The title of the story is ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story has been taken from the book ‘The Norton anthology of short Fiction’ written by Richards Buasch R.V. Cassill. The topic chosen from the story for analyzing is ‘To what extent is the protagonist of the story you’ve chosen responsible for the conflict or predicament he or she faces’. The thesis statement prepared for the topic is there are numerous states of affairs in the story for protagonist who undergoes or faces difficult situations in her life knowingly and unknowingly. The different stages include description of protagonist’s physical, mental and spiritual traits that are revolving around her due to different circumstances in her life. Protagonist is shown as a mentally decayed person.
Analysis
Protagonist and her unhappy mind
Protagonist and her husband John moves to “colonial mansion, a hereditary estate” (Gilman 1). Main intention of John is to cure the mental disease of the protagonist. The protagonist’s husband being a physician follows rest cure treatment, which results in some sorts of physical, mental and spiritual sufferings. Protagonist is interested in writing and doing creative activity, but she is “absolutely forbidden to “work”” (Gilman 598) by her husband. Here begins protagonist’s predicament in her life. She hates her husband while she is not being allowed to write. Protagonist believes that her illness would cure only by having company with more people and by writing. But, John does not agree to it. Even though protagonist feels that the mansion and its surrounding are quite beautiful, she feels “something strange about the house” (Gilman 598). She told this to John, but he refuses to hear. Also, she is not at all happy in selection of the bedroom. This is a former nursery and “windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman 599) and this increases her feeling of imprisonment.
Protagonist and yellow wallpaper
The wallpaper present in her room irritates her. “This wallpaper has a kind of sub-patterns in different shade particularly irritating one” (Gilman 601). She tries to convince her husband about this, but he is not ready to remove it. When wallpaper takes a lead role, the protagonist starts to demonstrate some illness issues. Her mind escapes from reality to some sort of spiritual feelings. She begins to feel that someone inside wallpaper is watching her. All these happen unknowingly or it is some sort of illusion. The changes in the behavior of the protagonist have been strongly mentioned in the story in relation with sunlight and moonlight. As days pass, her perceptive towards wallpaper also changes. She begins to feel that there is something more to reveal inside the wallpaper. Her subconscious mind begins to feel that woman in the wallpaper is trying to come out. She feels that “a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (Gilman 603). From here onwards, she starts work to free the woman behind the wallpaper. What she does is, during night when John goes to sleep; she tears the wallpaper slowly, hoping to free the woman. She does this in the night, in order to escape from others seeing this. This shows something has changed. In the beginning of the story, John had control over his wife. Now, the yellow wallpaper has replaced John. It is the yellow wallpaper, which totally defines the protagonist and her behavior. Because of this, her sense of realism fully goes out of control. She thinks only about the wallpaper. Finally, she locks herself in the room in the night before the last day of leaving the mansion. She tears the wallpaper up to her reach to free the woman inside. She finally realizes that in spite of John and Jennie, she frees the woman inside the wallpaper.
The essay describes the different circumstances the protagonist undergoes during her illness knowingly and unknowingly. Plenty of situations are highlighted to show the transformation of the protagonist from one to another. Her behavior is not the same in sunlight and moonlight. During sunlight, she is quite natural and her power is under the control of John. But, when moonlight comes in and John goes to sleep, her subconscious mind comes to power.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. (Provided by the customer).
A combination of a thriller and a social drama, The Yellow Wallpaper, is mesmerizingly frightening. The novel analyzes the complicated issue of feminism in the conservative society in a very unusual manner. Because of the clever use of literary devices, a simple story was turned into a cautionary tale and a masterpiece of the thriller genre.
To start with, the novel contains a brief allusion to the Holy Virgin, which Gilman makes me mentioning the narrator’s sister, Mary (Gilman 649). In addition, Gilman sets a very dark tone by creating a contrast between the lighthearted atmosphere of the hotel and the depressing state that the narrator is in. The pathetic fallacy also adds to the unsettling contrast, such as the room being “strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (Gilman 650).
