What are the "Societal" and "Historical" Connections?

Before I start talking about the societal and historical connections to "The Yellow Wallpaper", I have to ask an important question. What is a societal connection? What is a historical connection? In my opinion, I think that these are connections to society and history. But in the dictionary, social connections are social groups, families and communities. Historical contexts are the moods, attitudes, and conditions that existed in a certain time. In the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," I can make many, but not perfect, connections to the story. For example, Gilman says that there were greenhouses, but they are broken. She could be relating to her life. She had a good life, but it is broken due to not being able to do anything anymore. In my social life, my friend's friend was taken away due to a car accident. At first, he was a great athlete, but after driving around one night, a drunk driver hit and killed him. His good life was taken away, just like Jane's was. For my historical connection, it is about the Women's Suffrage Movement. In the 1800's, women stayed at home and took care of the family, sometimes didn't do anything. So at this time, she was probably a suffragette. These are my connections from the story.

These were some very valuable links that helped me out:
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/historyhomework/p/historicalcontext.htm
https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html 

The Symbolism of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The term "symbolism" means a system or set of symbols. In the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," there are many times Gilman uses symbolism. Like when she was behind the barred windows. She felt like she was trapped from society. She couldn't get out and do everything she wanted to do, unlike some people at the time. In the beginning or the story, Jane quotes, "There were greenhouses, but they are all broken now" (1). In this excerpt, or line, from the story, Jane could be saying that there were good parts to her life, but they are all gone. She is saying that her life was just broken ever since she was limited to what she could do. And the wallpaper! She hated the wallpaper so much, but she knew there was something interesting, mysterious, about the paper. She noticed that there were stripes on the paper. And when we think of stripes, we think of jail or prison! The clothes they wear, or the room around them, they can see stripes. At the end of the story, though, she finds out that she is locked up. Not just from her family, but from the outside world too! Those were the uses of symbolism that Gilman used in the story.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/yellowwallpaper/themes.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/symbolism?s=

Who's the Protagonist??

When someone talks about a protagonist, what do you think of? For me, I think of one that does good to the story. In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, I think that the protagonist is Jane, also known as Charlotte Gilman. She is an innocent women with a "problem" known as hysteria. All her peers are telling her to sit around and do nothing for the rest of her life. The antagonists are the people all around Jane. They wont let her do anything, and they don't even care. They think that this is right. They don't even know that doing this will not heal her! It will just make her more crazy! Everyone is "locking" her up in a jail-like room. One with bars on the windows, torn wallpaper, and locked up doors, so she cannot escape. Yet, I still think that Jane Doe has a little bit of antagonist in her. Like, for example, when she thinks of John "fainting," she doesn't even care. She just still creeps around the room, stepping on and over top of him. That is why I think that Jane is both the protagonist and the antagonist in the story.

These are the links that helped me find out why Jane is the protagonist, and what it means:
http://www.shmoop.com/yellow-wallpaper/the-narrator.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/protagonist

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman, is the story about a women with a hysteria, and is forced to not read, write, sit in a blank room, and cannot see her newborn child. Even though some may say this is considered to help a women with this problem, others say that this makes her even more crazy. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. She suffered from great depression and went through unusual treatments. She unfortunately had to be alone most of the time, and her husband, Charles Stetson, treated her like she was a child. He called her names like "Goose" and she lives at the top of a nursery home for boys. Despite being treated like this, he still loves her and doesn't want her to go away. After being suffered and depressed, she killed herself on August 17, 1935.
After reading the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, I realized that there can be multiple themes to this story. Just because someone is different than someone else, you shouldn't treat them like a child. They are humans too! They're the same as you. You should treat them like a human being. Another theme of the story is to follow your dream. The doctor of Gilman, Dr, Mitchell, said she should drop everything and not do anything for the rest of their life. Take Charlotte Gilman for example. When Dr. Mitchell said to sit in a room and not do anything exciting for the rest of her life, she thought that was absurd. Coming from a family of writers, she knew she couldn't let that happen. Secretly, she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. Just because she wasn't allowed to do this, doesn't mean she can't.


http://www.biography.com/people/charlotte-perkins-gilman-9311669
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/charlotte-gilman/

  Hysteria- a reference used for women with emotional problems