Husband Of The Narrator example essay topic

Ashley Jameson Mrs. Kelly Armstrong English 102 March. 3, 2005"The Yellow Wallpaper" Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, in the 1860's, by her mother. Charlotte Perkins married a artist, and shortly afterwards gave birth to her daughter. After the birth of her child, Charlotte was diagnosed with an nervous condition. Charlotte then committed herself under the care of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, after the constant urging of her husband.

The care from Dr. Mitchell, and her husband consisted of isolation and total rest. It was not long before Charlotte was driven to insanity due to these reprimands encourage by both her husband, and the doctor. Shortly after she fled the care of her husband and Dr. Mitchell, she moved to California, and began a career as a lecturer and writer on feminist topics (Gilman 782). In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the most significant, and image-like story of her life, known as "The Yellow Wallpaper". Gilman uses an unnamed narrator of the story. The unnamed narrator is purposely left unnamed; the narrator could be any woman, wife, and mother.

Gilman paints a vivid picture of a woman who is demeaned, deprived and mad. Gilman does not leave her readers with an over- powerful image of the woman. Gilman only conveys the image of a woman creeping around her room, who is suffering from anxiety and madness. The woman is under the care of her husband, who is an physician. He locks her in an nursery in hopes that the confinement and rest will help aid her troubling nervous condition. The woman seems to be losing her grasp and control over her own life, primarily because she is under the care of her husband.

As the narrator opens the story, the first striking image that the readers are presented with is the character John. The husband of the narrator, John, is described as "practical and extreme". (Gilman, 782). John refuses to accept his wife's condition; he does not believe that there is anything truly wrong with her.

The narrative states these comments about her husband. "You see he does not believe I am sick"! "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one, but temporary nervous depression, a slight hysterical tendency, what is one to do?" (783). The narrator submits to the will of her husband. She gives into his ideas regarding what is good for her and her nervous condition. She does not stand up for herself, she basically allows him to control her life.

The narrator wants to be free from the confinement of the room, but she is absolutely forbidden. So she writes in spite of John. The narrator writes: "I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus-but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition and I confess it always makes me feel bad, so I will let it alone and talk about the house" (783). John treats his wife as a child.

He does not allow her to think or do anything for herself. He disregards all of her wants and needs, but caters to his own threw her expense. The narrator is confined to a nursery at the top of the house. The narrator describes the room as a "big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with window that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore.

It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge, for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls" (784). The narrator is kept caged in a prison- like setting with barred windows and walls. The woman does not feel a sense of comfort in the home. The disturbing stained and yellow wallpaper is totally faded and repulsive. The color seems to be horrid, and somewhat uneasy. The narrator states, "I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure" (786).

And it is like a woman stopping down and creeping about behind the pattern (789). The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern just as if she wanted to get out (787). And she is all the time trying to climb through, but nobody could climb through that pattern it strangles so. All the statements the narrator makes about the wallpaper is very significant to the story. It seems that the colors mirror the woman's relationship with her husband, and ultimately with herself.

The woman is uncomfortable in the barred, lifeless room, because this where all the demands are made by her husband. It is as if the narrator is trapped behind the walls with the woman, and cannot free herself. The narrator cannot free herself just as the woman in the walls, because she continues to allow her husband to keep her trapped within the room, isolating her from others. The husband is the primary reason why the woman cannot get well. He worsens her condition and eventually drives her into the state of insanity. The husbands overbearing, and controlling attitude weakens the woman slowly, but surely.

He pushes her over the deep end, and continues to through out the story so that he can control her life. Confining a person to an dark and lifeless room can cause one to go crazy. You are not capable of doing anything or thinking for yourself. Being subjected to such an environments can cause anyone to go insane. John is physician, and he knows exactly what he is doing. He has purposely driven his wife to the state of insanity by subjecting her to such an unhealthy lifestyle.

The narrator states, "John is a physician, and perhaps that is the reason why I can not get well fast" (782). Towards the end of the story the narrator seems to be getting better, and it is definitely due to the wallpaper, and its significant. The narrator says: "Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. John is so pleased to see me improve! He laughed a bit the other day, and said I seemed to be flourishing in spite of my wallpaper. I turned it off with a laughed.

I had no intentions of telling him it was because of the wallpaper-he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away" (789). The statement, "He might even want to take me away", supports my indication of the husband being responsible for driving that woman crazy. Why would he want to take her away if it's contributing to her well-being. It just proves that he really does not want her to get well, because he enjoys being in control.

At the end of the story, the last night of the narrator's stay, she finally decides to set herself free. She and the woman behind the wall peel off yards of the wallpaper by morning. The narrator seems to have control of her freedom. It's as if she has gained control over her life once again.

Both she and the woman free themselves from isolation and abandonment. They now creep around in a child-like manner. The narrator says, "It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please" (792)! As the story closes, the husband arrives home and drastically tries to get into the room. When he is finally able to get inside he cries, wondering what his wife is doing. However, the truth of the matter was John was astonished by his wife's recovery, and finally being able to break threw the vicious hold he had on her life.

That is the reason why he fainted, because he surely did get an rude awakening that day. He had driven his wife insane and she finally broke through is spell. At the end of the story the narrator says, "I've got out at last, "said I", in spite of you and Jane. And I pulled off most of the paper so you can't put me back!" (792). Now why should that man had fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!" (792).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses both the narrator and the female images to represent the isolation and demoted position that she once had to withstand. Neither the narrator nor the woman behind the wall feel confident enough to walk away from the jail-like setting they are subjected too. They allow themselves to be trapped behind the wallpaper. Gilman's story is a reflection of her life, and what she endured before she set herself free. Gilman is very much like the narrator of the story. Both women endure nervous breakdowns, and are confined to a room, isolating themselves due the recommendation of their husbands and their primary care physicians, Dr. Mitchell.

Both women were driven to the state of insanity and finally gain enough courage to set themselves free. Charlotte Gilman Perkins, wrote this story to show the readers an vivid description of what she and the other women were forced to endure during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It portrays the image of how women had no say, and were controlled and overpowered by men. Thanks to women like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the women of today's society have a voice. They are highly educated, strong, and independent.

Women have grown to stand up for what is rightfully their's and utilize it: the freedom to control one's own life..