Argument Essay: Examining Characters in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

This essay provides an analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper', focusing on the perspectives of the characters surrounding the narrator, including her husband John, his sister Jennie, and the nanny Mary. The essay explores how these characters, through their actions and beliefs, contribute to the narrator's deteriorating mental state and the themes of societal expectations, the constraints placed on women, and the misdiagnosis and treatment of mental illness. The essay delves into the irony of the story, where attempts to restore mental health paradoxically lead to a complete breakdown. It examines the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper as a representation of the trapped women and the suppression of their desires. Through references to scholarly articles, the essay argues the characters' roles in the narrator's suffering and the story's feminist undertones.

Running head: THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
How does it feel to be trapped in own feelings and thoughts? The yellow wallpaper,
written by the famous social worker and a leader fighting for women issues manifested the ways
women are trapped within the domestic life in society (Gilman 265). The concept of women
indulged in domestic work has been normalised since decades which is the cause for women all
around suffering agony. The essay argues on the perspective of the people who surround the
narrator and interact with her. The people surrounding them were well aware of her mental
illness, and they perceived the illness through their thought.
According to Peipei and Ni, the narrator’s husband and physician are John who thought
his wife is suffering from a slight hysterical tendency. He is extremely practical, unlike his
imaginative wife. Although he seems like the villain of the story, the man is a loving husband
who fails to understand his wife and his adverse effect of his treatment on his wife. John was
overconfident about his treatment, and he disregarded the narrator’s opinions. According to
(Berenji 225), John did not think it was necessary to concern about the small wishes the narrator
such as switching the wallpaper. He felt it as a way that would overindulge her fancies. John has
seen the narrator as only a patient and a wife however never as a person with free wills and
desires. John wanted to help her wife, however, he could only see the outer pattern and not the
struggle she was having within her. His treatment was helping her and was best for her was
John’s belief which broke down when the narrator’s mental breakdown become complete. In the
end, she begins to creep around the room over him, he is shocked and faints when his wife goes
unrecognised calling him ‘that man’.
According to Qasim et al., Jennie, John’s sister acts as the housekeeper who happily
plays a domestic role. According to her, the domestic role played by her is the ‘normal’ way
women behave which are the duties of a housewife. She is happy to assist the narrator and often

2THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
thought the narrator more troubled mentally then what is seen. Jennie discovered the yellow
smudges on her and John's clothes. Mary was the nanny, who took care of the child. She has
always taken care of the child since she knew well that the narrator was ill and mentally trouble.
She is portrayed as one of the selfless mother of the newborn and as a symbol of iconic Virgin
Mary.
The yellow wallpaper is a highly ironic story. The story is a journey inside a woman's
mind, and her emotions evolved from being trapped in domestic life. She suffers from slow
mental breakdown paradoxically caused by attempts to restore mental health. The women in the
wallpaper are the representation of the women are trapped in societal norms and the way they are
forced to suppress their thoughts, emotions, wills and desires.

3THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
Reference:
Berenji, Fahimeh Q. "Time and Gender in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper
and Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour." Journal of History Culture and Art Research
2.2 (2013): 221-234.
Gilman, C. ‘Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?’. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 17(4),
265-265. 2011.
Peipei, Zhao, and Sun Ni. "Different ways of life——on My Poor Aunt from the perspective of
Feminism." Journal of Liaoning Technical University (Social Science Edition) 4 (2015):
020.
Qasim, Naheed, et al. "Women's Liberation: The Effects of Patriarchal Oppression on Women's
Mind." International Journal of Asian Social Science 5.7 (2015): 382-393.