Female inferiority to male gender is a fact that has been on the minds of women for many years. To date, most women still believe that certain roles in society are mens responsibility, and they do not bother themselves with such. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the Awakening by Kate Chopin, and the Revolt of Mother by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman are three books whose publication took place at the time when the role of women in the society was almost insignificant.
The stories in these publications portray the voices of women as trivial and show that they do not deserve how men handle them. These women take it upon themselves to overcome the culture of discrimination to the level of being in control of certain situations in their lives (Perkins, Perkins 205-6).
Women in the 19th Century
In the 19th century, women believed that they are bound to listen to their husbands and do whatever is required of them without complaint. In The Revolt of Mother, Sarah initially gives in to Adonirams initiative to construct a burn at the same place he promised to build a house for her. She does this because she believes that she must respect her husband without protest. She decides to communicate what she feels to her husband, who is not interested in talking about the matter.
Sarah then decides to drop the matter because she knows that it is not her place to go against the wishes of her husband. In Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper, John assumes overall authority over his wife and strongly believes that he understands what is good for her. She, on the other hand, goes ahead to respect the wishes of her husband.
He knows that the decisions he is making are right and does not give thought to her opinion. This inferiority complex portrayed in Kate Chopins The Awakening. Even though Edna had desires of her own, she initially did not give much thought to leaving her comfortable life with her caring family to explore them.
These wives explored the need to be independent, control their desires, and express their opinion without fear. These three stories bring out the new strength that the women in the 19thcentury found in themselves to break away from oppression and speak their voice. In The Awakening, Edna finds liberation in confronting her sexuality and feelings. She tackles her emotions without being afraid like she used to be.
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator takes control by ignoring her fainted husband, refers to her as that man, and even finds it annoying to creep over him as she moves on the wall. The Revolt of Mother also emphasizes on the need of the woman to stand out from being the mans household slave. Sarah Penn rebels her husbands authority over the farm for the first time after forty years. Her actions to rebel are not taken well by their neighbors, who think that she is insane (Perkins, Perkins 222).
Conclusion
Towards the end of the 19th century, the man had authority over all the proceeds of the home and his family. The womans role was to do all household chores and respect her husband. Employers discriminated against women. Employers hired them for domestic jobs only and in some situations paid less money doing the same work as men. By the time the century ended, women still could not vote in elections throughout the country.
This is the period in American history that saw the rise of activists for womens rights. The women achieved their goal, as evident in America today. They comfortably express their feelings and are allowed to vote in national elections. The will that the female gender had to overcome these challenges came out long after they are married. The boredom in their married lives and the need for independence and free will gave them the strength to break free (Newcomer 138).
Works Cited
Newcomer, Alphonso G. American literature. New York: General book, 2009.
Perkins, George, and Perkins, Barbara. The American Tradition in Literature, Volume II, 12th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Feminist criticism is the way through which literature has been used to reinforce or undermine the role played by women in the society. This includes the role of women in social, political and economical activities of the society. In most societies of the world, women and the role that they play in the society has always been undermined. Their contribution and impacts on the societies have always been neglected and as such, women have not been viewed as important figures of the society.
As a result, their rights, opinions, choice and ideologies have always not been taken seriously. Due to this, women have started to use literature as a means of expressing their grievances, desires and needs. Through it, they have been able to state clearly their role and importance in the society. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman are examples of stories that have been used to show feminist criticism. These stories are discussed in this paper.
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin in 1894. The protagonist in this story is a woman called Mrs. Louise Mallard who has a heart problem. On learning the news about her husband`s death, her sister Josephine and her husband`s friend Richard are having a hard time in coming up with a way which they will break down the sad news to Mrs. Mallard. This is because she has a heart problem hence if the message is not passed in the best way possible, severe consequences might follow.
Both her sister and her husband`s friend are worried since they do not know the best means to pass this message to her because of her health condition. This is because it is not easy for anyone to hear and accept the news of the death of someone they loved, especially a spouse one has spent many years living together. That is why her sister, while breaking the news down to her, used broken sentences and veiled hints that revealed the theme of the message but not its real content.
We are told that, It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing (Berkove 153). Richard also had to be sure that the message about the death of his friend was true before telling it to the wife. That is why after receiving the news of his death, he had to assure himself by another telegram. Josephine and Richard at this point see Mrs. Ballard as weak both physically and emotionally thus taking this news is going to be very difficult for her.
On receiving the news, Mrs. Ballard broke down into tears immediately and went to her room to have some time alone. While in the room, she discovered that she was not sad but instead she felt as if she was free from her misery and will now be able to live the rest of her life for herself and herself alone.
In the story we are told that, She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her& She said it over and over under her breath: free, free, free! (Berkove 154). Instead of being sad, she felt relieved and free unlike what Josephine and her sister thought. This is because she is the only one who knew the suffering she was undergoing in that marriage and that she did not always love her husband.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
In this story, the protagonist, who is not named, her husband, her sister-in-law and child have moved to a summer house where she is expected to recover from a health condition that she is suffering from. Her physician had diagnosed her with post-partum depression that made her nervous all the time.
They moved into this house so that she could get solitude, peace and calmness as a remedy to her sickness. She was also not supposed to work or do anything that would affect her emotions. Although she was not for the idea, her complains were never taken seriously by either her husband or her brother, both of whom were physicians and believed that she was okay.
In this story, it is evident that the protagonist did not get a chance to air out her feeling or emotions. Due to this fact, she found it difficult to even communicate with her husband and tell her the problems that she was going through. She found it better to keep the pain and suffering that she was going through to herself since no one else could understand; not even her own husband who is supposed to support her in any issue. Due to this fact, her mental distress kept on getting worse and as time went by, she could not keep it together anymore.
