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Analysis Pages

Character Analysis in The Yellowish Wallpaper

The Unnamed Narrator: Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents subtle clues to help readers determine the identity of the unnamed narrator. Reader can infer that the narrator is an upper-form married woman who merely gave birth to a baby male child. She likely suffers from postpartum low and exhibits symptoms such as mood swings and exhaustion. Gilman uses contextual details to speak to the overwhelming social struggles that both women and the mentally sick faced in the late 1800s.

John: John is the husband of the unnamed narrator. He is an esteemed medico who is "practical to the extreme." Although he claims that he wants his married woman to feel free to make her own decisions, he ultimately makes all of her decisions for her. He cares for the narrator, only his patronizing tone and disciplinarian tendencies stifle her. John's grapheme serves as a symbol for the patriarchal gild of the time.

Character Assay Examples in The Yellow Wallpaper:

The Yellow Wallpaper

🔒 21

"for he sat upwards directly and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful await that I could non say another word...." Run into in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

The adjectives "stern" and "reproachful" mean harsh and disapproving, respectively. After the narrator'due south second failed attempt to stand for herself, John shoots her such a powerful look of disapproval that she immediately quiets down. This moment highlights the ability John has over his wife to acquiesce and oppress her.

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"I am a doctor, dearest, and I know. ..." See in text(The Yellowish Wallpaper)

In an endeavour to establish his brownie and superiority over his wife, John asserts that since he is a doc, he knows better than she. Readers should annotation the irony as he states that the narrator is getting ameliorate when she is clearly only getting worse. The narrator tries to stand up for herself, merely John patronizingly quiets her again, saying "Anoint her fiddling heart!"

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"And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and simply carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat past me and read to me till information technology tired my head...." Encounter in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

In some other case of infantilization, John coddles the narrator and lays her down to rest. Notice the irony equally John asks the narrator to accept care of herself, when in fact his very treatment of her—his prescriptions, his isolating her, and his complete oppression of her every choice—has caused her to descend into madness.

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"But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way—information technology is such a relief!..." Meet in text(The Xanthous Wallpaper)

The narrator finds herself in a demark. On the ane hand, she feels guilty for indulging in writing, a practise her husband hasn't prescribed; on the other, writing is the ane activeness that offers her a sense of autonomy and freedom of expression. Without the ability to write and to express herself in the face of the stifling oppression of her husband, she might hands lose her voice. Despite her fear of getting caught, the narrator continues to write, recognizing that this solitary practice is her only source of power.

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"I don't know why I should write this. I don't want to. I don't feel able...." Run into in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

Although most of the short story is structured into a serial of one- or two-sentence paragraphs, this sequence of sentences stands out specifically for its briefness. This sequence of short sentences encapsulates the narrator's land of heed. Her raving "fancies" take left her mind exhausted and her trunk depleted.

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"I'1000 getting dreadfully fretful and querulous...." Run across in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

The adjectives "fretful" and "querulous" mean restless and whining, respectively. Every bit the story progresses, the narrator's mental state deteriorates further. Her husband fails to provide her with authentic treatment and stifles her only creative outlet. As a result, she descends into madness, going and then far as to imagine someone hiding behind the wallpaper.

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"So I endeavor...." Run across in text(The Yellowish Wallpaper)

The short story brings upwardly issues over the compatibility of imagination and realism. The narrator, a writer, oftentimes "fancies" the happenings of the world effectually her. John, in contrast, is a man of science and does non divulge in "story-making." There is a articulate dichotomy betwixt how the two individuals cope with their surroundings—the narrator does so through imaginative thinking, and John does and so with practical thinking.

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"I always fancy I come across people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give style to fancy in the to the lowest degree. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to pb to all fashion of excited fancies, and that I ought to utilize my volition and good sense to check the tendency...." Run into in text(The Xanthous Wallpaper)

The verb "to fancy" means to imagine something, frequently capricious or delusively. Readers should note that the narrator uses this give-and-take, which carries negative connotations, instead of the comparatively neutral "imagine." Her husband has made her believe that her ability of imagination is dangerous, and whatever that such thinking should be eliminated.

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"And so he took me in his artillery and called me a blessed footling goose,..." Meet in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

To silence the narrator, John often resorts to coddling her and calling her pet names. Here, he calls her "a blessed little goose" and comforts her like a child. By infantilizing the narrator, John dismisses her pleas to go downstairs. This pattern recurs frequently throughout the story—whenever the narrator raises an stance, John silences her.

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"Information technology is fortunate Mary is and then good with the babe. Such a dear baby!..." Come across in text(The Yellowish Wallpaper)

Here, readers run into the kickoff of simply ii times the narrator mentions her babe. From these few lines readers can gather the key information that the narrator's baby is a male child who is cared for by a nursemaid, Mary. Every bit the she states, the narrator does non spend very much time with her son because doing and so causes her to become broken-hearted and experience feelings of burnout and sadness. Readers can define that her nervous condition may be the issue of postpartum depression.

