The Yellow Wallpaper Motherhood Absence - 1024 Words

Karen Gramajo Intro to Fiction November 18, 2015 Dr. Kerlin The Yellow Wallpaper: Motherhood Absence The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a woman who lives in the upstairs nursery in an old mansion. Her husband physician places her there for her health and as a form of treatment, is forbidden from working and encouraged to get plenty of exercise and eat well. This treatment is so she can recuperate from a mental illness. The protagonist of the story hides a journal from her husband and his sister housekeeper, fearing of being approached for overworking herself. The story depicts of the narrator’s mental health and obsesses the yellow wallpaper that later on comes in with an odor. In the end, she imagines there are women creeping behinds the patterns of the wallpaper and comes to believe she is one of them. The symbolism in the story relates to the wallpaper but there are other symbols. One example is the symbol of a mother losing her children. The narrator begins to deteriorate psychologically because of her absence from her children and without the purpo se of being a mother creates an imaginary world. The deterioration of motherhood in the character is symbolized through the nursery and the thought of children not being in her presence. The story begins when the narrator describes of renting a colonial mansion over the summer with her husband. She speaks of her husband’s position with his views on aiding her with his views and her disagreement upon it.Show MoreRelatedThe Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening2156 Words   |  9 PagesBased on the late 19th century short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening, the authors depicted childbirth as a traumatic and even torturous experience, which left women to cope with the physical and mental health effects alone. Effects such as these impeded the mothers’ abilities to be the ideal ‘mother-woman’ to their offspring because in the eyes of patriarchal society, they were only existent in the domestic sphere and their feelings and emotions were null and void thus defining themRead More Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper1447 Words   |  6 PagesGender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In Charlotte Perkins Gilmans short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the reader is treated to an intimate portrait of developing insanity. At the same time, the storys first person narrator provides insight into the social attitudes of the storys late Victorian time period. The story sets up a sense of gradually increasing distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which suggests that gender roles were strictly defined; howeverRead MoreCharlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"the Yellow Wallpaper†: the Use of Symbolism to Express the Psychological, Sexual, and Creative Oppression Experienced by Women in the Twentieth Century3480 Words   |  14 PagesAmber Gonzalez 12/6/11 English 2213 Melissa Whitney Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†: The Use of Symbolism to Express The Psychological, Sexual, and Creative Oppression Experienced by Women In The Twentieth Century Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† in the late 1800’s while being treating by the very trusted Weir Mitchell. During this time women were commonly admitted into the care of doctors by their husbands without their given consent. At this time