Conclusion
The two stories that have been discussed above show the pain and suffering that women go through in the marriages that they are in. die to this fact, their joy, happiness and attitudes tend to change. At some time, their spouses turn to become as their enemies and when they are gone, they feel relieved. This was shown in the story of an hour when the protagonist learned about the alleged death of her husband. Thus, women have used literature to express their feelings and emotions that have been neglected by the society that is dominated by men
Work Cited
Berkove, Lawrence L. Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour. American Literary Realism 32.2 (2000): 152-158.
In Gilmans short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the unnamed female protagonist is instructed to rest in isolation and stillness in the large upper room of a remote country house that has bars on the windows and an ugly faded wallpaper with some kind of design in the print that is never fully identified. The woman confides that she had selected another room that she thought would be better, but she was overruled by her husband. I wanted one [room] downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it.
He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another. The room she stays in is as confining as her marriage as she describes, He [John] is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me. However, because she has been cut off from nature and green growing things, she begins to identify with the lumpy shapes she sees in the wallpaper until she is completely crazy and unable to function in the human world. This story warns that we cannot live our lives separate from nature and must respect our connection to it.
In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman presents a story of a woman who slowly succumbs to her mental disorder while being dismissed and infantilized by her husband and relatives. The protagonist is a bright woman who has recently had a child and is now struggling with her lack of energy. At the same time, she wishes to write but is forbidden by her husband, a respectable physician. Not being able to express herself through writing openly pushes the womans mental health to its limits, highlighting the importance of authority over ones actions for well-being.
The core of the problem related to the protagonists health is undefined in the short story. As the reader does not know the particular problem the woman has, one cannot determine the type of help she should get. Nevertheless, from the first page, it becomes clear that the protagonists husband has diagnosed her with temporary nervous depression a slight hysterical tendency (Gilman 1). Thus, he has prescribed her to rest and avoid any mental activity. The protagonist states, so I take phosphates or phosphites whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to work until I am well again (Gilman 1). The pressure from other people affects her daily living as she conforms to the behavior people expect from her.
The main characters artistic nature can be seen throughout the story. First, her description of the house is adorned with many details. For example, she writes that there is a delicious garden that is full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors (Gilman 2). The womans rich language and her passion for writing are visible. The narrator notes that she used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy-store (Gilman 5). This recollection implies that the protagonist has always been imaginative and yearned for self-expression through art and storytelling.
The central struggle of the narrator lies in this restriction she desperately wants to write and express herself through creative thinking. She says, I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind (Gilman 1). In this quote, one can see that she sees a way to get better mentally or improve her mood but is not allowed to do so. To overcome this issue within her limits, the narrator begins to write in secret, hiding her artistic tendencies and developing two different lifestyles one where she is among other people and another where she is alone.
The reader often sees the woman hiding her journal or changing her attitude drastically when somebody comes into the house. She writes, there comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word when referring to her journal (Gilman 3). One can also observe how she consciously behaves differently, as the woman [takes] pains to control [herself] before him, at least (Gilman 2). The need to constantly hide her true wishes and interests makes her tired and worsens her condition. As she recalls, it does exhaust me a good deal-having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition (Gilman 1). It is apparent to the narrator that the restricted self-expression tires her, but she is powerless against her husbands will. This double life is detrimental to the protagonists outcome at the end of the story.
As the womans hatred of the wallpaper progresses, so do her interpretations of the patterns and their influence on her self-perception. The narrator first despises the color and the drawings on the walls, but then she starts identifying with the woman she sees in the wall. This particular image is the representation of the protagonists life a woman that only comes out and can be free when nobody sees her. When talking about the pattern, the narrator states that at night in any kind of light& it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be (Gilman 9). The woman in the wall is trapped, similar to how the narrators house serves as her prison, where she must get better without any real help or support.
Thus, as the protagonist decides to free the woman in the wallpaper at the end of the story, she also wants to separate herself from the limitations placed on her by others. One can see the desperation with which the narrator wishes for the woman and herself to be free. She writes, as soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her (Gilman 13). Her attempts to tear down the wallpaper mirror her wishes to strip the expectations of her being a help & a real rest and comfort to her husband (Gilman 3). As the woman in the wall must be freed, so the narrator should be able to make her own decisions and express herself in the way she wants.
A major narrative in the story is established in the first pages, and it continues to develop throughout, leading to a significant decline in the protagonists sanity. Sahoo writes that this struggle was common for women during the time the author wrote the short story (201). Gilman herself experienced the same problem of being advised to avoid mental work in favor of resting and getting fresh air (Saha 25). At the same time, the inability to share their creative insight puts additional pressure on womens psychological well-being and stifles their spirit. However, women find a way to express themselves through writing despite opposition or other means. Saha connects this common issue to the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper, arguing that through her hysterics she achieves a psychological space that is unreachable by her husband (27). Here, the woman finds a place where she can express her thoughts, although the acts related to this place in real life make her seem unwell.
To conclude, the theme of self-expression and how women were denied the right to it is present in the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. The narrative represents the authors own beliefs about womens ability to pursue artistic passions and the outcomes such limitations may have on their well-being. The protagonist of the story wishes to write and knows it would help her mood, but her husband and other loved ones dismiss her interests and deem them hurtful. As a result, the woman is left without any devices to express herself, which causes her to distance herself from others and create a separate personality for them. The additional stress from trying to conform to the assigned role and the dismissal of herself leads to the woman losing her sanity but entering a new space in which she can feel free.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The New England Magazine, 1892. eBook, Web.