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"He said that later the wall-newspaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. ..." See in text(The Yellowish Wallpaper)

Notice how every element of the nursery room is intended to keep the narrator bars. The bedstead is nailed to the flooring, the windows are barred, and the stairs are shut off by a gate. Despite the narrator's plea to go downstairs, John insists that this confinement serves her some skilful. The narrator even begins to think then herself.

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"chintz hangings..." See in text(The Xanthous Wallpaper)

The word "chintz" refers to the calicoes, or the printed cotton fabric, of Republic of india. The narrator desires color and animation—revealed through her wish to stay in the downstairs bedroom with the roses and chintz. However, at her married man'southward urging, the couple sleeps in the nursery upstairs, which is contrastingly characterized by its dark, Gothic elements.

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"But what is one to do?..." Encounter in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is formatted as the narrator's periodical entries. She takes upwards writing whenever she needs relief and often writes in the second person, equally though she were speaking to a friend. Yet, her hubby disapproves of this practice and chastises her whenever he sees her writing. The narrator, in plow, must write in cloak-and-dagger. This circumstance lends her writing a tone of abruptness and curtness. Everything she writes is in 1 or two sentence increments and she often signs off when she sees her married man budgeted. The brisk nature of these sentences demonstrates her anxiety and precariousness. She fears her hubby's "heavy opposition" and must write quickly and furtively. The format of these sentences too demonstrate how she dismisses her ain thoughts, only as her husband does. The narrator will start with one idea and never finish information technology, instead cut herself brusque equally she begins the following sentence. In other instances, she will abruptly end a sentence by imagining how John would dismiss her.

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"And then I have phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and practice, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well once more...." Run across in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

The narrator's disability to differentiate between phosphates and phosphites demonstrates her addled country of mind and her inability to make sense of her reality. She employs the literary tool of polysyndeton—the repeated use of conjunctions without commas—to highlight her married man's ineptitude. Since he is a so-called wise physician, he believes that he will be able to cure his married woman. He prescribes her various medications, advises her not to work, and forces her to practice. None of his instructions cure her; instead, his fe fist stifles her.

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"And what can ane do?..." See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

The unnamed narrator of the story repeatedly intersperses her journal entries with rhetorical questions. In the first several paragraphs solitary, the narrator asks herself, "And what tin can ane do?", "What is one to do?", and "Simply what is one to do?" Using variations of the same refrain, Gilman hints at the narrator'southward sense of confinement and her disability to retrieve for herself. Each time she poses this question, the narrator cannot come up with an answer. In this surround—secluded in the plant nursery of a Gothic abode on residuum cure—the narrator cannot formulate her thoughts. Thus she is forced to repeatedly ask the aforementioned futile questions.

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"he does not believe I am sick..." See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

Detect how John'south refusal to believe his wife is "ill," or to give credence to her feelings and fears virtually her condition, affects the narrator'southward mental country throughout the story. As he is both her husband and a physician, John'south word carries ultimate say-so for the narrator.

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""What is information technology, piddling girl?"..." Run across in text(The Xanthous Wallpaper)

Notice how the language John uses when speaking to the narrator reveals the patronizing fashion in which he treats her. Addressing her as "little girl" bolsters John's isolation of his wife in a quondam nursery, his control over almost every aspect of her daily life, and his refusal to take what she says near herself seriously.

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"I used to lie awake as a child..." Run across in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

While there is something charming about the idea of a immature girl's imagination getting the better of her, this line indicates that her mind has ever been restless and that her current mental health issues could be part of a larger pattern of troubles.

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"he hates to have me write a discussion..." See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

Ane of the major themes of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is silence and the way that women's voices are silenced. There's no concrete reason for the narrator non to be allowed to write, simply under her rest cure, information technology is prohibited to her. Her husband is very controlling in the enforcement of her handling, preventing her voice from being heard.

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"and even some nights..." See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)

Modernistic readers volition likely recognize this as a sign of infidelity. While the estate's remote location would make travel between patients difficult for John, we tin can't entirely disbelieve the possibility that the narrator'southward husband is having an affair.

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"nervous condition..." See in text(The Xanthous Wallpaper)

While Gilman'due south narrator has been diagnosed with hysteria, that was ofttimes used every bit a "grab-all" for a variety of different diagnoses. Most probable, she is suffering from postpartum depression and resultant psychosis. In the belatedly 19th and early 20th century doctors didn't recognize postpartum depression equally an illness and didn't take a woman'south mental health very seriously, which resulted in many cases of misdiagnosis.

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