By far the creepiest element of the stylistic choices made by the author, the use of personification deserves a specific mentioning: “The front pattern does move – and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Gilman 634). On a surface, the image of a woman trying to break through her paper-thin prison is solely the product of the narrator’s deformed imagination. However, such details as the narrator’s insane sympathy for the “vision” indicate that the woman behind the wallpaper is the personification of the lead character’s fears and the representation of the demons that the narrator has inside, particularly her desire to come out of her shell and become an active member of the society:: “[…] she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight. […] It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!” (Gilman 654).
As insane as this statement is, it points to the social restrictions imposed on women, the process of “creeping,” possibly signifying the intent to enter the domain traditionally defined as the “male” one (Bailey 28). Thus, the imagery, particularly the woman behind the wallpaper, is a metonymic representation of social boundaries that most women had to face at the time, and a very powerful one at that – Gilman clearly knew the power of people’s superstition and fear of the supernatural.
Another major part of what can be read between the lines of Gilman’s story, the metaphor has also played a great role in the creation of the surreal atmosphere and the development of key ideas. The final and by far the most memorable scene of the lead character crawling over her husband’s presumably unconscious (or, arguably, dead) body can be interpreted as a metaphor for the deplorable outcomes that the unwillingness to recognize women’s rights may lead to. It would be a mistake to consider the ending of the story a direct threat; instead, it should be viewed as a cautionary tale about the peril of intolerance.
The rest of the literary devices used throughout the novel, though less noticeable than the ones listed above, also add to the disturbing impression that the novel leaves. For instance, the use of epithets is, at the very least, thought-provoking. The way in which the narrator describes the setting and the careful choice of epithets used to depict the room and especially the color of the wallpaper, such as “repellant” (Gilman 649) and “smoldering unclean” (Gilman 649) contributes to building the suspense that will finally resolve in tragedy. The epithets used to depict the environment of the hotel in general also leave a very depressing impression: the trees are “gnarly” (Gilman 649), the arbors are “deep-shaded” and “mysterious” (Gilman 649), etc.
The last, but definitely not the least, the simile is also used a lot throughout the novel. This stylistic choice must have been made in order to make the reader enter the world of descending madness that the protagonist lives in: “The pattern lolls like a broken neck” (Gilman 649). In addition to similes, Gilman also uses a variety of analogies, such as the parallels between the life that the narrator leads and the role of women in the society of the time: “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, – to dress and entertain, and order things” (Gilman 649).
One of the most memorable novels mixing the genres of a tragedy and a thriller, The Yellow Wallpaper, clearly leaves a very disturbing feeling. However, these are not the supernatural elements that scare the audience, but the depth of insanity caused by injustice. The novel shows what may happen once prejudice takes its toll over society, and it does so in a disturbingly graphic manner.
Works Cited
Bailey, Dale. American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction. Madison, WI; University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. Print.
Considering that the rest-cure prescribed to the protagonist in the Yellow Wallpaper can be regarded as a symbol of female oppression, the research paper will aim to answer the following question: was the standard 19th-century treatment for a nervous breakdown in women a method for forcing them into traditional social and behavioral roles?
Close Reading
The rest-cure described by Gilman in her story was a form of physical imprisonment for the protagonist as it restricted her behaviors: “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.” Notably, any of her attempts to write were met with “heavy opposition.” It is possible to say that the forbiddance to write is particularly meaningful in the story considering that other characters might think that writing (an activity that was traditionally associated with males) was one of the main reasons leading her to the breakdown.
Additionally, the main form of psychological imprisonment was the character’s obedience to her husband who did not believe in her sickness and did not allow her to think that it was something more than a “temporary nervous depression.” Due to his “loving” yet paternalizing approach, she found it difficult to express herself and plunged into deeper psychological distress.
