Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a pioneering American writer, feminist theorist and social reformer, whose work significantly shaped early feminist thought. Gilman's most renowned work, 'The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) is a semi autobiographical Short story that critiques the 19th century medical treatment of women's mental health and illustrates the psychological consequences of enforced domestic confinement. Actually, Yellow Wall Paper symbolizes society and patriarchy.
The
story unfolds as a stream of consciousness narration through a series of first
person Journal entries written by the narrator whose physician husband, John
has rented an old mansion for summer.
For the treatment of rest cure, he strictly prohibits her from engaging
in any form of work or writing. He only
made her eat well and get fresh air. It
was for her 'temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency'. However, through her journal she made the
readers realize her slow mental deterioration, driven by idleness and
isolation. Especially the decaying
yellow wall paper that she fixated all the time began to create hallucinations
in her. She began to see a woman
'creeping' behind the wall paper. By the
end of the story, she lost her grip on reality, believed she was the woman who
had crawled out of the wall paper. At
the end, her husband fell unconsciously on seeing the pathetic condition of his
wife. She crept over her husband's
fainted body. Thus Gilman challenges the
medical and social treatment of women during 19th century.
------Thulasidharan V
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