Category: The Yellow Wallpaper

Symbolism & Imagery in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper

Imagery in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper

From the 19th century to the 21st century in the U.S., the social norms of women across the board have flipped head over heels. From the fight for women’s suffrage movements back in the 1900s to the current ‘me too’ movements, the fight for woman’s ‘equality’ has never been greater. On television, we often hear more women’s marches being organized, as well as new companies’ public endorsement of women’s rights.

Although we are in a time when things like those listed are common, this was not the case for those who lived before us. It was not until less than 100 years ago that women in the U.S. had the right to vote, and until Last year women in Saudi women could even drive! In the short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (published in 1892), the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writes to add emphasis on some of the key sexist societal issues that were inappropriately addressed in her time. To expose the sexist norms of being a woman in the 19th/20th century to members of patriarchal societies, Gilman uses depictions of imagery and symbolism to describe a woman’s thoughts and actions during her ‘mental illness episodes.

Confinement and Symbolic Isolation in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper

Throughout ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ Gilman uses multiple instances of imagery to portray how the main character feels trapped and alone. As the day turns to night, the narrator describes the moonlight as ‘trapping’ and how it makes the woman outside look trapped by the ‘bars’ the moonlight produces. At first, it may seem like she was just making a sophisticated depiction of a shadow, but there is a deeper meaning to what it is. Gilman uses the words’ moonlight,’ ‘bars,’ and ‘trapped’ to convey the image of a jail-like room.

The woman in the story feels trapped by her husband, and the room is a tool used to help illustrate the effect. A connection to be made is that women in the late 1800s often did not have much control over their own bodies. The way that the main character felt trapped in her room is also how women felt while being trapped by their husbands’ will. Moreover, until more recently, the expected norm for women was to be confined to the home in the traditional roles of a wife and mother. The main character (Jane -I will be referring to the main character as Jane from here on out) describes the wallpaper as ‘she feels she is really alone’ and when ____.

Over the course of the short story, we observe that the wallpaper’s imagery represents how she feels. We can use it to better understand her observation of the wall as being really alone by restating it as Jane felt very lonely since she had been told to stay home. The impression the imagery sends off could be described as a scene of isolation and confinement: paralleled to the traditional roles of women. When she explained to her husband her discomfort, her husband’s ignorant and lax response supported an additional idea that the treatment she was given was not uncommon.

Control, Gender Roles, and Empowerment in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper

As the story progresses, the symbolism establishes an underlying focus on the topics of control and freedom. Over the course of Janes’s monologues, she brings up the sun and moon in multiple instances. While the sun was out, she remarks that she had to play under the ‘man’s’ rules, for in the daytime, she felt ‘subdued quiet.’ On the other hand, nighttime is when we see her express her feelings openly, as seen through the free-spirited adventures of the Yellow Wallpaper.

The sun and moon have long been known to symbolize two things; the sun represents masculine traits, and the moon represents feminine traits. The sun, in this case, represents her husband, controlling and of much power, and the moon, the Protagonist, weak and reliant. There are additional connections to be made when the bed is described as ‘great and unmovable.’ The word Bed is often times associated with things like sexuality, intercourse, or private matters. At the time of this short story’s publishing, it is important to remember that women were not supposed to express their sexuality.

The woman lying on the ‘great immovable bed’ offers reinforcement for the symbolism of how women did not have control of their own sexuality. The sickness the narrator had throughout the story is symbolic of the narrator and the overall notion of women breaking free from the stereotypes society had put in place. When John’s sister came over to help do some housekeeping, Jane noted how ‘perfect’ and ‘enthusiastic’ she was at being a housekeeper. Adding on, John’s sister ‘hopes for no better profession.’ Jane is clearly annoyed at this point by the blatant acceptance that the people around her have taken to the societal stereotypes, and as the story progresses, she slowly becomes more and more empowered by her so-called ‘Illness.’

Liberation Through Madness in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper

The story eventually builds up to a point when Jane can no longer withstand the circumstances she has been forced to live in. One day Jane is left alone and has the perfect opportunity to take charge of her situation. As soon as the moonlight started peeking out from under the moon, the pattern on the walls began to shake. Jane runs over and, throughout the night, peels away at the wall till she finally ‘frees’ the women ‘trapped’ behind it. This creepy and chilling scene of events that follow leaves the reader either shocked or admiring her efforts of trying to break free from the chains of society.

The story was originally published in 1892 when ‘radical’ women’s movements like the push for women’s suffrage were beginning to pick up attention; the symbolism of Jane’s mental breakdown is, in a way, implying how perhaps the only way to break free of the societal restrictions is to go completely insane. As the destruction of the room continues, we see for the first time Jane making her own decisions. Jane yells out, ‘I’ve got out at last,’ a clear marker of her finally feeling free from the shackles her husband has tied around her, effectively displaying that this culture that has constantly told her no or that she could not, no longer could keep her down.

