The Gothic tradition The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Example

The Gothic tradition The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Example The Gothic tradition The Yellow Wallpaper Essay The Gothic tradition The Yellow Wallpaper Essay one being females considered more prone to mental ilnesses and the paradagime of post natal depression. To explicitly highlight and convey her ideologies and views Gillman wrote The Yellow Walpaper which particularly explores attitudes in the nineteenth century towards womens physical and mental health. Elements of this can also be recognised and depicted in Charlotte Brontes novel Jane Eyre. At the very start of the story, Gillman identifies the place where her character is being held ancestral halls. Her husband being a physician indicates his wealth state thus juxtaposing with the estate being let so cheaply. Continuing, the story does not provide any evidence that the woman is suffering from any mental disease, however she does admit to get unreasonably angry with her husband from time to time. Her husband John who can be viewed as the voice of reason, sharply opposes his wife, the voice of emotion, who enigmatically remains unnamed throughout the story. Such a sharp antithesis occurs also between Bertha Mason and Jane Eyre in Brontes Jane Eyre. Bertha embodies an excess of sexual emotions and desire, on the contrary Jane signifies the conventional and conservative symbol of Britishness. However though many critiques do consider Bertha, not only a symbol of female insanity, but an alter ego of Jane, just as Gillman portrays her character that she is imagining a woman trying to escape from the yellow wallpaper and it is like a woman creeping about behind the pattern. Another significant element which concerns both the novel Jane Eyre and the story by Gillman is the presence of the segregation of the female characters both suffering form mental disorders. Bertha being locked away on the attic while Gillmans character being put in a room at the top of the house. Both the attic and a nursery at the top of a house conveys the idea that things which are unneeded are put their and it also adds a significant amount of enigma to the overall idea. Both those places are also emblems of things that need to be hidden away, in this case insanity must be concealed away from society. As the story progress the reader begins to detect signs of the illness taking over the character. As acknowledged by Gilbert and Gubar, her husband John, uses a conventional method of treatment at the time, which Gillman herself was subjected to by the famous nerve specialist S. Weit Mitchell. As she continues to utilize her time by watching the wallpaper she becomes delusional and begins to associate the colour of the wallpaper with decay and smells, the paper begins to have a vicious influence. Even though at the beginning the narrator feels a little resentment towards the environment as a whole, her mind quickly takes a new direction I am really getting fond of the in spite of the wallpaper. However she exclaims that her fondness might be caused because of the wallpaper. The story slowly takes a shift and the narrators unstable mind becomes more prominent. As the summer approaches its end, the narrator finally asks for permission to leave. Of course such permission is denied gently by John Why Darling! said he our lease will be up in three weeks and i cant see how to possibly leave before. In response, she consumes her whole night in watching the wallpaper hence her insanity reaching a climax. Her thorough analysis of the wallpaper hints the reader that her mind has progressed to a new stage of severe disorder. The narrator hallucinates that her husband has also been examining the wallpaper, nonetheless she is determined that nobody shall find this imaginary mystery of the wallpaper. Her insanity has taken new levels and her mind has completely deteriorated The front pattern does move- and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! This illustration of the false woman in the wallpaper in some ways mirrors Jane Eyres vision of a vampirical creature the night before her wedding. Again the female state of mind is involved as this vision is actually Bertha who has been taken over by her desires and strong emotions in almost the same way as the narrator in the The Yellow Wallpaper. Furthermore another analogy with Berhta in Jane Eyre could be considered. Both the narrators mind and Berthas mind reach a culmination of instability, which leads them to extraordinary acts of lunacy.