The Woman and the Yellow Wall-Paper

The Woman and The Yellow Wall-Paper

This is a quite moving story written in 1892. A story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman over a century ago still affects how we behave as men and women today. A plethora of readers feel John is to blame for his wife, which her name is never revealed in the story. John's wife became insane with the help of John, but John is not to blame for her actions; some readers would say. Both sides have a point, and I will evaluate these two points.

This is a story written by Mrs. Gilman, which leaves several points open to the reader. However, Mrs. Gilman may want female readers to become the narrator. After all, Mrs. Gilman did experience a severe depression, and had unusual treatment. This may have inspired her to write this story. The story written by Mrs. Gilman places blame on John for how his wife turned out. This may be so, but the narrator also caused her own insanity. ("Charlotte Perkins Gilman," 2013, p. 1)

Little description is given about the narrator from the beginning. We know that it's a woman married to a man in 1890's. Her husbands name is John, but "John" does not really give me any clues about who he is or where he might be from. I know that John is a physician, and believes that he knows what is best for his wife. Both the husband and wife live in a mansion rented to them for 3 months. I know this because in the story the narrator says, " A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity--but that would be asking too much of fate!" John later in the story states, "I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months' [sic] rental." ("Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (1899)," 2013, p. 1)

The narrator has an illness, which remains unclear and ambiguous as well as her identity. It is difficult to say what, exactly, is wrong with her. They move to this mansion for three months so that she could get better from her illness. Her husband the doctor; a physician has her confined to a room upstairs that has a yellow wallpaper so that she may get well. He referred to the problem as a, "nervous patient". The problem is that the narrator gives up immediately arriving at the estates. The narrator requests that her and John should use the small bedroom downstairs, rather than, the larger nursery room with the yellow wallpapers and bars on the window upstairs. This might have been John's method for helping his wife, and she was already refusing from the foundation of the therapy. The narrator is also defeated when she ask her husband a myriad of times to relocate downstairs, because the rooms are prettier. The narrator also asked John if he could change the wallpaper, he agreed to it at first, but it was remove instantaneously, because John felt that if he did this one request it would open the doors

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