When the woman escaped from the wallpaper, as the protagonist put it, she was freed from the psychological constraints imposed on her by the society (from her inward perspective). Before that, she had to comply with norms and strive to meet others’ expectations even when it was against her instincts and individual aspirations.
After the woman escaped, she felt joy and relief for the first time after her sickness and was able to do anything she wanted: “It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!” At the same time, from the outward perspective, it might look like she went completely insane because, for the rest of the society, the notion of acceptable female behavior did not change as nobody else in the story went through the same transformative experience as the protagonist.
Hysteria and neurasthenia were among the major mental health conditions attributed exclusively to females in the 19th century (Little 21). At that time, “all women were seen by physicians as susceptible to ill health and mental breakdown by reason of their biological weakness and reproductive cycles” (Marland). The common symptoms of neurasthenia and hysteria are fatigue, changes in mood and character, loss of the ability to function, weight loss, anemia, and so forth (Sigurðardóttir 3; Tasca et al. 115).
The protagonist in the short story shows similar symptoms, including the loss of appetite, extreme tiredness, unreasonable crying, and others (Gilman). Additionally, she notes that one of her friends once referred to a doctor, Weir Mitchell, with similar problems (Gilman), which may indicate the “popularity” of the diagnosis.
Treatment for Nervous Exhaustion in the 19th century
To cure the nervous depression, the character “was to have perfect rest and all the air… [she] could get” (Gilman). Besides that, the woman was forbidden to work/write because “imaginative power and habit of story-making” could only worsen the situation (Gilman). The “rest-cure” designed by Weir Mitchell was the main method of treatment for hysteria and neurasthenia in the 19th century and implied a strict regimen for eating, exercise, and sleep (Marland).
Little states that the rest-cure was a form of psychological punishment aimed to make the patient succumb to “normative and traditional behaviors, such as being obedient and compliant to her physician’s suggestions” (24). Additionally, Sigurðardóttir notes that its purpose was to discipline women who avoided their household duties by using the disease (4).
Etiquette and Gender Relationships
The described standard treatment method demonstrates that women were expected to be “submissive, docile and in all ways well behaved and subservient to men” (Sigurðardóttir 4). The main role of a 19th-century woman was a loving nurturer, serving the needs of her family and obedient to her husband/father (Little 27). At the same time, the mental disorder occurred in women when they tried to fulfill the roles that were considered unsuitable for their gender, for instance, a writer and a social activist (Marland). In the short story, the protagonist’s husband and his sister consider that writing made her sick (Gilman). Thus, the woman hides her true feelings and strives to follow John’s recommendations: “I take pains to control myself—before him, at least—and that makes me very tired” (Gilman).
Throughout time, society has put more behavioral restrictions on females than on males (Sigurðardóttir 9). While men had greater chances to express their individuality through work and other activities, women were usually forced to suppress it (Little 27). Also, Eisenchlas observes that “violations of gender role expectations are met with criticism and penalized” (2), and this situation creates psychological constraints. The pattern on the wallpaper is a symbolic representation of those constraints. The protagonist sees the shape of a woman, “stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (Gilman). That woman shook the pattern and tried to climb it, but “nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so” (Gilman).
Escape
In the story, the protagonist tears down the wallpaper: “I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman). According to Marland, such an escape can be regarded as either the salvation from behavioral restrictions or an ultimate loss of mind. Little notes that, for many women, mental illness as such was a way to express dissatisfaction with social norms (27). Nevertheless, Sigurðardóttir observes that, in fiction, many writers used insanity as a method to depict internalized ideas about true, unrestrained womanhood (14). Therefore, the image of a woman creeping over a fainted man (Gilman) may be a symbol of emancipation.
Works Cited
Eisenchlas, Susana A. “Gender Roles and Expectations: Any Changes Online?” SAGE Open, 2013, pp. 1-11.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Project Gutenberg. 2008. Web.
