Discuss the main themes of the story, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's

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Discuss the main themes of the story, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a woman who is suffering from depression (probably post-natal) and a nervous breakdown. Whilst trying to recover in an isolated country house, her condition deteriorates as her paranoia takes over. Her condition is not helped by the fact that her husband has forced her to inhabit a room with irritating features, namely the wallpaper. The story contains themes of entrapment, resignation, paranoia and the male domination of the time.

The story was written in 1892, before women had gained the right to vote. Stetson was a keen women's right campaigner and felt that blatant male dominance was wrong. It was written eight years after Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Charlotte Stetson at the time) was, herself, suffering from post-natal depression. Stetson was, at the time, told to rest one hour after every meal, only have two hours of intellectual life a day and never to touch pen, brush or pencil again. This was described as the 'rest' cure. Stetson had always been a very creative person and so she felt stunted by her husband's prescribed cure. She said later on in her life that this 'cure' was so bad that she was left to live a 'crippled life'. She wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" to show how 'destructive such attitudes to women could be.' So this story was most certainly written about Charlotte Perkins Gilman's own personal experience. After reading a brief biography after reading this story, one can tell that her own experiences have been heavily inflicted into the story.

A subject close to Gilman was that of the injustice of male dominance in society and domestic situations and this theme is forwarded into the story. At the beginning of the story she tries to persuade her husband, John, that she was actually ill and not just delirious, however, he would not accept it as being ill, saying that it was just a 'temporary nervous depression.' Her husband is a physician and so she doesn't feel as though she can argue with him as he is a professional. She believes that the fact that he is a physician is making her condition worse, 'perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster,' she feels helpless which wears her out more. Another reason she can't argue with him was because he is a man. Men were regarded as socially superior up until after the First World War and to some extent they are still regarded in this light today. She feels afraid of her husband not only because he's a man but because he's a professional doctor and so he 'knows more' than her on the subject. Her brother is also a physician and is also, obviously male. He agrees with her husband and so there is definitely nothing she can do as there is a two on one situation. Throughout the early stages of the book the wife expresses her fear of John indirectly to the reader. She seems to have many ideas of ways that she thinks will improve her condition but at the end of it dismisses these ideas as she doesn't think John would approve. For example she had the idea that letting her see people and having more stimuli would help but she dismisses it half way through her sentence with a dash and quickly dismisses the idea by saying, 'but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition...' She later says how she's finding it difficult to control herself but she would 'take pains to control' herself 'before him', this shows how she is going through suffering just to make him more comfortable to be with her. On another occasion she was speaking to John telling him of her desire to move rooms to one downstairs as she is not fond of her current one, however, 'John would not hear of it.' The matter seemed to be closed after this statement which shows his dominance over her and her fear to argue over the matter. On all of these occasions and on many more the wife is scared to retaliate against John's decisions and I think John represents the male species as a whole in society at the time. She feels scared and suppressed and doesn't feel as though she can do anything about it. This leads on to the brief theme of resignation in this story. The wife feels reigned to the fact that men are dominant in society. Perhaps this is the way Gilman's attitude was before her she had come out of depression. There was no opposition to men at the time and so even if women as a whole felt as though it was unfair they were helpless and resigned to the fact.
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Another theme of the story is that of entrapment. The wife had already expressed her desire to change rooms as she didn't feel comfortable in her current room. This, however, was dismissed by John straight away. This led to the feeling of entrapment. She wasn't allowed to go out much or do anything stimulating. She was trapped in the room. Whilst describing the room the reader got the impression that room was like a prison. She wrote how the windows were barred which gives the impression of imprisonment. She also wrote of how the bed was immovable and ...

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