1. By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper
By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

2. Background Knowledge Written in 1890 Example of “new literature”
Emerged in the late 1800s
Women’s voices began to be heard
No longer repressed

3. Before “new literature”
Women’s lives were ruled by their:
Husbands
Place in society
Social rank in society

4. What’s Wrong???
Women suffered from variety of physical and mental disorders
Fatigue
Depression
Most of those sufferers were from the non-working middle and upper classes

5. Medical Treatment
If treated and no “source” could be determined as a carrier the diagnosis:
Vague, trivial nervous condition
How did they cure them?
Isolation
Prolonged rest

6. Gender Bias
Doctor’s felt that the source of the problem lied within gender
Women are:
Weak
Emotionally unstable

7. How the story is told…
The narrator tells the story through her own eyes; the eyes of a person with a diagnosed nervous condition
1st person point of view
Based on journal entries about her own experiences
Distorted
Unexplained events
Reader must make inferences based on details about her life from her journal entries

8. 1st person POV Advantages Disadvantages
Reader is pulled in by the thoughts and feelings expressed by the narrator
A first hand glimpse is provided into the life of the narrator and his/her own world
Reader only gets to know the narrators side of the story
Character depth is left only one-sided and shallow