Schizophrenia in The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wall-Paper," does more than just tell the story of a woman who suffers at the hands of 19th century quack medicine. Gilman created a protagonist with real emotions and a real psych that can be examined and analyzed in the context of modern psychology. In fact, to understand the psychology of the unnamed protagonist is to be well on the way to understanding the story itself. "The Yellow Wall-Paper," written in first-person narrative, charts the psychological state of the protagonist as she slowly deteriorates into schizophrenia (a disintegration of the personality).
Schizophrenia manifests itself through a number of symptoms. One of the first
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At one point she describes laying on the bed and "follow[ing] that pattern about by the hour . . . I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of conclusion" (Gilman 429).
Shortly after the passage above, there is another change in the mental state of the narrator. She begins to show symptoms of paranoia, another classic sign of schizophrenia. Speaking of how glad she is that her baby does not have to stay in the room with the yellow wallpaper, the narrator says "Of course I never mention it to them any more— I am too wise,— but I keep watch of it all the same" (Gilman 430). She again shows her mistrust of the people who are caring for her when she says "The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look" (Gilman 431). At one point she catches Jennie looking at the yellow wallpaper. She says "I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!" (Gilman 432). This kind of paranoia is a solid indicator that the narrator's psychological state is deteriorating towards schizophrenia.
Hallucinations are another common symptom of a schizophrenic person. The protagonist at first "sees" (although she still knows that they are not real) people walking in the paths that she can see from her bedroom window. As her mental state worsens, however, she
When asked the question of why she chose to write 'The Yellow Wallpaper', Charlotte Perkins Gilman claimed that experiences in her own life dealing with a nervous condition, then termed 'melancholia', had prompted her to write the short story as a means to try and save other people from a similar fate. Although she may have suffered from a similar condition to the narrator of her illuminating short story, Gilman's story cannot be coined merely a tale of insanity. Insanity is the vehicle for Gilman's larger comment on the atrocities of social conformity. The main character of "The Yellow Wallpaper" comes to recognize the inhumanity in society's treatment of women, and in her
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the story of a woman suffering from post-partum depression, undergoing the sexist psychological treatments of mental health, that took place during the late nineteenth century. The narrator in Gilman’s story writes about being forced to do nothing, and how that she feels that is the worst possible treatment for her. In this particular scene, the narrator writes that she thinks normal work would do her some good, and that writing allows her to vent, and get across her ideas that no one seems to listen to. Gilman’s use of the rhetorical appeal pathos, first-person point of view, and forceful tone convey her message that confinement is not a good cure for mental health, and that writing,
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.
The "Yellow Wall Paper "by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression. The setting of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the driving force in the story because it is the main factor that caused the narrator to go insane.
Through a woman's perspective of assumed insanity, Charlotte Perkins Gilman comments on the role of the female in the late nineteenth century society in relation to her male counterpart in her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Gilman uses her own experience with mental instability to show the lack of power that women wielded in shaping the course of their psychological treatment. Further she uses vivid and horrific imagery to draw on the imagination of the reader to conceive the terrors within the mind of the psychologically wounded.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” a short story about a mentally ill women,written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman at age 32, in 1892 is a story with a hidden meaning and many truths. Charlotte Perkins Gilman coincidentally also had a mental illness and developed cancer leading her to kill herself in the sixties. The story begins with Jane, the mentally ill woman who feels a bit distressed, and although both of the well respected men in her life are physicians she is put simply on a “rest cure”. This rest cure as well as many symbols such as the Yellow Wallpaper, her journal, and her inevitable breakdown are prime examples of the typical life of a woman in this time period and their suppressed lives that they lived even with something as serious as a
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the narrator, being the main character, as an ill woman. However, she is not ill physically. She is ill in her mind. More than any chemical imbalance that may be present; the narrator's environment is what causes her to go mad.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is an autobiography by Susannah Cahalan. There were many psychological issues in the book; some were paranoia, seizures, hallucinations, memory loss, bipolar disorder, and Capgras syndrome. These were all effects of anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis, which causes severe inflammation in the brain. Autoantibodies attack its own NMDA receptors, which control electrical impulses in the brain. Susannah’s issues disappeared during and after her recovery.
After learning of Gilman’s personal story, it becomes apparent that “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and the struggle of its narrator, carries a distinct message. Gilman grew up in an unhappy and impoverished family with a brother, a single mother, and no father figure. She later went on to marry Charles Stetson (whom she later divorced) and had a daughter with him. After the birth of her daughter, Gilman fell into a deeply depressed state, indicating the relevance of postpartum depression. When she consulted Dr. Weir Mitchell about it, she was prescribed a “rest cure.” It was this event that inspired Gilman to write “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and many similarities can be drawn between
Schizophrenia is a vicious disease, which can manipulate a life, making it difficult to distinguish between what is real, and what is imaginary. In the short story, “Yellow Wallpaper”, a psychological aspect is taken upon a woman who appears to be schizophrenic. The narrator and her husband have recently moved into a rented house for the summer. According to her husband, John, he believes that she is not sick, but she presumes otherwise. After essentially being trapped in one room (not of her choice) the whole summer, the narrator develops a peculiar interest for the unique wallpaper.
Craziness and insanity may be observed as a negative quality, but it also links to creativity in ways of thinking differently from the average mind, which is the way the narrator thinks in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This short story is based on the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman and what she experiences while put under the “rest cure”. “Gilman suffers a near mental breakdown in the mid 1800’s, and been prescribed a rest treatment very similar to the one prescribed to the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Korb, Rena. “An Overview of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gale Online Encyclopedia). She writes this story as if it were various journal entries written by the narrator in a first person point of view. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator faces depression, insanity and anxiety caused by her surroundings and the treatment she is put under.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses symbols to portray recovery from the depth of mental illness. The main character, Jane, struggles throughout the story with severe depression. She is constantly haunted by the room she has to occupy during her stay. Yet despite it all, Jane sets herself free from her illness’s grasp. Gilman employs the symbols of the yellow wallpaper, the ripping of the yellow wallpaper, and the beautiful door to depict Jane’s journey out of her depression.
The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1913, is a gothic horror short story often praised by literary critics for its pioneering views of the medical communities treatment of the mentally ill; as well as its strong progressive feminist undertones. Peter Sarnackis analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper and Psychiatry, published on his website, provides a mostly psychoanalytic review with emphasis placed on the historical context in which the piece was written. He suggests the wallpaper represents the narrators mental state, though he provides no textual evidence. He focuses on the husband and links him to the medical community as a whole; however his claims are mostly contradicted by the text. Sarnackis review is unsubstantiated.
The catatonic schizophrenics suffer from at least two of the following; catalepsy or stupor, excessive motor activity, extreme negativism or mutism, peculiar voluntary movement as posturing, stereotyped movements, prominent mannerisms, or prominent grimacing. In disorganized Schizophrenia, flat or inappropriate affect, disorganized speech and behavior are all prevalent. The undifferentiated type is unusual in that it may have some characteristics of each of the different types. The Residual type has symptoms of odd beliefs and unusual perceptual experiences (99).
Schizophrenia is a disorder “that affects a person’s ability to think, feel and behave clearly.” People with Schizophrenia often have trouble perceiving reality correctly and will claim to often hear or see things that are not truly there. The exact one cause of this disorder is not entirely known but it is believed that it takes a combination of ones genetics and environment to trigger the mental disorder. It is also believed that taking mind-altering drugs also increases the chances of schizophrenia and if you start younger it further increases the chance of experiencing symptoms like delusions and hallucinations. Living with a mental disorder like schizophrenia can lead to living a very