Sunday, July 26, 2009
Assignment 11: The Yellow Wallpaper
When reading the short story the "Yellow Wallpaper" I was unsure about what was going on and then I began to pick up on the madness of the women's disease through her repetitive descriptions of the yellow wallpaper which begins her development of far-fetched ideas and obsession. After reading, I went back and read some historical information on Charlotte Perkins Gilman and realized that she herself went insane. The short story almost completely mocks or imitates Gilman's own life. After marrying and becoming a mother, Gilman felt as if she had been robbed of her freedom. She went insane over this, and was sent to Doctor S. Weir Mitchell, whom she also mentions in her short story as one of the best doctors but he is much like her husband but only worse. Gilman believed that he did not take her case seriously and gave her simple orders to live as much of a domestic life as possible. Although, we see that the domestic lifestyle is what was truly making Gilman and her character in her short story insane. Alot of the story lines up with Gilman's life. In the story her husband's remedies resemble Dr. Mitchell's advice to Gilman. We see that her confinement leads to her obsession over the wallpaper. The character in the story goes insane over her boring and domestic lifestyle which is what truly happened to Gilman in real life. It was interesting and pretty creepy to find out this piece mocked the writer's life and experiences.
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I didn't realize the author herself was insane. It's interesting she notes the insane personality of the narrator in "Yellow Wallpaper." Looking back at the detail, you can visualize the woman going insane over the course of the reading-- Knowing the author's background, she had some good insight.
ReplyDeleteI think that Gilman was suffering from Post Partum Depression. An illness that had not been identified at the time. I don't think it was her confinement that initialized her insanity, but worsened it. If she had been able to get out and about, she would probably improved. I feel that she wrote this piece as a way to say to her doctors that their "rest cure" was a joke and only worsened her situation.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you, Gilman does a great job of describing how the character eventually goes insane, almost as if she is laying out her story to how she herself had gone insane. The doctors around the time this story was written probably did not take her seriously and the best cure was to become more domesticated which in fact is the reason that Gilman went insane. She wanted to have her own freedom and she is trying to show how it was taken from her throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with kelsey. I think that is was PPD and not just some psycho9logical insanity. It was her entrapment i believe that brought on the insantity, not the disease itself. I think that with other treatment, she should have been more able to recover.
ReplyDeleteWow thats really interesting. I never would of thought she would write a story about herself going insane. Maybe it made herself feel better to see who she was and who she wanted to be.
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