Super Wallpaper Lady Essays - Mental Illness In Fiction,

Super Wallpaper Lady Super Yellow Wallpaper Women A hero is defined as a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability (MW). Throughout literature a male character is usually blessed with the heroic role. The Yellow Wallpaper appears to contradict that statement. The narrator in this story tries to overcome and destroy women's oppression. She appears to be mentally unstable and so it is hard to distinguish her as a heroic figure. Although the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper appears to be loosing her mind she is in actuality a magnificent hero in disguise. A hero must have an evil villain. A villain's main objective is to find the hero's weak spot and cause a lot of chaos in their life. The hero must stop this villain and make him cease his evil ways. In the story, John, the narrator's husband, a physician, appears to take the roll of the villain. He is not actually out to harm his wife but he will not use all of his resources to help her like a normal husband should. The husband just will not listen to his wife. She claimed that she was very sick but he thought otherwise. The narrator says: If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do(1213)? The narrator believed that the house they were living in was a major contribution to her illness but her plea, was ignored. The narrator says I really was not gaining here and I wish he would take me away (1218). John's not listening to the narrator is an ideal characteristic of an evil villain. The real reason why she was sick was because something inside her wanted to get out. The evil villain husband appears to be holding our hero hostage, not letting her trapped soul escape. In the end the narrator rips down her wallpaper to offset her villain. The narrator says Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall so that I had to creep over him every time (1222). In most cases a villain dies but this villain was shown who the boss is. A hero usually has a sidekick. A sidekick is the hero's friend that usually is taken hostage by the villain. The women in the wallpaper tends to fit this description. The narrator treats her as a friend that she watches every night. The narrator says I don't want anyone to get that women out at night but myself (1219). A sidekick's courage never surpasses that of the hero. The narrator seems to have a lot of courage when she is constantly speaking with her villainous husband without the slightest fear. But the sidekick appears to be afraid of John because she does not make her presence known unless he is asleep. So the villan holds her hostage in the wallpaper during the day. There is a good possibility that the woman is the narrator's sidekick. A hero must have an obstacle to overcome that hinders them and others. The narrator seems to be very sick but her husband John will not help her get better. He treats her with outdated medical treatments and he will not try newer ones. The narrator says I take phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is-and tonics, and air exercise and journeys, and I am absolutely forbidden to work until I am well again. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good (1213). If she could only have treated herself then she probably would have become more mentally stable. Though it seems the narrator is sick, her sickness is actually symbolic of her old fashioned ways of living as a women. To overcome this obstacle she becomes a new more modern woman. Another obstacle that the narrator had to overcome was her sidekick's confinement. She appeared to be trapped in the wallpaper as if it were a jail cell. The narrator says As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I