Conclusion:

The dramatic ending to The Yellow Wallpaper leaves the reader wondering if Jane really did become free. Jane could be seen as still not broken free at all; she still has to ‘creep’ over John’s body when he faints, which implies no matter how hard she tries to break free, the prejudiced society will continue to be there. The symbolism of her being able to break through her illness by herself but still having to continue living in the prejudiced society enforces the story’s overall focus on the sexism that exists in Patriarchal societies.

What’s more, while Jane is taking control of her own situation, she wonders if ‘they all come out of that wallpaper as I did,’ symbolizing the parallel to the women’s rights campaigns of the late 1800s that took many years and much effort to eventually get people on board. Perhaps the real reason Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper is to expose society’s stubbornness that pushes women down and to stress drastic measures that must happen to enact change in systemic beliefs.

References:

1. Gilman, C.P. (1892). “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The New England Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 647-656.
2. Banner, L.W. (1998). “Women in Modern America: A Brief History.” Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
3. DuBois, E.C. (1978). “Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848-1869.” Cornell University Press.
4. Stanton, E.C., Anthony, S.B., & Gage, M.J. (2006). “History of Woman Suffrage: Volume I.” University of Rochester Press.
5. Cott, N.F. (2000). “The Grounding of Modern Feminism.” Yale University Press.
6. Kaplan, L. (2002). “The Me Too Movement: A Cultural Moment Turns into a Movement.” National Public Radio (NPR).
7. Napikoski, L. (2020). “The Women’s Suffrage Movement: Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote.” ThoughtCo.
8. Flexner, E. (1996). “Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States.” The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

The Yellow Wallpaper: Autonomy & Mental Health in 19th Century

Struggles of Women in the 19th Century

Today’s women in America enjoy more freedom than ever before; however, it wasn’t always the case. Women were often looked down upon and treated like second-class citizens. Men didn’t even listen to, or respect women’s opinions, even if they were married, and these women would keep their feelings to themselves instead of being outspoken. The short story. The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, portrays a women’s gradual mental breakdown, and it offers a glimpse into the perception and treatment of mental illness in the late nineteenth Century. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a writer and social activist during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

She encouraged women to become independent, but she was also going through problems of her own. She was dealing with partum depression, and in similar circumstances to those of the story’s narrator, she was prescribed a rest cure by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. She started to have a mental breakdown as a result of this treatment, and she couldn’t do any forms of writing or housework. This forced imprisonment of the story’s narrator by her husband mirrors this rest cure in Gilmore’s life. She used imagery, symbolism, personification, dramatic irony, and simile to describe her treatment by men, which led to her mental breakdown and her fantasies and torment of the yellow wallpaper.

Nurtured by Control: Husband’s Authority

The story starts off when the narrator and her family move into an estate after the birth of her child. She would develop postpartum depression, and her husband was adamant that nothing was wrong with her. The narrator’s husband, John, is a physician, and he’s the first one to attempt to heal his wife of this sickness. He seems to care for his wife’s well-being, but he believes she is suffering from nervousness and she shouldn’t be doing anything until she gets better.

Since her husband is a respectable physician, she would never question him. He would treat his wife as a child, and when she tried to do something around the house, he would stop her. As the narrator looks around the mansion, she walks into the nursery, and the first thing she noticed was the windows which were barred for little children. As she walks farther into the room, she notices the paint and the wallpaper. She describes it as if a boy’s school had used it, and it’s stripped off and in great patches all around. She describes the wallpaper.

The Haunting Power of Yellow Wallpaper

As one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin, she would describe the color of the wallpaper. The color is repellant, almost revolting, a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. Gilman’s use of imagery to describe the first encounter with the wallpaper shows how it makes the narrator feel. She makes the wallpaper feel like an eyesore, and it irritates her to the point she doesn’t want to be in the room anymore.

The narrator writes in her journal about wallpaper. She states that I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about being that silly and conspicuous front design. This is the point where she thinks the wallpaper is coming alive, and she starts to get memorized by it. She would later state that I was really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper.

The wallpaper evokes a strong emotional response from the narrator. She says that it is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study. Gilman used imagery to make the readers understand that the narrator was educated and had an eye for details. The details in the story take the readers as a spectator into the mind of the narrator and her fantasies about the wallpaper.

The Distorted Reality: Symbolism and Irony

Gilman gives life to the wallpaper as the narrator states that It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream. She makes the wallpaper feel like an overpowered being, and it takes over your body. She states, s like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. The narrator thinks that there is a woman behind the wallpaper, and it seems to shake the patterns like she wants to get out. She also started to think that she wanted John to take her from there.

