Genres: Fiction, Classics
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is written in 1892 as journal of a woman who failing to relish the joys of marriage and motherhood, is sentenced to a country and is forbidden by her doctor and her husband to write. The novella can be regarded as the an autobiographical work of the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was a prominent figure during the first-wave feminist movement in the United States. Much of her life’s work was influenced by the experiences of her early life.
Narrated by an unnamed protagonist, the journal records are basically a reality of the protagonist’s own beyond the hypnotic pattern of the faded yellow wallpaper, a pattern that has come to symbolize her own imprisonment. Gilman formulated her protagonist’s struggle with her own experiences with depression and patriarchy in mind.
The book covers dark emotional turmoil of the narrator. Narrated with superb psychological and dramatic precision, The Yellow Wallpaper not only represent what it means but also stands out not only for the imaginative authenticity with which it depicts one woman’s descent into insanity, but also for the power of its testimony to the importance of freedom and self-empowerment for women.
I consider this book as an important work for understanding the human psychology when living passively in endure. Some of the themes explored in the book might seem irrelevant to the reader today but is not only about those themes, the feminism. It is more about the amount of pressure a human has to live with and that amount of pressure can bring the absolute madness out of him.
4 out of 5
This sounds interesting. That I was busy working my dogs in obedience. I didn’t get to the politics of the time.
It’s a good book to read.
I read this my senior year of high school or first year of college, I can’t remember. But it was such a fascinating story. I have never forgotten it and now I think I need to reread it again. It’s one of the only stories I remember from my English classes. Well, that and Hamlet. Lol
It is an unforgettable story. I remember reading it in my early days of college too 🙂
I love this book! Read it first when I was 17 and have never forgotten it!
I believe who ever read this book, it will stay in their memory for a long time regardless of any aspect. It has a similar effect on me too.
Have added this to my reading list!
And I hope you enjoy reading it 🙂
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I love The Yellow Wall-Paper. I have come back to it several times over the years. The way Charlottesville Perkins Gilman captures mental illness is eerie. I couldn’t help but wonder how close she was to it considering how she took her own life. Very sad when we lose the greats to mental illness.
Thanks for the review!
You have expressed her thoughts in a rightly manner. I wondered similarly about the effects of mental illness in her own life.
You’re welcome!