Self-destructive Self-expression in The Yellow Wallpaper

Self-destructive Self-expression in The discolour Wallpaper In The chicken Wallpaper, a story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the conflict centers nigh the protagonists inability to maintain her sanity in a society that does not recognize her as an individual. Her husband and brother both exert their own get out oer hers, forcing her to conform to their pre-set impression an appropriate code of behavior for a sick woman. She has been given a schedule prescription for each hour in the day John takes all c atomic number 18 from me (155). This code of behavior involves virtually no exertion of her own free-will. Rather, she is expected to passively accept the fact that her own ideas are mere fancy, and only the opinions of the men in her life can be trusted. She is expected to take their own uninformed opinions on her mental state over her own. While Wallpaper presents a powerful argument in favor of the feminist movement, the true issue behind the conflict is even more thorough the resiliency of human will in the face of social negation. Obviously, it is impossible to maintain a healthy mental state in the oppressive purlieu surrounding the woman. Throughout the story, the author traces the womans mental deterioration from a having a normal but weakened sense of self, to a complete inversion of her ego. She belatedly inverts her orientation of her place in society, turning away from society completely in order to create a world where she can act on her own volition. In order to represent the stages of her gradually worsening state of mind, the author represents the womans struggles through a parallel with her view of the wallpaper. The wallpaper is at offshoot a seeming inversion of the womans mind, but it is gradu... ...leasantville Readers Digest, 1977. 195-206. Golden, Catherine, ed. The Captive Imagination A Casebook on The Yellow Wallpaper. New York Feminist Press, 1992 Kasmer, Lisa. Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper A Symptomatic Read ing. Literature and Psychology. 36, (1990) 1-15. Kessler, Carol Parley. Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860 -1935. Modem American Women Writers. Ed. Elaine Showalter, et al. New York Charles Scribners Sons, 1991. 155 -169. Owens, E. Suzanne. The Ghostly Double behind the Wallpaper in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper. Scharnhorst, Gary. Gilman. Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit St. James Press, 1994. 209-210. Wagner-Martin, Linda. The Yellow Wallpaper. Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.