The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis Essay

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Katie Wesson Professor Festus Ndeh English 1102-TEAB 9 September 2014 The True Confinement of a Nineteenth Century Woman In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she uses the setting to explain the development of the narrator’s insanity through the actions of the narrator. The nameless narrator suffers from postpartum disease which causes depression, and lack of joy in life. Throughout the story, the narrator’s condition worsens, because of the isolation and lack of power due to her husband controlling her, but at the end of the story, she becomes free from her husband and gains power. Through the themes of imprisonment and the struggle for women’s rights, the author reveals this by the time era, the way the unnamed author…show more content…
Women during this time were expected to obey their husbands and do household work. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unnamed narrator takes a summer trip to a mansion in the country that happens to be isolated. This mansion is located in the United States in the outskirts of a town. During this time era, women are objects of their husbands and represent their spouses. Because the wives represent their husbands, they are expected to be nearly perfect. For an example, throughout the story, the narrator tries to explain to her husband that she does have a condition but he denies it and tells her she’s okay. Even though she is not okay, he tries to believe nothing is wrong with her. This leads to the denial of the narrator’s postpartum…show more content…
The narrator’s husband goes on a summer trip with his wife to escape reality for a little while. He takes her to what was once a gorgeous mansion that is now old and beat up. The mansion is also said to be haunted. There is a room in the house that only the narrator stays in with yellow covered wallpaper with bars on the windows. The bars are an example of being trapped or prisoned. But the wallpaper symbolizes imprisonment and then freedom. The narrator first disguises the wallpaper, and then becomes overly obsessed with it. She begins to become so addicted and gripped to the yellow wallpaper, she believes that she is trapped within the wallpaper. Yellow is said to be a “happy” and a bright color, but in this story it symbolizes dreariness and being dull, but still holds its beauty. As the insane narrator begins to peel away the wallpaper, she gets a sense of freedom. At the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she becomes to have power over her husband because as she unravels the wallpaper, her husband faints and loses his
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