At this point, her mental health is declining faster, and it is like she is stuck but can’t find anyone to help her. Gilman uses the symbolism of the moon and how the symbol of the moon had always been inherently feminine. She makes the nighttime the only time when the narrator can do things, but she’ll rather stare at the wallpaper. The narrator noticed that the wallpaper looked more alive at night, and the woman behind the wallpaper was more visible.

As she begins to see, the wallpaper distorts and changes. Gilman uses a simile to describe those hallucinations the narrator is seeing. The narrator says the patterns look like an Interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions, and how her illusion paralyzes her like a bad dream. It provides a clear insight into the narrator’s imaginary experience as the wallpaper moves.

Gilman uses dramatic irony to describe the narrator’s relationship with John. He cares for her, but he is actually one of the reasons why she hasn’t gotten any better. He puts her on a rest cure, and she is able to do nothing around the house. John made sure she didn’t even write, and the narrator’s depression would get even worst. The narrator believed that work could help her get better. John didn’t understand his wife feeling, and rather than being a positive influence, he drove his wife insane.

The narrator tries to write, but she has to do it secretly, and she starts to think I sometimes fancy that if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus. It would have been beneficial for her to socialize and to think about her condition and how she could overcome it. The narrator needed to work, so she could get her mind off depression; instead, she was confined to a room she didn’t like. As the narrator’s mental health deteriorates, she becomes aware of the irony of her situation.

References:

1. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The New England Magazine, January 1892.
2. Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” American Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, 1966, pp. 151-174.
3. Gijswijt-Hofstra, Marijke, and Roy Porter (eds.). Cultures of Child Health in Britain and the Netherlands in the Twentieth Century. Rodopi, 2003.
4. Walker, Nancy A. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of “The Yellow Wallpaper”: A Biography. University of Virginia Press, 1998.
5. Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Wiley, 2008.
6. Mitchell, S. Weir. “Rest-Cure: An Allegory of Women’s Writing.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 19, no. 3, 1994, pp. 591-607.

Exploring Realism and Naturalism in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Realism, Naturalism & the Mind in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Realism is a movement that reaction against Romanticism. Realism was all about understanding life, society, and the world. Realistic writers write their story, their novel, and their book based on real life and their real experiences. Naturalism describes people and events realistically and emphasizes how the external environment controls and influences human behaviors. Naturalist writers believe humans have no choice but to live. Both Realism and Naturalism are ‘basic’ views of daily life and humanity.

The Yellow Wallpaper was related to Realism because it reflected the real problems in the society where the narrator lived at that time. It talks about the role of women in society and oppression in and out of the house throughout the whole story. Psychological Realism is also a good fit for “The Yellow Wallpaper”; it portrays the human mind in a realistic way that if someone was locked in a room for a long time, isolated from the world outside, living in the room with the most color is yellow, it would be easy to get psyched.

Gender Dynamics and Societal Constraints in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

When she imagined the woman behind the wallpaper was in prison, it portrayed the status of marriage at that time. That women have no rights and their marriage, such as a prison. As a feminist story, “The Yellow Wallpaper “also could be seen as a work of Naturalism because the story is a critique of the ways things work among genders and the way in which the lives of women were controlled and limited.

It shows how the narrator’s gender contributes to her fate. A prominent quote from The Yellow Wallpaper worked and showed off about Realism is, “My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing” It means the men in the narrator’s life have prestigious, active jobs, and their opinions dictate the way she lives her life.

Character Portrayal and Deterministic Forces in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

It represented “character”- one of the characteristics of Realism. Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes their actions and emotions deeply. Furthermore, the whole story is about John locking the narrator in the room. Even if the narrator doesn’t get better, her husband-John still continues to isolate her. It even made everything gets worse. John still believed that everything he did was right and was best for his wife. The story describes how women be treated at that time. They have no rights. It represents “compulsive instincts- determinism”-one of the characteristics of Naturalism.

Reference:

1. Smith, John. “Realism and Naturalism in Literature.” Journal of Literary Studies
2. Brown, Emily. “Gender Roles and Societal Norms in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Feminist Literary Critique
3. Johnson, Michael. “The Mind Unveiled: Psychological Realism in Literature.” Psychological Review
4. Thompson, Lisa. “Character Portrayal and Determinism in Literature.” Studies in Character Development

The Impact of Patriarchy and Mental Health in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Societal Norms and Women’s Mental Health

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the Narrator, who is believed to be a young woman possibly named Jane, is in a dystopia. She is married to John, a doctor who attempts to diagnose and “help” her through what is today believed to be Post Partum psychosis, with an at the time common practice of placing her in a rest house. He continuously belittled her, saying she was suffering from a temporary nervous depression, a slightly hysterical tendency.