Saha, Oly. Mad Monster(ress): Hysteria in Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and Hedda Gabler. Literary Herald, vol. 4, no. 5, 2019, pp. 24-31.
Sahoo, Anwesha. Interpreting Madwomen: A Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and Pratibha Rays The Eyes. Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, vol. 44, no. 1, 2021, pp. 196-203.
Charlotte Gilman is mostly known for her contributions to the early feminist movement. This is why her story The Yellow Paper was confusing to most of her readers. Most of her other works champion for the place of a woman as an active contributor to the economy. However, The Yellow Paper is arguably Gillmans most significant contribution to classic literature. The short story was also the subject of debate when it was first written because it failed to fit in any particular genre at the time.
The Yellow Wallpaper was mostly considered a horror story when it was first published because of the manner it unnerved readers at the time. The story details the experiences of a mentally disturbed woman who believes that there are women trapped in the wallpaper of her house. The story is borrowed from Gilmans own experience when she suffered from post partum depression and had to be put on resting cure.
Modern day literature classifies this story as a psychological horror story with strong elements of gothic literature. The horror elements in the story are similar to those used by Edgar Allan Poe. Just like in Poes Tell-tale Heart , this story is narrated by a seemingly insane narrator. Poe is considered a pioneer writer in the horror-literature genre. The story uses the gothic genre of the 1700s that usually featured scary old mansions and young heroines. This story uses both of these elements.
Gillman used this story as a tool for furthering her feminist campaign. The story depicts the place of women in the society and likens it to being trapped in wallpaper. The episode described by the narrator in this story is eerily similar to Gillmans experience when she was put under resting cure. Gillman likens resting treatment to being reduced to utter inactivity and thereby being subject to mental disorders. Today, post partum depression is treated by releasing anxiety instead of pilling it up by subjecting a patient to inactivity.
Man always believes he is in control until he comes face to face with the unforgiving and uncaring nature. Various writers have addressed such unfortunate turns of events in various avenues. In his story To Build a Fire , Jack London details a travelers battle with freezing temperatures.
On the other hand, Stephen Cranes short story The Open Boat details the efforts of a group of sailors who are trapped in open sea in a small boat as they battle strong ocean currents. Although these stories were written in different contexts, they both detail the powerlessness of humans in their efforts to control nature.
In both stories, the main characters are overwhelmed by the uncaring nature of the elements. In To Build a Fire , the traveler ignores the old mans advice not to travel in freezing temperatures. However, the traveler ignores the nature of the cold weather to his own peril. In Cranes story, four men are trying to overcome the oceans tides using a boat that is the size of a bathtub after their ship sinks.
The men in the boat are disappointed because even after hours of hard work, when they come near safety the tide still blows them further back into the sea. This is similar to the travelers disappointment that in spite of the fact that he can make a fire, the cold weather still gets the best of him. This naturalistic literature was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries.
This was a time when human beings were at war with each other, diseases, and harsh climatic conditions. However, the strength of the human will never wavered until the end as demonstrated in the two stories. Whether human beings make it or not in such situations is a matter that is beyond their control.
The narration is done in first person and it involves a woman who is confined by her husband who acts as a physician in a bedroom which is upstairs in a house which has been rented for summer. The woman is prevented from performing her chores as she has been diagnosed as suffering from a slight nervous depression. The rooms wallpaper is yellow and this woman becomes obsessed by the color and the patterns of the wallpaper the color is dull and confuses the eyes, provoke studies and when watched closely can lead to one committing suicide (Charlotte, pp 4).
She claims that the smell of this yellow paper is unpleasant and ultimately imagines that behind the patterns are women who are creeping and believes she is part of them and locks herself in the room refusing to quit when the period of rent is up Outside you crawl on ground where all is green and not yellow unlike here where the floor is smooth, shoulders fit around and its easy to find the way (Charlotte, pp 16)
The husband aims to perform therapy to the wife by what is scientific and observable so as to recover from the depression but instead she progress to madness. He treats his wife as powerless patient and serves her as a physician.The woman could have a suffering of postpartum psychosis because she had given birth recently. By locking her in the room upstairs it shows the husband is oblivious and dictatorial and this worsens her condition John would not listen (Charlotte, pp 4).
The woman devotes her journal entries to giving a description of the wallpaper yellow and its smell is breakneck. She gives a description of its pattern as patched and leaves smears of yellow color on clothes and skin of one touching it. This suggests that she was the one shredding this wallpaper. She becomes obsessed and describes the room as a nursery which had kids who disliked the wallpaper just like she did. As she spends more time in this room, the wallpaper seems to mutate particular in moonlight.
Having the only stimuli as the wallpaper, the designs and patterns appears more intriguing such that a woman figure appears in the pattern which makes her conclude that this figure is making effort to escape and creeps behind the bars. This woman behind is shaking it (Charlotte, pp 9).
As summer approach the end, the woman borrows permission to leave this room but John refuses and warns her not to say a word for the same. She takes her entire period of the night watching the paper and her daytime while sleeping. She progress into insanity entirely and thinks she is the one who got through from the wallpaper and strips off the left designs trying to conceal her obsession with fear that her husband may decide to re-diagnose her & his sister will still be with them.
She locks the room on the last summer day so as to peel the rest of the wallpaper and refuses to open when John comes back home and orders him to pick the key outside the window. John opens and finds she is creeping around while making circles on the wall. She exclaims that she is free at last which makes John to faint I am out at last& you cannot hinder me. The woman continues to make circles in the room while stepping over him each lap she makes (Charlotte, pp 16).
