Women can do anything men can do. :Societal and historical connection

       I believe that in "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Gilman's intention is to demonstrate the treatment of women in the victorian age. I believe that Gilman wants people to see that men treat women like they are less and incapable of doing things men can do. The character John, tells the character Jane that she is to not write, which is how the men in the 19th century treated women. Women are supposedly weak in both the story and in the real world. Men are supposedly powerful and educated in the story and the real world. "Note that these traits are generally polar opposites, following the thought that men and women were complete opposites of each other" (ivcc.edu). In addition to being weak, women are also supposedly emotional and likely to receive hysteria. In "The Yellow Wallpaper"Jane is diagnosed with female hysteria. "In history and in present-day politics, there is a very well-worn image to interpret and explain the evident differences between human feminine experience and the masculine one. It is the image of the “public sphere and the private sphere." It is said that the history and politics of men develop in the public sphere, the most visible and important one, whilst that of women would be reduced to the relative invisibility of the private" (ub.edu). This idea is demonstrated in "The Yellow Wallpaper." Jane begs John to have her cousin Henry and Julia visit. He says she is not ready for visitors, then he never had them come, as well as never having intentions of them coming. Charlotte Gilman's did accomplish her goal of proving that men do treat women poorly when they shouldn't. 

Radek, Kimberly. Women in the Nineteenth Century.

http://www2.ivcc.edu/gen2002/women_in_the_nineteenth_century.htm

 María-Milagros Rivera Garretas. Private Nor Public Women: The Personal is Political. 

http://www.ub.edu/duoda/diferencia/html/en/secundario11.html

What's the point? : Symbolism

          What's the point of the nursery? Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has many elements in the story that represent things and is used as symbolism. Symbolism is "the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character" (Dictionary.com). One example of symbolism is the room that the main character is staying in. In the 19th century, the men would treat women like they are less than men. In the story, John frequently calls Jane little girl and treats her as a baby. The room that Jane is staying in was an old nursery. A nursery is a place where people put the child to rest or to stay put. In a nursery, there is commonly a crib for babies to sleep in. A crib has bars to keep the baby in, or in other words, so the baby is trapped. The room that Jane is staying in, has bars on the windows, similar to ones on a crib. This shows how John is keeping, or trapping Jane in the room. "As a nursery (a place designed for children), the room in which the narrator spends her summer days is meant to provide a cheerful, stimulating environment" (Ada Martini). Gilman uses a nursery to show that men are treating women like children and people they are not. She uses it to show how men think women's brains are at a childlike state. By the end of the story, Jane is crawling around like a toddler would do. This shows the negative effect of the nursery and how Gilman is using a nursery to show mens thoughts from in the 19th century.    


                             

Martini, Ada. Literary Analysis the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. February 6, 2009.   http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/literary-analysis-the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman-47254/ 
This site helped me decide what Gilman was using the nursery to do. 


Dictonary.com. Symbolism    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Symbolism?s=t 
This site helped me understand symbolism.  

Jane or John?:Protagonist

              In the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" Jane is the main character, and the protagonist. The protagonist is "the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work" (dictionary.com). The story is about her "treatment" and how she slowly becomes crazy. Jane is suffering from female hysteria. As treatment, she goes to a house, that was a boys house, for rest. Jane is kept in one room of the house, thought to be the old nursery. It has yellow wallpaper that Jane examines and bars over the window. John is Jane's husband and also a doctor. He diagnosed her and keeps her there so she can get better. John is the antagonist because he is opposed to. "As the protagonist of the story, Jane faces the opposition of the first antagonist, her husband" (parrishco.com). John makes Jane more crazy because he treats her like a baby and keeps her from doing something that she loves to do; write. In conclusion, Jane is the protagonist that is undergoing treatment that makes her develop even more female hysteria than she started with.

Dictonary.com. Protagonist. 

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Protagonist?s=t 

This site helped me identify who was the protagonist.