Little Julianna. “Frailty, thy name is a woman”: Depictions of Female Madness. Dissertation, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015.
Sigurðardóttir, Elísabet Rakel. Women and Madness in the 19th Century: The Effects of Oppression on Women’s Mental Health. Dissertation, University of Iceland, 2013.
Tasca, Cecilia et al. “Women and Hysteria in the History of Mental Health” Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, vol. 8 , 2012, pp. 110-119.
The short story The Yellow Wallpaper describes problems of the middle-class women and the low status of women in society. The Yellow Wallpapers was first published in 1892 (Shawn, p. 237). In this short story, Gilman depicts a life of a common woman whose destiny is housekeeping. The protagonist suffers greatly because her role in life is limited and disregarded. Using different symbols, Gilman unveils hardship and grievances faced by a common woman, misunderstanding, and indifference towards her. For a long time, the husband does not take into account the psychical state of his wife supposing it is nothing more than a fake. Using unique symbols, Gilman symbolically depicts the low role of women in society and in the family, misunderstanding, and apathy of family members towards possible illnesses and emotional problems faced by women.
Main body
The yellow wallpaper is the main symbol of the story. This symbol represents the lunatic asylum where the main character is put. It becomes a prison for the protagonist limited her social life and physical activity. “The narrator describes the yellow wallpaper, the central symbol of this triumphantly suffocating domesticity, with elaborate and self-conscious artistic precision” (Hume, p. 3). Gilman uses such important details as the smell of the wallpaper and shades of color to depict her feelings: “the only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell” (Gilman n.d.). The yellow wallpaper is used as a symbol of depression and loneliness. It uncovers the inner state of the heroin and her psychological distress. Literary critics (Hume, p. 3) explain that the choice of this unique symbol is not accidental, because many doctors of those times used yellow wallpapers as a treatment for mental illnesses. Although, because the social role of the wife is predetermined, Gilman underlines that the woman feels miserable and depressed. She states: “It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper!” (Gilman n.d.). This symbolic meaning helps readers to grasp the idea at once and shapes the atmospheres of loneliness and insanity. Also, this symbol contemplates nature, both the natural world around the narrator and her own inner nature. The protagonist is depicted as a sympathetic and compassionate wife and mother, but she lacks the inner strength essential for survival (Delashmit and Long, p. 32).
The yellow color itself is a symbol of insanity and mental illness. Personal feelings and experiences have a great influence on the narrator and her associations and allow readers to interpret the symbol (Fleissner, p. 79). Gilman gives a detailed analysis of this ‘unique’ color: “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulfur tint in others” (Gilman n.d.). Also, the story records the changes of the heroin nature and her desire to overcome male oppression and become free from social norms and stereotypes. Also, a specific detailed description of the color and feel of the narrator forces readers to go beneath the surface and interpret this symbol. Probably, “insanity” is an indicator of what happens to people’s thinking about themselves when they can no longer hold on to the old beliefs (Hume, p. 4). The narrator seems to have approved of the burning of them, not on the ground that they made people go on crazy movements, but because they were idealistically poor. “The exasperating effect of pattern wallpaper on invalids was a medical commonplace of Gilman’s time” (Roth 145). Using the effect of “yellow” on the mind, Gilman shows that this color occupies and expands readers’ interpretation and perception of the plot. With this emphasis on the irrational, Gilman creates social conflicts between the gentility of old values and the brute force of new: “Charlotte Perkins Gilman states she did not intend to drive readers “crazy” with the Yellow Wall-Paper but only to expose a serious and extreme lapse in medical judgment, or wisdom, regarding the “treatment of neurasthenia”. Gilman uses the theme of “the yellow wallpaper” to demonstrate the hopelessness and futility of women’s dreams and hopes.
