Friday, April 10, 2015

Please analyze the quote below from "The Yellow Wallpaper."At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by...

There are two possible interpretations to this quote.  As
you know, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a woman's slow descent into madness, which is
actually based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's own dealings with mental illness (she
suffered from something called "nuerasthenia"). 


From a
psychological perspective, the prescription for "rest" is enough to drive anyone
insane.  The unnamed narrator is deprived of any possible stimulation and so, invents a
persona dervied from the "woman" she finds hiding in the wallpaper, especially after the
thing that aids in her cure--writing--is deemed too expressive and is eventually
forbidden.   If you think of it from the restrictions placed on 19th century women and
their marginalization, you can certainly understand how she had to find a 'companion',
even if it was an imaginary character stuck behind "bars" in the wallpaper--no small
indication of her own life. 


From a feminist perspective,
this is Gilman's attempt to show how restrictive society and marriage were for women. 
She makes no decisions in the story and defers all opinions to either her husband, the
nanny or her 'keeper.'  Here, the focus is on domestic victimization.  Thought the
character may have had a legitimate mental illness, it's itensified by the domestic
structure she resides in.  She is literally rendered voiceless and powerless
by patriarchal society. 


And so your quote, much like the
rest of the story, is a 19th century woman's gentle diatribe at how she, too, must
remain "subdued, quiet." 

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