Реферат: Yellow Wall Paper And Women Role Essay

stir without special direction. I have a schedule . . . I feel basely ungrateful

not to value it more"(Gilman 641). Even though she knows that writing and

socializing would help her recover faster, she still allows the male figures in

her life to dominate and control her treatment. "I sometimes fancy that in

my condition, if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus ? but

John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I

confess it always makes me feel bad"(Gilman 641). I believe that the

narrator’s husband loves her very much. He is tender with her and speaks to her

in a loving, sometimes child-like manner. However, he obviously does not want

anyone knowing the extent of his wife’s mental illness, referring to it as a

"temporary nervous depression ? a slight hysterical tendency"

(Gilman 641). I believe this is also a reflection of the way women and mental

illness were perceived in the nineteenth century. Women were supposed to let

their men take care of them, and mental illness was often swept under the

carpet. The husband, John, did not want the stigma of mental illness tied to his

family. "He says that no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must

use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.

(Gilman 645). In reading this story I had to constantly remind myself that

society today treats mental illness differently, and that this was written from

a nineteenth century perspective. The narrator continues to repress her own

needs and allow her husband to dominate. Seeing the wallpaper in the bedroom,

she writes: "I never saw a worse paper in my life one of those sprawling,

flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin" (Gilman 642). It is also

interesting to note that the bed in the room is a "great immovable

bed" which is "nailed down" (Gilman 644). I wondered if this was

a metaphoric reference to her husband’s attitude about her illness. As she looks

out the window, she can see the garden. She describes flowers, paths, and

arbors. All that she sees outside is beautiful. Just as Gilman uses the room the

woman hates as a metaphor for her mental illness, she uses the beautiful garden