Parrishco.com. Literary Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper. 

http://parrishco.com/academic/a-literary-analysis-of-the-yellow-wallpaper/ 

This site gave me evidence that Jane was the protagonist. 

Are women meant to be the housekeeper? :Theme

      

     In "The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Gilman is trying to show to anyone, but especially women, that one sex is not superior to the other sex. She thinks that men should not be able to keep a women inside and control her. She shows this through the character Jane. Jane is representing Gilman herself.  Jane is suffering the same thing that Gilman is suffering through. Gilman illustrates what is happening to her through Jane. Gilman is trying to show what happens to a lady when she is confined inside and told to do nothing but sleep. Gilman wants all people, especially men, to know that women are just as capable of doing things that men are able to do. She wants people to not treat women like pets and babies. In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" john called Jane names like, "blessed little goose," and "little girl" (The Yellow Wallpaper 3 and 6)."For Gilman, the conventional nineteenth-century middle-class marriage, with its rigid distinction between the “domestic” functions of the female and the “active” work of the male, ensured that women remained second-class citizens " (sparks notes.com). Gilman doesn't want women to be the second-class citizens. She wants women to be just as successful as men, if not more successful. In the story, John was Jane's husband. John represented Gilman's doctor, who told her to stay in bed and rest."Although John could be seen as the domineering villain of the story, he is simply a reflection of his society" (gradesaver.com). John treats Jane like a child and does his best to keep Jane confined in her room like the society was treating women back in the day. Gilman shows that this simply makes Jane worst, like it did to her.  The theme or "a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic" (Dictonary.com), is to not let a group or person be superior to other people.  

Sparksnote. The Yellow Wallpaper. 
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/yellowwallpaper/themes.html 
This site gave me Gilman's opinion on the role of women in the nineteenth century.

Gradesaver. The Yellow Wallpaper Themes.  http://www.gradesaver.com/the-yellow-wallpaper/study-guide/major-themes/ 
This site show me the importance of John. 

Who is the author?:Glimans background

 

         Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860. As she grew up, she became very opinionated about women's rights.  Her family was a long line of writers feminists and people with psychological problems. Dew to Gilman growing up in a family of feminists, she "grew up with the knowledge that she had the right to be treated the same as anyone, man or woman, and was just as capable and her work and was just as capable in her work and in her personal life."("The Yellow Wallpaper":An Autobiography of Emotions by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 2). I believe that Gilman did what was right and stuck up for herself. She also became a lecturer and racial economic theorist.  Gilman also struggled with these psychological problems. Gilman's doctor, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, diagnosed her with female hysteria. Her treatment was to sit at home and rest. He advised her to never touch a pen or pencil. This "treatment" made Gilman worst. She was told that she couldn't do something that she loved to do ; write. Secretly, Gilman would write to release her stress. Writing is a great way to release stress. It allows you to express your thoughts and clear your mind. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was Gilman's way to tell her story indirectly. Her experience of depression is "believed to have inspired her best-known short story "The Yellow Wallpaper""(biography.com). The story "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written very well and in a way that I have never seen before. Her writing includes imagery that made me feel in the story and like I was in the corner of the room watching the story play out. I could really picture the wallpaper when Gliman said "I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlasting. Up and dow and sideways they crawl, and those absurd,  unblinking eyes are everywhere. There is one place where two breaths didn't match, and the eyes go up and down the line, one a little higher than the other" (The Yellow Wallpaper 3). Even though Gilman wasn't respected till after her death, I believe she has many people that respect her now, including men.


 

NWHM. Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman (1860-1935)

https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/charlotte-perkins-stetson-gilman/
I used this site to find out about Gilman's jobs.

Biography.com. Charlotte Perkins Gilman biography.
http://www.biography.com/people/charlotte-perkins-gilman-9311669
This website explains Gilman's life and is a biography on her.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper


"The Yellow Wallpaper":An Autobiography of Emotions by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.