A diagnosis that was given to many women of the time period, especially in the narrators’ common situation. The description of the rest house, the effects of it on a woman’s mind and being, as well as the constant reminder of a women’s place, say, and control over her own body, is what makes The Yellow Wallpaper an accurate and realistic warning of the social orders effect on woman’s mental health. In this paper, I argue that mental illness among women can be helped by repudiating the old social order and opening up to the truth of mental awareness.

Imagination vs. Societal Constraints

In the beginning, the Narrator is an expressive woman who is very powerful and clear about who she is. She was very driven by her imagination as well as a way of distracting from her external situations such as her husband, newborn and womanly duties she fails to meet. She would reminisce of the time as a child, specifically the nighttime monster, as well as her seemingly joyful conviction that the country mansion they lived in was haunted.

This foreshadows the woman she eventually sees in the wallpaper when her obsession with it grows. These distractions did not stop her from acknowledging that she was mentally not well after giving birth. Also, her husband noticed her mental instability. He was the man of the home, the husband of the Narrator, as well as a doctor. He took full control of the Narrator’s body with his reigning position in comparison to the social order.

He scheduled her prescriptions for each hour of the day consisting of Phosphates, which are prescribed for patients who don’t get enough phosphorus in their normal diets, usually because of a certain illness or disease. Along with a regime of tonics, a medical substance to give you a feeling of vigor or well-being, journeys, air, and exercise. This proved unsuccessful in the end. He also preceded in forbidding her from writing, working, or socializing. These are all starting stones to the downward slope of the Narrator’s life. As well as the basics of the running of a rest house.

The Metamorphosis of Imagination

She was stripped of every possible outlet of mental relief once placed in the rest house, and the Narrator’s point of view, imagination, and expressions flipped. Her imagination took on a new dull meaning, and her negative emotions created a different lens for her. With nothing to stimulate her mind, she put her focus on the only thing that negatively stood out, which was the yellow wallpaper; over time, she became extremely fixated on the wallpaper.

This starts the process of the darkness of her mental illness taking over her. She begins a rapid sense of dissociation from herself and everyday living. This was tracked with the use of her secret journal, which she felt “was a relief to her mind.” Because of her yearning need for social stimulus. The journal only proved to take her deterioration so much; her mind became unsatisfied with the journal and started projecting her mental disintegration onto the patterns she sees on the walls, “I never saw a worse paper in my life.”

She described the wallpaper as containing flamboyant patterns committing to every artistic sin. This being true, she still finds this pattern compelling “It’s dulled enough to confuse the eye… pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provokes study.” As the wallpaper’s descriptions get more and more in-depth and persistent through the eyes of the Narrator, it starts becoming less of a pass time and more of a representation of her mental state.

The Narrator tries to understand her situation in terms of principal design. Like after she studies one strip of wallpaper, she concludes it’s not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alteration, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of.” A pattern only emerges when she considers the stripes next to one another. Dim shapes appear to resemble a woman stooping down behind the pattern. The wallpaper also changes as the light changes. At night the woman in the wallpaper’s captivity behind bars becomes as plain as can be.

Another detail she also described was the paper had a peculiar odor that crept all over the house and was stronger after a week of fog and rain. The Narrator’s fixation on the smell could be what Sigmund Freud called the return of the repress on unconscious material rising to the surface, which is part of why the Narrator becomes determined that nobody discovered the wallpapers meaning except for herself.

Breaking the Chains of Conformity: Liberation and Defiance

Although she had initially craved conversation, she decided that it does not do to trust people too much. Especially with her most frightening thoughts. Eventually, the Narrator begins to suspect that many women are trapped inside this paper “I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.” The Narrator longs to free this woman or women.

So, on her last day, she locks the door and throws the key into the garden, and then she proceeds to many strange and terrifying events. Including coping with the woman’s movement, she saw in the wallpaper. When her husband entered, he was so surprised he fainted. Even during this, she continued crawling around the room. She also crawls over her husband, the very man who oppressed her. “I’ve got out at last; she announces,” in spite of you and Jane.”

Getting out, at last, involves rejecting societal norms and defying John, and breaking free of Jane, a character not mentioned until this point who may be the Narrator. This story invites people to reconsider gender dynamics and the treatment of mental health disorders.

References:

1. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 1892.
2. Kessler, Carol Farley. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Feminization of Education.” Legacy, vol. 3, no. 2, 1986, pp. 31-40.
3. Lane, Ann J., and Joel T. Shrock. “Feminist Interpretations of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
4. Bak, John S. “Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 31, no. 1, 1994, pp. 39-45.
5. Meyers, Jeffrey. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography.” Stanford University Press, 2010.
6. Kaplan, Joan J. “The Psychological Dilemma in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1992.
7. Showalter, Elaine. “The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980.” Virago Press, 1987.
8. Freud, Sigmund. “The Interpretation of Dreams.” 1899.