The Repressive Elements of The Yellow Wallpaper Often times what is meant to help can hinder. Positive intentions do not always bring about desirable effects. The "Yellow Wallpaper" is an example of such an occurrence. In this short story the narrator is detained in a lonesome, drab room in an attempt to free herself of a nervous disorder. During the era in which this narrative was written such practices were considered beneficial. The narrators husband, a physician adheres to this belief and forces his wife into a treatment of solitude. Rather than heal the narrator of her psychological disorder, the treatment only contributes to its effects, driving her into a severe depression. Under the orders of her husband, the narrator was moved to a house far from society in the country, wherein she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serves to physically restrain her. "The windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls."(p218). Being exposed to the room's yellow wallpaper is dreadful and fosters only negative
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The narrator did not believe isolation would cure her disorder. Perhaps some of today's treatments are the "Yellow Wallpaper" of the future. "I didn't realize for a long time what the thing was that dim sub pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman. In a frantic action the now malfunctioning narrator began to try to free the women from behind the wallpaper's pattern. To fulfill her social need she invents a person she thinks she sees inside the wallpaper. The narrator tells of the haphazard pattern having no organization or symmetrical plot. "(p227) The treatment contributes to her impending mental demise She is first diagnosed with a minor nervous disorder. Society provides a sundry of different sights, sounds, feelings and stimuli to its inhabitants. On her last day of treatment she is participating with hallucinations as if they are real. The disorder which is being treated is actually strengthened to the point of a serious mental illness. Her husband goes into the room and upon seeing his wife in a deranged state creeping through the torn wallpaper falls on the floor and faints. There is nothing to do in the secluded room but stare at the wallpaper.
Approximate Word count =
788
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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