Charlotte Perkins Gilman—The Yellow Wallpaper

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 Use the questions to guide your responses. Each response area should be fully developed as if you were going to use that category for your own literary analysis. Setting Setting is a desсrіption of where and when the story takes place. In a short story there are fewer settings compared to a novel. The time is more limited. Ask yourself the following questions:Study the time period, which is also part of the setting, and ask yourself the following: When was the story written? Does it take place in the present, the past, or the future? How does the time period affect the language, atmosphere or social circumstances of the short story? Characterization deals with how the characters in the story are described. In short stories there are usually fewer characters compared to a novel. They usually focus on one central character or protagonist. Ask yourself the following: Who is the main character? Are the main character and other characters described through dialogue – by the way they speak (dialect or slang for instance)? Has the author described the characters by physical appearance, thoughts and feelings, and interaction (the way they act towards others)? The theme is the main idea, lesson, or message in the short story. It may be an abstract idea about the human condition, society, or life. Ask yourself: How is the theme expressed? Are any elements repeated and therefore suggest a theme? Is there more than one theme? no need for references just answer questions as they apply to the story in a couple paragraphs here is the story′s link https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm

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The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that was written in 1952, and the setting of the story takes place in the period that it was written. The time of the setting of the story affects how the characters address each other. She has no right to argue with her husband for the female narrator, and she needs to keep him happy by doing things that he wishes. To this end, she even pretends to improve while her condition is worsening to make her husband happy. On the other hand, the narrator’s husband addresses her as his inferior. His language, such as calling her his blessed little goose and his treatment towards her, indicates that he takes her likes a child instead of an adult. The atmosphere of the story combines a big room and restriction to indicate emptiness and loneliness in life. During the story, a rich man could afford a big house for his family, but due to the time that the story was set and the society’s perceptions towards women, he had to isolate her in a big empty room for his rest cure. When the story was set, women were thought to lack abilities, and thus the time of the setting led to the isolation of the narrator. 

This short story’s protagonist is an unnamed narrator who tells the audience about her story to madness through her diary. The main characters, especially John, are depicted according to the way they address other characters. John, in various circumstances, ignores what the narrator tells him and forces his opinion on her. t5he author mostly bases her description of the characters on their interactions. Mainly the interaction between the narrator and her husband as she undergoes her rest cure. 

The story’s main theme is the subordination of women in the 1950s, which was common, and was it not for the madness that the narrator undergoes at the end of the story. The whole story would have seemed like a usual occurrence to an audience of the time. Women’s subordination was the societal expectation of women, which required women always to obey their husbands no matter what. The theme is indicated in the various suggestions that the narrator gives to her husband, who responds by discrediting them without any consideration. She has no option but to accept the rest cure, which her husband insists will do her good while she knows it’s destroying her but has no way to prove it to her husband. Other key themes of the story include the need for self-expression and the dangers of the rest cure.