Feminist critics have condemned the story suggesting that the woman should have been working other than resting, interact with society other than isolation, and become a responsible mother other than being isolated from her kid. This woman has no voice and the language used describes her as irrational and the marriage points out inequality. This is a gothic literature as it touches on issues of powerlessness and madness. The ghosts from the wallpaper meant at driving her insane qualify the story to be a horror fiction. Domestic sphere concept is achieved in the story where women are subordinate in marriage and her domestic work while men are shown to play an active role.
As the story concludes, the woman acquires freedom and realizes she couldnt live locked behind bars. John faints and the woman creeps over him. This symbolizes that she attains superiority over him and achieved in controlling the husband.
Works cited
Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper.Orchises Press, 1990.
One of the reasons why Charlotte Perkins Gilmans short story The Yellow Wallpaper has traditionally been referred to as such that constitutes a high literary and philosophical value is that in it, the author succeeded in providing readers with an in-depth insight into what should be considered the emerging symptoms of ones mental illness. Moreover, despite the fact that Gilman wrote this particular story at the time when psychology/psychiatry was remaining in an essentially embryonic state, in The Yellow Wallpaper she proved herself as a rather efficient psychologist, who never ceased being fully aware of what accounted for the conceptual deficiency of the late 19th centurys psychiatric conventions (Quawas 36). In my paper, I will aim to explore the validity of this thesis at length.
Psychological aspects of the short story
The reading of Gilman storys few initial lines suggests that the reason why the narrator and her husband John decided to spend the summer in a secluded mansion is that this was supposed to help improving the narrators mental condition, as she would be spared of socialization-related distresses. According to Treichler, Her (narrators) physical isolation was in part designed to remove her from the possibility of over-stimulating intellectual discussion (61).
Nevertheless, even though that John was aware of the fact that there was a certain abnormality to his wifes behavior, he continued denying that her mental anxieties had to be taken seriously, You see he (John) does not believe I am sick! (Gilman 1). Partially, the narrator herself provides an explanation as to why, despite having been an accomplished physician, John nevertheless continued referring to his wifes pleas for help in a thoroughly arrogant manner, John does not know how much I really suffer.
He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him (2). This narrators remark helps us to understand the essence of Johns failure to prescribe his wife with the conceptually appropriate therapy, which in turn created objective preconditions for her to keep descending into madness. Apparently, just as it used to be the case with the majority of physicians at the end of the 19th century, John believed that the reason why some people tend to act in a clearly neurotic manner is that they simply do not apply enough conscious effort, while trying to suppress their visually observable mental angst.
The explanation for this is quite apparent during the course of a given historical period, it never occurred to physicians that it is specifically the unconscious aspects of an individual psyches functioning that define his or her conscious stance in life, and not vice versa. Partially, this had to do with the fact that, throughout the course of this period, the discursive influence of Christianity remained comparatively strong. And, as we are being well aware of, Christianity promotes the assumption that there is a structural unity to ones soul (psyche), which is why it cannot consist of mutually incompatible elements.
Therefore, there is nothing particularly odd about the fact in the late 19th century, the majority of physicians still continued to regard the emanations of ones mental instability as being of an essentially physiological nature, (In 19th century) Psychical factors came to be regarded merely as the products of certain yet-to-be determined neuro-physiological processes (Caplan 7). This is why, even though that throughout the course of her stay at the mansion, the narrator was exhibiting more and more indications of her mental states continual deterioration, John could not come up with anything better but to prescribe his wife to lead a socially withdrawn lifestyle, as it was supposed to calm her down.
Apparently, John could never bring himself to consider the possibility that the worsening of his wifes mental condition had nothing to do with purely environmental factors, which is why he continued insisting that the key to her rehabilitation was a plenty of food and sleep, John says I mustnt lose my strength, and has me take cod liver oil and lots of tonics and things, to say nothing of ale and wine and rare meat (4). It appears that it simply never occurred to John that the reason why his wife was feeling progressively more disturbed is that she has been deliberately spared of an opportunity to lead a normal life.
The reading of Gilmans story also suggests that there was another reason why John proved himself unable to properly diagnose his wife and to intervene the process of his loved one succumbing to insanity. This is because, while acting as a physician, who should have been trying to expand of his intellectual horizons, John never made even a single attempt to reconsider the legitimacy of his male-chauvinistic prejudices towards women.
In its turn, this explains why, despite the fact that he continued observing more and more signs that there was something definitely wrong with his wife; he refused to consider these signs possible significance. It simply could not be otherwise in Johns mind, the narrators mental anxieties were simply confirming the validity of a male-chauvinistic presumption that, just as it being the case with all women, his wife was naturally predisposed to grow hysterical from time to time, If& ones 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? (1).
In other words, John thought of his wife having been less human, as compared to what he believed was the case with himself, because she experienced a hard time, while trying to keep her irrational impulses under control (Cutter 153).
Hence, the therapy, with which the narrator was prescribed by her husband, He (John) says no one but myself can help me out of it (depression), that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me (5). It is needless to say, of course, that the application of this kind of therapy could hardly produce any positive results, because it was based on a thoroughly fallacious assumption that the unconscious workings of ones psyche can be subjected to a conscious control. Yet, contemporary psychoanalysts know that this is far from being the case. Quite on the contrary ones conscious attempts to suppress the unconscious workings of his or her psyche can only result in the worsening of the concerned individuals overall mental condition.
