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3.2.1 Crazy Fantasy of a Suffering Woman as an Unreliable yet True Narration 7
3.2.1.1 Crazy Fantasy Throughout the Story 7
3.2.1.2 First Person Narration Renders a Crazy Woman to be an Unreliable yet true Narrator 8
3.2.2 Pathetic Suffering of a Mad Women through Diaristic Narration 8
3.2.2.1 Diaristic First Person Narration Reveals the Real Progress of the Woman Going Mad. 8
3.2.2.1.1 Her Attitude Toward the Isolated House 9
3.2.2.1.2 Her Attitude Toward Her Husband 10
3.3.2.1.3 Her Attitude Toward Writing 11
IV. Conclusion 12
References 13
I. Introduction
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is an American writer, economist, an lecturer, and an early theorist of the feminist movement. From 1900 to 1916 Gilman edited and wrote her own feminist paper, The Forerunner, in which most of her fiction appeared. Her best-known theoretical treatise is women and economics, in which she attacked the old pision of social roles.
After the birth of their daughter, she is beset with depression and is forced to receive rest treatment, on which her most famous work The Yellow Wallpaper is based. The Yellow Wallpaper, originally published in 1892, is her representative short story which manifests itself as a classic feminist works. The story which is based on the author’s personal experience has a very simple story line. The narrator is diagnosed by her husband,a physician, as suffering from temporary nervous depression following the birth of her first child. And he prescribes total rest for her and forbids her to do any work in the form of writing , her chosen career. Deprived of any social interactions, she is confined in an old room in an ancient castle by her husband, which according to his words, is all for her sake. The story describes the progression of her gradually being obsessed with the weird yellow wallpaper and finally going insane.
The story is well received for its gothic horror, meaningful metaphor and feminism theme. Much of the success of the story attributes to the skillful narration. The author chose a mad woman as the narrator, reveals her psychological state through her fragmented diaries and associates her fantasy with the yellow wallpaper so as to shape vividly the image of a woman suffering from patriarchy and deprivation of basic rights
In another passage of hers why i wrote the yellow wallpaper, she explains that the intention of the story is to reveal the ridiculous nature of the rest cure. The following words said by her reflects her feminism idea most clearly: “Women are social beings as much as men, by nature; and as women, are even more sympathetic with human processed. To develop human life in its true powers we need fully equal citizenship for women.’’
II. Literature review
In this part, previous studies on the story concerning writing strategies and theme are classified and presented. Particularly, writing strategies can be further pided into four parts, namely first person narration as the unique viewpoint, innovative focus on the process of going mad, hysteric writing as writing state, and psychopathological symbolism as means of artistic expression. Besides, feminist theme on rights and rebel are stressed throughout the text.