"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

2005-01-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," we are introduced to a woman who has some form of illness and is confined to bed rest for the majority of the day by her husband who happens to be her doctor. As the writing goes on we learn that the woman spends most of her days in this room which is covered in a hideous yellow wallpaper that she absolutely hates. We then come to find that there is a woman that "creeps" around behind this yellow wallpaper. Then finally in one passage we start to see that they woman she sees is actually herself. At times, especially when the moonlight shines in, she sees the woman behind bars. This shows us how she views her on life. She feels like she lives in some form of prison since she is told to sleep as much as possible, she isn't really allowed to go outside, and she isn't even supposed to be writing ever. As the days go on this obssession with the wallpaper and the woman behind it gets worse and worse until she is finally pushed over the edge.

When I first read this I thought that one of the main struggles throughout was that between her and her husband and how woman were viewed back then. But as you come to realize you see that it is more than that. It is a struggle between a doctor and patient. This woman is told to sit in confinement and sleep at all times and under no circumstances at all is she supposed to write or express herself in any artistic way. This recommendation alone would lead anyone to insanity. To not be able to express yourself in any way is something that is quite frankly not possible. If you think about all the restrictions that were placed upon her can you really blame her for going over the edge and becoming insane?

Fredrick Douglas

2005-01-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

There is so much that can be said about this piece of writing. One thing that really stands out to me is the amount of description that is used to describe the treatment of the slaves. It is hard to believe today that in one point in time so many people held a belief against the black race that they didn't matter as human beings. To treat people with this amount of cruelty and utter lack of dignity is one that astonishes me. African Americans were going through unreal amounts of horrible abuse and they had absolutely no way of defending themselves. The kind of descrpition used to describe the situations the slaves were put through allow you to see how real this situation actually was. And the fact that it was written by someone who actually was a slave allows you really know that this kind of treatment did take place and it was honestly as bad as it is made out to be, if not worse.

As we talked about in class, if this had been written by someone who had not lived through or something to that effect, would this writing really have as big of an impact as it did. I feel that there is not way that it would have really affected anyone if it was written by someone else. There would be no way to know if those events really took place or if they were really as bad as the description makes them out to be. By it being written by someone who actually lived through this it allows you to realize the true horror of what the slaves went through and you can connect that much more with the writing.

One other point that I found to be interesting was the fact that once he learned to read he didn't want to know how to any more. Once he had learned to read he was able to see what his life was really like and he realizes it may be more of a curse to have learned to read rather than to never have learned at all. At least when he wasn't able to read he didn't really know the full scope of how terrible his situation really was. He even goes as far to say that he wishes he had the stupidity back that he feels his fellow slaves have. To think he took all that time and risk to learn to read and then want to take it back is ironic to me.

IUPENGL121-DascenzoChristine

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Fredrick Douglas