This is exactly the reason why, as time went on, the narrator was becoming ever more delirious the mere fact that, in full accordance with Johns advice, she tried to disregard the symptoms of depression, caused her mental despair to continue becoming even more acute. This is because, apart from experiencing depression, on the account of her inability to lead a socially productive lifestyle, she started to grow progressively worried about her self-presumed inability to live up to Johns expectations.
Predictably enough, it created yet additional precondition for the narrator to continue losing her grip on things, because without being able to articulate her own unconscious fears, she allowed them to accumulate deep inside her sub-consciousness hence, making it only the matter of time before they would break out of their psychic confinement into the realm of the main characters consciousness. After it happened, the narrators ability to indulge in a rationale-based reasoning sustained an irreparable damage, because at the end of Gilmans story she started to behave as a maniacally obsessed schizophrenic, endowed with the fictitious sense of self-identity (Bak 44).
Thus, it will not be much of an exaggeration to suggest that The Yellow Wallpaper can be referred to as a particularly powerful indictment of what used to account for the 19th centurys approaches to the treatment of mental illnesses in America. Apparently, besides having been scientifically illegitimate, these approaches were also perceptually arrogant. The fact that such an accomplished physician as John allowed his wifes mild depression to develop into a full-scaled schizophrenia validates the appropriateness of this statement.
I believe that the earlier deployed line of argumentation, as to the fact that the storys main character may be well considered a victim of the 19th centurys healthcare conventions, is being fully consistent with the papers initial thesis. In its turn, this explains why, despite having been written in 1892, Gilmans story continues to emanate an undermined literary appeal. This simply could not be otherwise, because in The Yellow Wallpaper, the author succeeded in outlining the discursive principles of what will later become known as the methodology of psychoanalysis, based upon the assumption that peoples behavior reflects the essence of their unconscious anxieties.
Treichler, Paula. Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 3.1/2 (1984): 61-77. Print.
The main idea that is being explored throughout the course of Treichler articles entirety can be conceptualized as follows: the reason why John proved himself incapable of properly diagnosing the essence of his wifes mental inadequateness is that, while assessing the significance of her depression-symptoms, he relied upon his rationale-driven masculine logic. Author attests that the very concept of diagnosis, in the traditional sense of this word, is by definition discursively arrogant, (Diagnosis) is a male voice that privileges the rational, the practical, and the observable (65).
In its turn, this has led Treichler to suggest that there is a symbolic meaning to Johns attempts to help the narrator to attain an emotional comfortableness with the room, in which she was confined apparently, he wanted to make sure that his wife would never be in a position to challenge his patriarchal authority. Therefore, according to Treichler, Johns diagnosis of his wifes mental condition can be discussed in terms of a sentence by prescribing her with the therapy of bellyful idleness, John was unconsciously trying to deny the narrator her basic humanity.
I think that in her article, Treichler came up with a number of discursively relevant observations. The author also needs to be given a credit for making the line of her reasoning logically substantiated. At the same time, however, Treichlers argumentation, in regards to the discussed subject matter, cannot be referred to as such that represents an undeniable truth-value. This is because in her article, the author made a deliberate point in representing herself as a hard-core feminist, which I believe undermined the extent of this articles objectiveness.
Works Cited
Bak, John. Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper. Studies in Short Fiction 31.1 (1994), 39-46. Print.
Caplan, Eric. Mind Games: American Culture and the Birth of Psychotherapy, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Print.
Cutter, M. The Writer as Doctor: New Models of Medical Discourse in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans Later Fiction. Literature and Medicine 20.2 (2001): 151-182. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper. Web.
Quawas, Rula. A New Womans Journey into Insanity: Descent and Return in The Yellow Wallpaper. AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Modern Language Association 105 (2006): 35-53. Print.
Treichler, Paula. Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 3.1/2 (1984): 61-77. Print.
The history of Western civilization, throughout the 19th-20th centuries, can be thought of as the continuous process of people associated with this civilization, growing increasingly aware of patriarchal morality notions out-datedness.
Whereas; by the beginning of the 20th century, it was considered entirely appropriate for women to be strictly concerned with taking care of purely domestic matter while simultaneously providing their husbands with an opportunity to have a sexual relief. By the end of the same century, the patriarchal view of women as natural born housewives and the objects of mens sexual desire, had lost the remains of its former validity.
However, such dramatic progress would not be achieved without intellectually advanced women actively contributing to the process of Western societies becoming increasingly secularized and less male-chauvinistic. Therefore, it will not be much of an exaggeration to say that the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, provides us with the real insight onto technical subtleties of womens intellectual awakening in late 19th centurys America.
Who is Jane in The Yellow Wallpaper?
Gilmans story begins with the narrator telling readers about the way, in which her supposedly highly educated husband John (a physician) had decided to treat his wifes mild depression.
After having realized that something needed to be done to improve his wifes mental state, John could not come up with anything better but suggesting that there was only one effective way for the narrator to address her mental anxieties. That is, indulging in bellyful idling while remaining intellectually inactive for the duration of a treatment: I take phosphates or phosphites whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am forbidden to work until I am well again (1470).
Although the author initially tried to express her growing weariness of a treatment to John, she pleads remained ignored: John does not know how much I suffer.
He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him (1471). Just as most socially established men of the era, John never ceased thinking about his wifes mental anxieties as essentially the irrational expressions of her female psyche. That is the reason why, despite possessing a degree in medicine, John could never realize the cheer seriousness of the narrators depression, while brushing her complaints aside as childish.
