Peeling Away the Layers
The Yellow Wallpaper illustrates the narrator's plight in the Victorian era. The main character, the narrator, is a woman suffering from depression in a time when women were totally dependent on men, and often dismissed as being nervous and hysterical females. The inability of women to become active persons in their own lives as well as, society's decision making processes being dominated by men, contributed to the narrator's malaise. The story is told from the female perspective, a depressed woman struggling to survive. The story takes place at a summer vacation home, where the narrator's husband, a physician treats her depression in a condescending manner. He either placates her, or dismisses her feelings, typical of the Victorian era: "If a physician of high standing, and ones own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do?" (658). This is an example of her oppressed female status in the existing society, as well as, in her own life. Other dominant males in her life also hold the same opinion: "My brother is also a physician, and also of high standings, and he says the same thing."(658). Again, th
I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once. Her obsession with the wallpaper intensifies day by day. The cause of her depression may be attributed to what we now call post - partom - depression. There is talk of sending her away to a specialist for "rest cure" in an institution:But I don't want to go there at all. I am getting dreadful fretful and querulous. An element of foreshadowing is demonstrated when the narrator discovers something intriguing about the wallpaper: There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. The fact that she feels safe to write at all is because she is writing a "dead paper" to no-one: "I did write for awhile in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition. Further compounding the depression, the "rest-cure" causes her to become increasingly introspective. She has discovered that she cannot go back. This denial of her feelings along with the isolation only exacerbates the depression.
Common topics in this essay:
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Jane I've,
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