing by confining Jane to her bedroom and isolating her from other people, this treatment plan actually worsens her condition, pushing her to have a full-on mental breakdown at the end of the story.

The Room With the Yellow Wallpaper

The room symbolizes two things. First, it acts as a prison to the narrator, and secondly, it symbolizes her mental decline over the short story. The narrator does not want to stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper, but John talks her into it.

The story ends with the narrator believing she herself has emerged from the wallpaper. Most analyses commonly state that this ending depicts her descent into a full-fledged psychosis. And yet, readers may also come to an inverse conclusion.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a seminal piece of feminist literature, explores themes of mental illness, patriarchal oppression, and female autonomy.

A yellow paper is a document containing research that has not yet been formally accepted or published in an academic journal. It is synonymous with the more widely used term preprint.