According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, every person will want self-fulfillment if all their lower needs are met. In today’s society, for most people, the lower needs such as eating and shelter are easily looked after, and so, leave most people with the desire to receive self-actualization. There are many ways that people can achieve this, but when circumstances bound a person, their options become greatly limited. Sometimes when someone is placed under restriction of society or others, he or she may retreat into his or her mind which may result in a loss of reality. This idea is developed in Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” through the suffering, unnamed narrator and her struggle to receive self-fulfillment The narrator is placed
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As a child she would always scare herself by imaging beings like monsters, and when she can no longer seek to the real world for self-fulfillment, she uses this powerful imagination in an attempt to do so. As a consequence of John rules of her not being allowed to interact with others, the narrator just imagines people walking around about the estate. This provides some entertainment but when she tells her husband about this, he immediately says it is not a wise thing to do which applies yet another restriction. In all practicality, John should have realized that thoughts are something no one can control. When he tells her to stop imagining people, all the narrator does is turn her mind to the wallpaper instead. At first she just literally analyzes the paper by looking at all the patterns and colors. Although she hates it, the narrator believes that if she can solve its deep mystery, then she will finally be happy. Lastly, she defies John’s rules and uses her mind, by writing the journal, which is the story. The narrator knows that no one will see it, therefore the only purpose that it serves is to occupy her mind. She tries many different ways of using her mind to be happy and have self-fulfillment, but really it is only once she completely loses her grip on reality that she feels …show more content…
The first instance in which reality fades away for her is when she starts to see mysterious things in the wallpaper. At first it is movement, then eyes, then a figure, and finally a moving woman in the wallpaper. Of course all of this is in the narrators mind, but in her attempt to be happy her mind is all that left. Also, as time progresses, the narrator distrusts the people close to her more and more. When Jennie tries to find the source of the yellow stains on all of her clothing, the narrator becomes obsessed with the thought that Jennie wanted to solve the wallpaper for herself. In reality all Jennie was doing was investigation stains; but at this point in time, reality was too far away for the narrator. Finally, the true world completely disappears for the narrator when she decides she is the woman that was trapped in the paper. Once she decides this, the narrator starts ripping the paper off the wall so she can never be imprisoned again and can finally be free. Although she has no grip on reality, this is the happiest and most fulfilled the character has been throughout the
As a child she would always scare herself by imaging beings like monsters, and when she can no longer seek to the real world for self-fulfillment, she uses this powerful imagination in an attempt to do so. As a consequence of John rules of her not being allowed to interact with others, the narrator just imagines people walking around about the estate. This provides some entertainment but when she tells her husband about this, he immediately says it is not a wise thing to do which applies yet another restriction. In all practicality, John should have realized that thoughts are something no one can control. When he tells her to stop imagining people, all the narrator does is turn her mind to the wallpaper instead. At first she just literally analyzes the paper by looking at all the patterns and colors. Although she hates it, the narrator believes that if she can solve its deep mystery, then she will finally be happy. Lastly, she defies John’s rules and uses her mind, by writing the journal, which is the story. The narrator knows that no one will see it, therefore the only purpose that it serves is to occupy her mind. She tries many different ways of using her mind to be happy and have self-fulfillment, but really it is only once she completely loses her grip on reality that she feels …show more content…
The first instance in which reality fades away for her is when she starts to see mysterious things in the wallpaper. At first it is movement, then eyes, then a figure, and finally a moving woman in the wallpaper. Of course all of this is in the narrators mind, but in her attempt to be happy her mind is all that left. Also, as time progresses, the narrator distrusts the people close to her more and more. When Jennie tries to find the source of the yellow stains on all of her clothing, the narrator becomes obsessed with the thought that Jennie wanted to solve the wallpaper for herself. In reality all Jennie was doing was investigation stains; but at this point in time, reality was too far away for the narrator. Finally, the true world completely disappears for the narrator when she decides she is the woman that was trapped in the paper. Once she decides this, the narrator starts ripping the paper off the wall so she can never be imprisoned again and can finally be free. Although she has no grip on reality, this is the happiest and most fulfilled the character has been throughout the