Through the symbol of the family mansion, Gilman describes family relations and atmosphere, relations between spouses, and their marriage life. Through this symbol, Gilman unveils complicated relations between a husband and wife, feeling of indifference and apathy. For instance, the woman feels there is something strange about the house associated with loneliness. Gilman writes: “a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house and reach the height of romantic felicity but that would be asking too much of fate! Still, I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it” (Gilman n.d.). This symbol unveils poor family relations between husband and wife, and the inability to understand and support each other in difficult life situations. Hume explains that “Gilman’s narrator posits an indirect alternative to the psychologically discomfiting ambivalence she displays not only toward herself but for others (including both her husband and her child). On the other hand, doubt and anger are inappropriate responses to the narrator. But there are times when these things are almost inevitable.
The profession of a husband (a physician) can be interpreted as an important symbol of family problems and a lack of mutual trust. Gilman ironically portrays that a physician is unable to recognize mental illnesses and psychological disorders limited by social stereotypes. “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition” (Gilman n.d.). From the very beginning, the woman describes that her husband, John, does not take into account her complaints and emotional distress supposing that it is nothing more than “temporary nervous depression — a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman, n.d.). The attitude of the husband reveals the strong views on the role of women in society and their weaknesses. This symbol underlines that the physician does not treat his wife as other patients supposing that psychological illness is just an imaginary illness of his wife used to attract his attention. The woman explains: “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman, n.d.). It is possible to say that the position of women during the period depicted by Gilman was too low. They lived as housewives with no rights and property. In the story, Gilman describes that it is nothing but the courage of the woman to fight against oppression and social norms. Delashmit and Long comment: “The wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” escapes by denying one self and merging with another–physically safe, but insane, at least for the moment, in her nursery-prison” (Delashmit, Long 32). This message sustains a special atmosphere in the story. It unveils contractions between old and new things, values, and ideas. This means that the author is endorsing doubt and challenging the hero. It seems to endorse being honest about personal doubts, rather than accepting trite answers.
The symbol of a flight can be interpreted as a symbol of freedom and independence. “To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try” (Gilman n.d.). It is possible to assume that the main character wants to step out into a wider world and becomes independent and free from family oppression and apathy. This symbol reflects the inner state of the woman and gives some hints to readers to imagine her feelings and emotional state. Through this symbol, the short story suggests something of the historical loss for women and their relationships with men. Using this symbol, Gilman prepares readers for something unacceptable. The woman says: “I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane” (Gilman n.d.). The symbol of a flight supports a conflict in the story and helps the author to give only some hints to readers to comprehend the meaning of the plot.
Conclusion
In sum, Gilman skillfully uses different symbols to inspire the interest and imagination of readers and creates a unique atmosphere of suffering and mental illness. The symbol of the Yellow Wallpaper creates a space for freedom and allows a wide range of interpretations based on the experience of readers and their imagination. Gilman symbolically portrays that the woman could never convince her husband about her emotional sufferings and mental illness, and in this case, the depression slowly pulls her to madness. The secondary role and low status of the woman make her a victim of social norms and stereotypes, values, and prejudices dominated in the society. Illness and mental disorder allow her to escape from the realities of life that she cannot change.
Works Cited
Delashmit, M., Long, Ch. Gilman’s the Yellow Wallpaper. The Explicator 50, (1991), 32
Fleissner, J.L. The Work of Womanhood in American Naturalism. Differences 8, (1996), 57-96.
Gilman, C. P. n.d. Yellow Wallpapers. University of Virginia Library.
Hume, B.A. Managing Madness in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” Studies in American Fiction 30, (2002), 3.
Roth, M. Gilman’s Arabesque Wallpaper. Mosaic 34, (2001), 145.
Shawn, J. An Updated Publication History of “The Yellow Wall-Paper”. Studies in Short Fiction 34, (1997), 237.
Charlotte Perkins is a famous writer, journalist, and feminist. The Yellow Wallpaper is one of her short stories containing a feminist attitude characteristic of all her works.