As time went by, the narrators mental state continued to deteriorate rather exponentially, which predetermined her mounting preoccupation with observing hidden motifs contained in the rooms yellow wallpaper.
Eventually, the narrator had grown mentally unstable to such an extent that she became utterly withdrawn from the objectively existing reality. At the same time, she came to realize that the ghostly image of a creeping woman, which always lurked behind wallpapers yellowish distastefulness, was indeed real: Through watching so much at night, when it (wallpaper) changes so, I have finally found out.
The front pattern does move and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! (1479). Even though the story ends on a tragic note the narrator had yielded to madness, there are clearly defined liberating overtones in how she positioned herself, after having realized the truth.
Apparently, the narrator started to think of her marriage to John as intellectual imprisonment preventing her existential psyche from being able to actualize itself socially. And the creeping woman behind the wallpaper became a ghostly extrapolation of her true-self. Therefore, the act of ripping the paper off the wall, on the narrators part, should be seen as the metaphorical act of liberation from the constraints of an oppressive marital relationship: Ive got out at last& in spite of you and Jane.
And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back! (1481). As Treichler (1984) had put it: Defying the judgment that she (narrator) suffers from a temporary nervous depression, she has followed her own logic, her own perceptions, her own projects to this final scene in which madness is seen as a kind of transcendent sanity (67).
Moreover, it should also be seen as the ultimate proof of the narrators courageousness, because she was only able to attain liberation at the expense of deciding to get rid of her identity of a subservient housewife. In her case, this meant being deprived of identity altogether. In its turn, this explains the seemingly odd mentioning of the name Jane in this particular narrators remark. Even though many critics suggest that by referring to Jane, the narrator was referring to Johns sister Jennie, there are good reasons to believe that Jane is the narrator herself.
As Thrailkill (2002) had pointed out in her article: The narrator recognizes the woman in the paper as herself, and suddenly sees her embodied, observing, recording self as the enemy, referring to her in the third person as Jane. It is the reconstituted narrator, now, who completely enters the text (551).
Just as the heroine in Kate Chopins Awakening, the main character in Gilmans story came to realize the fact that there was only one way for her to attain existential freedom and self-respect. That was proving to male-chauvinistic society that psychologically, she was more of a male than her rationalistic but boorish husband, whose ignorance prevented him from seeing its wife as anything but blessed little goose.
It is not by a pure accident that in the storys final scene, John faints. Apparently, Gilman strived to show that ones formal affiliation with a strong gender, does not automatically endows him with manly virtues of courageousness, rationalism, and intellectual integrity: 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! (1481).
Despite being a fragile woman, the narrator had proven that, within the context of pursuing a marital relationship with John, it was she who should have been wearing pants.
Themes of The Yellow Wallpaper
Thus, The Yellow Wall-Paper is best referred to as the story of an intelligent and sensitive woman turning her descent into madness as the ultimate instrument of confronting patriarchal oppression, sublimated in her loving husbands unwillingness to think of her as his intellectually equal life-partner.
That is the reason why, ever since its publishing, Gilmans story never ceased being discussed within the context of the 20th centurys feminist discourse. In his article, Jean (2002) had made a good point, while stating: Gilmans The Yellow Wall-Paper, valued not only for its intrinsic aesthetic merits but also as a site for all manner of feminist debate during the last quarter-century (399).
Nevertheless, it would be quite inappropriate to refer to The Yellow Wall-Paper as being driven solely by Gilmans aspirations of feminist liberation as thing in itself, but also by authors rather acute understanding of what represents initial stages of womans descent into madness and how such descent should be dealt with, in order not to let it to become irreversible.
As it appears from the story, the narrators mental anxieties were perceived by John as the by-product of his wife being exposed to overly intense emotional experiences. This was precisely why he recommended her not to think much, not to write and to sleep for as long as possible: John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can. Indeed he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal (1477).
It never occurred to John that, while being left alone in the huge mansion during his leaves, his wife would not only be sleeping and breathing fresh air but also thinking. And, as psychologists are well aware of once a person grows preoccupied with too much introversive thinking, it becomes only a matter of time before the extent of his or her mental adequacy would be undermined.
The irony lies in the fact that Johns ignorance of his wifes full humanity derived not out of his consciously defined and deliberately malicious sense of male-superiority but out of his genuine intention to relieve the narrators mental insecurities. Yet, it did not help the matters a whole lot.
Gilman was able to show that, just as it is the case with women being subjected to intentional dehumanization, their love-based unintentional dehumanization (such as that of Johns) leads to essentially the same set of negative consequences women become socially withdrawn. In its turn, this creates objective preconditions for them to go about achieving self-actualization in a variety of strongly subjectivized but clearly abnormal ways.
As it was rightly noted by Crewe (1995): The Yellow Wallpaper was read as revolutionary in the somewhat ambiguous sense that the oppression represented in the story is not overtly cruel, lawless, or despotic.
Crucially, the oppression consists in the womans subjection to an ostensibly caring yet abjecting regime in which male conjugal and medical authority fully coincide (277). Thus, it will not be an exaggeration to suggest that, apart from representing a high literary value, The Yellow Wallpaper represents high scientific value, as well.
The reading of this particular Gilmans story leaves no doubt as to the fact that, in order for physicians to be able to help women who suffer from depression, these physicians can never think of their patients as being somewhat inferior, in the intellectual sense of this word. The fact that Gilmans story conveys an earlier articulated message with perfect clarity can serve as yet an additional proof as to the authors political progressiveness.
