Final assignment

Table of Contents

Rupali RupaliDr. Alexis McQuiggeWRIT LAB5th April 2019Thesis- Impact of surroundings on human natureIn the short story “The Yellow Garden,” the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has written about her own experience she had when she was suffering from some nervous problems. Her story revolves around her husband, John who plays a major role in getting her out from mental trauma. Most of the time John opposes to whatever the author demands or wishes to do. John, being a supportive physician, implies his knowledge of dealing with the patients, and hinders her to do something which may please her but would prove unfit for her health. As mentioned by Gilman in her story, John exhibits the nature of being more practical, has no confidence in tolerating something and boldly opposes the superstitious beliefs. Further describing John, the author mentions that he jumps into the conversation which is not even important or not worth having much talk about. Being sick, the author wants to do some work which would make her feel enthusiastic or fresh but John feels that doing so will make her think much and not fit for her mentally. The author’s brother is a physician as well so she gets the same advice from both of them and at last, is left with no other choice than to just do whatever they both say. Perhaps, the way John take care of her is a great security to her. John advised author that whenever she feels to work justthink about her mental condition as this will become reluctant for her to work.At some times, Gilman feels unreasonably angry upon John. To her response, John suggests her to neglect her proper self-control. Gilman states in her story that,“John is very careful and loving and hardly lets her stir without special direction.”(“He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.” 2010) John takes care of her prescriptions which are scheduled for every hour per day. John says, “Your exercise depends on your strength, my dear,” said he,” and your food somewhat on your appetite; but the air you can absorb all the time” (5). Being a physician, John is away throughout the day and even when his cases are not considered to be taken lightly. John is more serious than the author and their way of thinking for every object is contradictory. The author is more artistic in nature and loves writing. She loves working rather than sitting home and having a rest. She gets relieved by seeing everything colorful around her. John has a different view of the author about this when she is suffering from a nervous breakdown. John believes that if she gives more way to her fancies and uses her inventive power and propensity for story-making, a nervous weakness of her will surely result in all sort of energized skills. Gilman finds her place to be very boring and unfit for her because she feels very dull. John says, “You know the place is doing well; he said; and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three-month rental” (7). This short story has a deep role of places in it. Every mentioned place and scenario has a different significance and very place leaves a different mark on the author’s mind. Gilman starts her story with the revealing of a place which is a Colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, more like a haunted house reaching the height of romantic felicity(3). The author then gives detailed information about the house. The house where John and the author have shifted is a beautiful place alone, standing well back from the road, a very quiet place and at three miles distance from the village. Their new house location makes the author think of English places which we read in texts. There are fences, dividers, entryways that look, bunches of independent little houses for the gardeners and individuals. The author describes the garden as a ‘delicious.’ The garden is large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them. There were greenhouses too but all are broken now (Gilman 4-5). The only thing that the author mentions about the broken greenhouses is that there was some legal problem and now it is broken and looks more like a haunted place and this place has been empty from years. The author does not like her room. According to the author’s wish, she wanted, “one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings.” (5) It was getting hard for the author to live in such a boring place when she was not supposed to do any work and then just sit in a boring place.John said, “There were only one window and no room for two beds, and no near room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another. They even had one nursery at the top of their house. It was a big airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that looked all ways, air, and sunshine all around.”(5) It had a wallpaper, pale yellow in color, in the nursery which the author hated the most and to this conversation of hanging the wallpaper, John said that “after the wallpaper will be changed, it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.”(7) However, John has the right conception about the bed, windows, and other stuff. It is a spacious room as one might expect to have in thoughts. There is a window out of which the author can see the garden, the mysterious deep shaded arbors, the old-fashioned flowers, and bushes, and gnarly trees. (Gilman 8) The floor in the nursery is stretched and the plaster has been torn from some areas.The bed kept in the room appears as though it has experienced numerous wars.The author does not like her nursery room at all but is pleased by the location where the house is situated and the outside beauty.When at the beginning of the story, the author talks about the house which looks more like a haunted place, she describes everything to be dark. Her color theme of this story starts with the moonlight evening which indicates that everything is dull and boring. She feels this thing not only for the house but for herself as well since she is suffering from mental trauma and is not allowed to work as mentioned by John and her brother. Her life has also become as dull as the moonlight evening. The paint that has been used in the gym and the paper kept over there seems like a boy’s school have used it. Then she talks about the things on the wall and says that these color on the walls are dull enough to confuse the eye, as in, irritate the person by seeing such dull colors every day. On the second hand, when she sees outside, everything seems so fresh and exciting to her. Seeing the outer beauty, she gets overwhelmed with her thoughts and wishes to write something. She loves greenery and talks much about the greenery all time. She even tries to convince John to have everything colorful around her so that she can feel happy but John opposes this by saying that this may affect her brain badly. The shading on the divider is repulsive, an unclean yellow shading, unusually blurred by the moderate turning daylight. It is a dull orange shading in certain spots and looks as considerably more messy with daylight. It is a dull orange color in some places and looks even dirtier with sunlight. She has two color themes in her story where she is delighted but the outer colors but in grief by the inner colors.Her story revolves around her emotions. It is clearly reflected in her story that her emotions change with the change in colors. When she see outside where everything is green, she gets lost in her own thoughts and feel very amazed but on the second-hand side when she sees her house from inside, she does not like the wallpapers, the colors, the furniture and feels lonely and hence requests John to let her work. To her surprise, John does not allow her to do anything. He even does not find fit if she writes something. Her mentality of having everything colorful around her signifies that she is a very fun loving lady who loves to do lots of interesting things and finds very boring sitting at home and doing nothing. Where she feels that she could become fine more easily by doing things which she likes, John feels that it is unfit for her to think about fancy things as it would unrest her mind. This signifies that when a person feels sick, he finds everything boring around himself and tries to do new things but cannot do due to the unfit condition. Her story also reflects this view that a thing which is pleasing a person can be boring for another person as happened between her and John. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxanomic Revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4:e7720. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure 2f. “He is Very Careful and Loving, and Hardly Lets Me Stir without Special Direction.” Pechonn’s journal, 1 Sept.2010, pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/charlotte-perkins-gilman-yellow-wallpaper/.