In her numerous works, she consistently discusses the hierarchical status of women in society regarding patriarchy. The central theme in The Yellow Wallpaper is a restriction and subordination of women in domestic spheres. That is a consequence of male dominance in marriages. The first person’s point of view effectively illustrates this theme. Symbolism also emphasizes the subjugation of women in the story. This essay focuses on how the point of view in The Yellow Wallpaper helps to develop the theme.
The Yellow Wallpaper: Narration
Gilman points out the conventional setup of the nineteenth-century middle-class assumptions and attitudes towards marriages that prevent women from exercising their wishes and desires.
The theme of the short story is real because it is driven by the unfortunate events which occurred in Gilman’s life (Delashmit and Long 32).
Loss of identity for women among American households was a common scenario in American society in the nineteenth century. Women who wished to stabilize and express themselves did not get a listening ear.
The male-dominated society considered all female ideas invalid. Gilman’s story focuses on male dominance. She brings out her atrocious tale to explain what women face and how their husbands subject them to dictatorship.
Gilman tells her story using first-person narration. Through the means of it, the readers empathize with the Narrator as they follow the progression of the story. First-person narration helps one get a deeper comprehension of the storyline and language.
There is an epistolary style in the story because the Narrator gives the sequence of events as diary entries. The continual use of the pronoun ‘I’ makes the reader relate to the Narrator’s point of view. According to Hochman (89), first-person narration in The Yellow Wallpaper makes this story incredibly different. It distinguishes this story from other creative stories of that time.
Moreover, it is an immensely challenging task for Gilman to bring out the story from her point of view, disregarding possible negative critiques from literary critics and the masses. Gilman forms an insider’s perspective to this story, thus giving an autobiographical nature to the text. Hochman further explains that such achievements were significant in America during the 1890s (89).
The Narrator’s point of view connects with the central theme of the story. The story has a feminist approach that explores feminism and challenges male dominance in society that roots in most households. Men feel that they have every right to exercise authority over women. For example, Gilman’s husband does not accept any explanation from her and always imposes his will over her.
The Narrator’s point of view gives the reader a mental picture of the setting for the story. Gilman’s description of the rental mansion shows the beauty of the place. She uses words such as “there is a delicious garden” and “the most beautiful place” to emphasize this beauty.
However, she also contradicts her point of view by describing the mansion as “a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate.” These phrases indicate that Gilman believes that men have colonized the mansion since time immemorial. It also shows that men dominate a place meant for equal sharing by both genders.
Thrailkill (525) interprets that the luxuriousness of the mansion is heritable (goes by from one generation to the next). The Narrator depicts the relationship between her husband and her from the first-person narration. She admits that John laughs at her, a statement that indicates that she is a casualty of low self-esteem and exasperation. She is also the object of ridicule to her husband.
The Narrator’s perspective becomes more explicit when she strongly points out that she is aware of her “nervous condition,” meaning that she is also conscious as a writer to raise this issue from a feminist’s point of view. The Narrator’s point of view brings out sarcasm and irony as styles in the story. The Narrator says that she is glad that her case is not severe when her husband is away at the hospital for long periods.
This shows how ironic it is that Gilman’s husband is busy solving serious cases outside, while his wife is suffering from nervous depression. It is also ironic that her husband’s attempts to cure her leave her in a worse mental state even after following distinctive directions.
The yellow wallpaper in Gilman’s room metaphorically supports her idea of the effects of male dominance on women’s lives. Similarly, her life has turned out unpleasant and unattractive, like an “unclean yellow” (Quawas 35).
Symbolism is an imperative style in the story. Symbolism clarifies the underlying purpose behind the writing of the story. Symbolism also adds to the perspective that the story builds in the reader and the Narrator’s minds.
The yellow wallpaper in the story is symbolic of the suppressed emotions of the protagonist. The wallpaper is “ripped,” “soiled,” “unclean yellow,” “revolting,” and “formless sort of figures.” These descriptions of the wallpaper are symbolic of the shapeless and suffocating life that the Narrator leads.