Even though she lived in time when women suffered from being exposed to different forms of social oppression, it never affected Gilmans ability to promote the cause of womens liberation as such that has been dialectically predetermined by the laws of history. Although Gilman wrote her story well before the concept of psychology had attained a full academic validity, she had proven herself insightful enough to endorse the view onto the workings of ones mind as being environmentally rather than biologically defined.
This is the reason why storys subtle exploration of the concept of gender egalitarianism can be best referred to as an indication of authors perceptional insightfulness just as it was the case with other promoters of feminist cause of the era, Gilman was able to show that subjecting women to social oppression should be discussed in terms of an overall efficiency of societys functioning being deliberately undermined.
References
Treichler, Paula Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper, Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 3.1/2 (1984), 61-77. Print.
Crewe, Jonathan Queering The Yellow Wallpaper? Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Politics of Form, Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature14.2 (1995), 273-293. Print.
Shawn, Jean Hanging The Yellow Wall-Paper : Feminism and Textual Studies, Feminist Studies 28.2 (2002), 396-415. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins The Yellow Wall-Paper. In G. McMichael et al. (Ed.) Concise Anthology of American Literature, 7th Edition. (pp. 1470-1481). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2010. Print.
Thrailkill, Jane Doctoring The Yellow Wallpaper, ELH 69.2 (2002), 525-566. Print.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an intriguing story of a sick woman, Charlotte Perkins, confined in a room for treatment by her husband, a physician.
Charlotte is suffering from neurasthenia. Cared by his overprotective physician husband, but instead treats the care and concern as unfair for confinement and a twenty-four hours bed rest prescription. Charlottes sickness makes her realize that nobody can listen to her ideas; she resorts to writing secretly in her daily journals as a way of expressing her compliments to somebody.
On a few occasions is she allowed visiting other people. Those she visits are her husbands suggestion, who are generally usual close family relatives, those she suggests her husband turns them down. There is an apparent misunderstanding of care, love, and concern between the patient and the physician.
The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes
The fact that the patient is the physicians wife ought to portray a picture of mutual agreements and understandings rather than subjecting ones decision to the other with a reason for care and protection. A small inclination to the husbands decisions is better, but a usual put off to charlottes ideas causes misunderstanding. However, she pursues the wallpaper, finding to get a clear clue of what is affecting them all, especially her husband, the sister in law.
With the nervous breakdown, all the ideas and suggestions that charlotte comes up with, with a view of a positive response, are against his husbands final decision &. there is something strange about the house I can feel it. I even said so to John one& but he said what I felt was a draught, and & (Gilman, 2001, p.2). The husband is thinking out of prejudice, which is the real cause of misunderstandings in the context.
Although the misunderstandings brought about by the idea that she might be suffering from brain disorders, it does not mean that she is wrong all the time. She comments that even the reader succumbs to when she says, I disagree with their ideas. I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good (Gilman, 2001, p.1). With such a sickness, one can show care by undertaking suitable work with the patient, but the husbands see it as very wrong.
The physician portrayed with a domineering character has shown negligence in her wifes psychological support. That is from the misinformation of how sick Charlotte is. She believes that she is not very ill. Yet, her husband knows she is in a critical condition that does not allow her to think or give compliments & but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad (Gilman, 2001, p.1).
The misunderstanding is portrayed again when Charlotte is awake all night long. Her husband does not talk to her most of the time. He thinks she will be stressed and worsen her situation. On the other hand, Charlotte has always longed for days when they will have some excellent talks and discussions with her husband. When she tries to bring up a topic to shift houses, she is put off with an excuse that it was not the time for such a discussion. She goes back to bed but does not sleep. Rather she stares at the moonlight (Gilman, 2001, p.8).
The Yellow Wallpaper: Symbolism
Gilman has given well-elaborated insights on the meaning of the Yellow Wall-Paper. She has done this in a slow yet steady pace to release the metaphors that are a clue to the Yellow Wallpaper as a symbol of her husbands authority and dominance (Gwynn & Zani, 2007, p.71). It just begins with the main characters fascination with the ugliness of the Yellow Wall-Paper. The use of imagery has been well-tuned to bring out the aspect that is feminism.
While one might argue that too much use of this has made the story complex and hard to understand, it has helped bring home the intended agenda. One of the images found in the paper tends to change with different lighting (Gwynn & Zani, 2007, p.71). It aims to depict her husband as inconsistent in handling matters, especially those that directly affect her.
Conclusion
The plot and characters in the story confirm that the misunderstanding is caused by the misinformation of the patients real status. This is also affected by the fear of his attention to involve her in anything other than the treatment. No wonder Charlotte goes after her pursuit secretly, to get the creeping woman. If she attempted to reveal to anyone, then she could not realize it. She even keeps her daily journal secretly for the same reason.
The use of the first-person narration has worked well in bringing home the main theme. It evokes the readers emotions to empathize the following thesis: the husbands love misunderstood for confinement in the room and care mistaken for deterrence from involvement in other activities and thoughts that may worsen the condition.
One of the reasons why the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has traditionally been referred to as such that constitutes a high literary and philosophical value is that it contributed towards advocating the legitimacy of psychiatry as a newly emerged medical science. At the same time, Gilmans story represented a powerful critique of the discourse of male chauvinism hence, the sheer progressiveness of this storys themes and motifs. In my paper, I will aim to explore the validity of this suggestion at length.
The Narrators Mental Condition in the Story
As it appears from the novel, the reason why the narrator and her husband John decided to spend their summer vacation in a secluded mansion is that this proved beneficial to the narrators mental condition. For the vacations duration, she would be unlikely to experience any socialization-related distress.
