➤ Work: The Yellow Wallpaper
➤ Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
➤ Summary:
➤ The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that explores mental illness, gender roles, and oppression.
➤ It is told through the journal entries of a woman suffering from depression.
➤ The setting:
➤ The narrator is taken to a large house in the countryside by her husband John, a physician.
➤ He believes that complete rest and isolation will cure her illness.
➤ Isolation and control:
➤ The narrator is forbidden to work, write, or socialize.
➤ She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room.
➤ Descent into madness:
➤ She begins to imagine a woman trapped behind the wallpaper’s pattern.
➤ Over time, she believes she must free this woman.
➤ The climax:
➤ The narrator tears down the wallpaper and declares herself free.
➤ John faints when he sees her behavior.
➤ Main themes:
➤ Mental illness
➤ Female oppression
➤ Loss of identity
➤ Freedom vs. control
➤ Overall message:
➤ The Yellow Wallpaper criticizes the treatment of women and mental health in the nineteenth century, showing how forced silence and control can lead to psychological breakdown.
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