Works Cited Preliminary Page Next week you will be completing a research paper on one of the works you read during this course. To prepare for writing the paper, choose the work you will write about a

Bacuylima 3

Jennifer Bacuylima

St. Thomas University

Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper

Summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the story's narrator and protagonist is a woman locked up in a room by her husband, John, a physician who believes she is ill with a 'nervous trouble.' Diagnosing her as seriously ill, John forbids her to write or to see anyone, insisting that those activities would further exacerbate her condition. Living in a room with stifling, gently yellow wallpaper, the narrator turns into a woman obsessed with the pattern on the wall (Gilman). She finally starts having a vision of a woman locked up in the patterns of the wallpaper, which seems more like the situation the pathetic heroine feels about herself. Her fascination grows to obsession, and she begins to think that, in order to save the woman trapped in the wallpaper, she must escape from John and become liberated.

Analysis of Character Development

The main character's journey is one of mental and emotional deterioration, exacerbated by her husband’s authoritative control disguised as care. John gave her demeaning terms, such as referring to her as a 'little girl' or a 'blessed little goose', showing him to view her as a fragile and immature child, denying her autonomy (Gilman). Her isolation worsens; she dismisses his thoughts and experiences and turns to the wallpaper for expression. By fixating on the woman, she manages to speak through her suppressed feelings, projecting her thoughts onto the woman in the wallpaper. From tearing at the wallpaper to her final act of defiance when she proclaims herself 'free,' her secret acts of rebellion symbolize her reclaiming power and rejecting John's controlling grip.

Response to an Academic Journal

In analyzing Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, an academic journal highlights its role in advancing early American feminist literature, particularly regarding women’s mental and physical health. The journal substantiates its position by stating that, in portraying the protagonist's gradual psychological unravelling, Gilman commented on the medical and societal practices that silenced women's agency (Perkins Gilman). The forced seclusion and the rest treatment given by the narrator's husband can be seen as a reflection of the gender limitations that women experienced in the nineteenth century, with their health and movements controlled by men. Through this feminist lens, the wallpaper is one of the symbols of the confinement that women experience. Thus, the works of Gilman can be seen as a powerful criticism of the gendered restrictions imposed on the lives and subjectivity of women.

Work Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yelllow Wallpaper. 1892. https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Literature_and_Literacy/Literacy_and_Critical_Thinking/Writing_and_Critical_Thinking_Through_Literature_(Ringo_and_Kashyap)/05%3A_Fiction_Readings/5.03%3A_Gilman_Charlotte_Perkins_The_Yellow_Wallpaper_(1892). 30 October 2024.

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. "The yellow wallpaper." (2022).