As Treichler noted: Her (narrators) physical isolation was in part designed to remove her from the possibility of over-stimulating intellectual discussion (61). This suggests that, prior to the couples relocation, John was already aware of his wifes mental condition.
Nevertheless, he continued to deny that her mental anxieties had to be taken seriously: You see, he (John) does not believe I am sick! (Gilman 1). Partially, the narrator herself provides an explanation as to why, despite having been an accomplished physician, John nevertheless could not help referring to his wifes pleas for help in the thoroughly arrogant manner: John does not know how much I really suffer.
He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him (Gilman 2). This narrators remark helps us to understand the essence of Johns failure to prescribe his wife with the appropriate therapy, which, in turn, created the objective preconditions for her to keep descending into madness.
Apparently, just as it used to be the case with many physicians in the 19th century, John believed that the reason why some people exhibit mental angst is that they do not apply enough of a conscious effort while trying to suppress their unconscious anxieties. The explanation for this is quite apparent during the historical period in question, physicians remained utterly unaware that it is precisely ones unconscious, which defines the workings of this persons rational psyche, and not the other way around.
Partially, this had to do with the fact that by the end of the 19th century, the discursive influence of Christianity remained comparatively strong. In its turn, this religion has always been concerned with promoting the assumption that there is a structural unity to ones soul (psyche), which is why it cannot consist of any mutually incompatible elements.
Therefore, there is nothing particularly odd about the fact in the late 19th century, the majority of physicians continued to regard the emanations of ones mental volatility, as having been physiologically (externally) triggered.
Even though while staying at the mansion, the narrator continued to show her mental states continual deterioration, John could not come up with anything better but to prescribe his wife to lead a socially withdrawn lifestyle. John could never bring himself to consider the possibility that the worsening of his wifes mental condition had nothing to do with the purely environmental circumstances.
This is the reason why he continued insisting that the key to her rehabilitation was a plenty of food and sleep: John says I mustnt lose my strength, and has me take cod liver oil and lots of tonics and things, to say nothing of ale and wine and rare meat (Gilman 4). Being an ego-centered male, John never thought of the possibility for his wifes mental troubles to have been the direct consequence of her socially imposed inability to lead a normal life.
Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper
The reading of Gilmans story also suggests that there was another reason, as to why John proved himself unable to properly diagnose his wife and to prescribe her with the proper therapy. Apparently, while acting as a physician (who by definition should have been trying to expand his intellectual horizons), John never made even a single attempt to reconsider the legitimacy of his male-chauvinistic prejudices towards women. In its turn, this explains why although John continued to observe many signs that there was something wrong with his wife, he nevertheless refused to give much thought to what should have been considered these signs actual significance.
In Johns mind, the narrators mental anxieties were seen confirming the validity of his male-chauvinistic presumption that, just as it is the case with all women, his wife was naturally predisposed to grow hysterical from time to time: If& ones 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? (Gilman 1).
This, of course, implies that, despite having been in love with his wife, John nevertheless could not help patronizing her as someone who did not have what it takes to be able to keep its irrational feelings under control.
Hence, the therapy that her husband prescribed the narrator: He (John) says no one but myself can help me out of it (depression), that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me (Gilman 5).
It is needless to be mentioned, of course, that the application of this kind of therapy could hardly bring about any positive results, because it was based upon the idea that the unconscious workings of ones psyche can be subjected to conscious control, on this individuals part. Yet, contemporary psychoanalysts know that this is far from being the case. Quite on the contrary ones conscious attempts to suppress its unconscious anxieties only result in the worsening of the concerned individuals overall mental condition.
This is exactly the reason why, as time went on, the narrator was becoming ever more delirious the mere fact that, in full accordance with Johns advice, she tried to disregard the symptoms of depression, caused her mental despair to continue becoming even worse.
Moreover, apart from experiencing depression, on account of her inability to lead a socially productive lifestyle, she started to grow progressively worried about her self-presumed inability to live up to Johns expectations. Predictably enough, it created yet additional prerequisite for the narrator to continue losing her grip on things, because without being able to articulate her own unconscious fears, she allowed them to be accumulated deep within hence, making it only the matter of time before they would break out of their psychic confinement into the realm of the main characters consciousness.
As a result, the narrators ability to indulge in the rationale-based reasoning sustained irreparable damage. The validity of this statement can be illustrated, in regards to the fact that at the end of Gilmans story, the narrator started to behave as if having been nothing short of a schizophrenic, endowed with the fictitious sense of self-identity.
Thus, it will not be much of an exaggeration, on our part, to suggest that The Yellow Wallpaper can be referred to as a particularly powerful indictment of what used to account for the 19th centurys approaches to treating mental illnesses. Apparently, besides having been scientifically illegitimate, these approaches were also perceptually arrogant. The fact that John did allow his wifes mild depression to be transformed into schizophrenia validates the appropriateness of this statement.
Conclusion
I believe that the earlier deployed line of argumentation, in defense of the suggestion that the storys main character can be best defined as a victim of the 19th centurys healthcare conventions, correlates well with the papers initial thesis. This once again emphasizes the fact that, just as it was implied in the Introduction, the literary significance of The Yellow Wallpaper cannot be discussed outside of the storys ability to stimulate readers intellectually.
This simply could not be otherwise, because, in The Yellow Wallpaper, the author succeeded in both: outlining the discursive principles of what will later become known as the methodology of psychoanalysis, and helping to promote the cause of womens emancipation.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892. 647 656. PDF file.
Treichler, Paula. Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature 3.1/2 (1984): 61-77. Print.