Plot
In The yellow wallpaper we peek into a fragment of a diary. The narrator and protagonist tell us that for three months and due to her illness, she has rented a house on the outskirts of a city with her sister-in-law, her husband and her newborn son.
She has an affectation in the nerves for which her husband, a doctor, has prescribed absolute rest and isolation of all possible stimulations. Therefore, they are installed in a spacious room actually their children’s room. She spends her hours in a bed, with no distraction, only watching the wallpaper: an intricate yellow paper with filigree with no sense or symmetry.
The protagonist seems to start obsessing with that role that in its idiosyncrasy, is oppressive, unsettling and steals her sleep. Understanding the drawing of the paper, which is torned in some areas, occupies her hours and absorbs all her energy till a delirious final.
My opinion
The protagonist tells us everything, both for what she writes and for what she is silent.
The few characters that appear in the story are described between the lines, but in an obvious way, especially through the narrator's silences.
Gilman describes, what depression is like. She does not name it, but she is very aware of what she feels and has a great intuition of what she needs to recover. However, the men of her life, mainly her husband ,the doctor, decide not to listen to her and thus,guide her as if she were an irresponsible child, again and again towards the yellow wallpaper.
The story is not closed and does not provide answers: does the protagonist go crazy and are all her imaginations?
I Think that “The yellow wallpaper”, in spite of being so brief, is a masterful story; concise and brilliant.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a great author,
in a subtle but accurate way. She focuses on a few delicate topics: the submission to the husband's wishes, the presence of a baby that can not be occupied, the inability of her husband to understand why she is not happy .
No comments:
Post a Comment