The Fight for Sanity in The Yellow Wallpaper -- Yellow Wallpaper essay

The Fight for Sanity in The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper is partly autobiographical and it illustrates the fight for selfhood by a women in an oppressed and oppressive environment. In the story, the narrator is not allowed to write or think, basically becoming more dysfunctional as she is entrapped in a former glasshouse room where bars adorn the windows and the bed is nailed to the floor. In this story there is an obstinacy on behalf of the narrator as she tries to go around her husbands and physicians restrictions, however, there is no resisting the oppressive nature of her environment and she finally surrenders to madness even though it represents some kind of selfhood and resistance because it allows her to escape her oppression, She obsesses about the yellow wallpaper, in which she sees severe patterns and an imprisoned female figure trying to emerge. The narrator finally escapes from her controlling husband and the intolerable confines of her existence by a final communication channel into insanity as she peels the wallpaper off and bars her husband from the room (Gilman, 1999, 1). Gilman herself suffered from post-partum hysteria and was treated by a famous doctor of the era, one who irrefutable his famous rest cure, the same cure the female narrator cannot tolerate and defies in The Yellow Wallpaper. In this story the narrator remains nameless and there is good reason for it. She feels as if she has no identity or control over obtaining fulfillment and unity and satisfaction in life. Her husband is a doctor who also prescribes complete rest for her and is opposed to her doing the one thing that seems to give her a unique voice, writing. Thus, the narrator defies her... ...ation of the personality) (Brown, 1999, 1). Gilman shows how this descent is inevitable in much(prenominal) an oppressive environment, unless, of course, one is as strong as Gilman herself in overcoming such an environment. Works Cited The Yellow Wallpaper. http//members.aol.com/luvthebard/111/yellowwallpaper.html, Aug. 2, 1999, 1-2. Brown, B. D. A Psychological Approach to Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper. http//www.usinternet.com/users/bdbourn/yellow.htm, Aug. 2, 1999, 1-2. Dewey, J. Art and pedagogics A Collection of Essays. Pennsylvania, The Barnes Foundation Press, 1954. Gilman, C. P. Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader. New York, Pantheon Books, 1980. Gilman, C. P. Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow Wallpaper. http//endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/gilman87-des-.html, Aug. 2, 1999, 1-2.