yellow wall paper

Cultural Situation


Charlotte Perkins Gilman discusses how The Yellow Wall-Paper dramatizes the effects of patriarchal medical opinions, which were popular in the late nineteenth century. He also discussed how they affected Gilman's protagonist, who slowly slips into insanity while being treated for her presumed nerves in a battling conflict of a dominant relationship between her oppressive husband and submission pushing her from depression into insanity.
From the beginning of the story, the narrator falls deep into insanity. She rambles on about how her husband diagnosed her with “a slight hysterical tendency,” (551). Flawed human nature seems to play a great role in her breakdown. Her husband, a noted physician, is unwilling to admit that there might really be something wrong with his wife. While this attitude, and the actions taken because of it, certainly contributed to her breakdown; it seems there is a rebellious spirit in...