It symbolizes a filled with life with harsh memories. “Soiled” symbolizes the burial act, thus representing the death of her ideal life. “Ghostly sub-pattern” is symbolic of the haunted life she leads guided by ghosts of the dead. It shows her desires relating to her fascination with writing and creativity. She wants to fly away from the cage of patriarchy.
The Narrator’s character undergoes self-realization, developing through the mindset of the reader. The use of the first-person narration in The Yellow Wallpaper shapes the strength of the main character.
The course of action that the Narrator anticipates taking concerning her subdued life develops her character in the course of the story (Subotsky 22).
The deeper she interprets the emotional patterns on the yellow wallpaper, the farther she moves from her own life. Her character develops when she realizes the pain suffered by her fellow women.
Works Cited
Delashmit, M. & Long, C. “Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” The Explicator 50.1(1991):32. Print.
Hochman, B. “The Reading Habit and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” American Literature 74.1 (2002): 89-110. Print.
Quawas, R. “A New Woman’s Journey into Insanity: Descent and Return in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Modern Language Association 105 (2006):35. Print.
Subotsky, F. “The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Psychiatrists in 19th-century fiction.” The British Journal of Psychiatry 195.1:22. Print.
In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator’s feelings, activities, and general well-being intertwine with the imaginary patterns she sees in the yellow wallpaper in her room. The narrator and her husband travel to a castle home for a summer vacation that will also serve as recuperation for the narrator who seemingly suffers from a mental disorder that may be associated with the recent birth of her son.
She tries to convince her husband John and one of her minders Jennie, to see the patterns she notices in the wallpaper of her upstairs room, which they, of course, cannot see: the narrator has extended her mental disorder to the yellow wallpaper and the illusionary patterns she perceives on the wall are her mind’s creations. Her general descent into psychosis begins when she requests to have some things done for her that turn out to overwhelm her – for example she insists on a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia, but when she gets there she is barely in the mood and cries for no apparent reason (6).
Her bizarre fascination with the patterns on the wallpaper begins when she spends a lot of time in the room with the wallpaper at daytime, eventually having her conscious state and sense of image inextricably linked to an image of herself that she projects in the patterns on the wallpaper. Therefore, the woman that the narrator perceives in the wallpaper patterns represents her own projected image, and the woman’s acts illustrates the real, actual and physical acts of the narrator.
Description as an indicator of similarity
The descriptions that the narrator gives for the woman in the patterns portray the similarity of the projected image and the narrator’s physical state. The narrator states, “There are things that paper [wallpaper] that nobody knows but me, or ever will”. This description of the wallpaper being as intimate to her as to preclude anybody else ever finding out some details about it reflects her. The personal and intimate details of the heart, mind, and soul that only known to self are what she describes here.
She says confidently that nobody can ever find out about these details of the wallpaper because she is referring to her feelings, desires, and dreams that she would never mention to anyone else – hence the confident declaration that nobody will ever find out these details. She further states that the wallpaper image is “Always the same shape, only very numerous”, an indication of the form of her physical body’s shape which never changes. The many patterns are only a description of the different angles through which the sun’s rays project her shadows at various places during the day, and the moon’s illumination throughout the night, on the wallpaper.
Behavior and character attribute as an indicator of similarity
One of the queer behaviors that have afflicted the narrator because of her mental unsoundness is creeping. She states that the pattern on the wallpaper “Is like a woman stooping down and creeping behind that pattern” (7). Yet this description fits her because further in the text (10), the narrator states how the woman in the patterns has the peculiar behavior of stooping and creeping during the daytime, and according to her judgment it is very humiliating and unladylike for a woman to creep during the daytime.
She confesses that she cannot creep at night because her husband John would suspect something amiss the very moment she attempts to steal out of the room at night. Her revelation that she cannot stop and creep at night like she would want thus leaves her with little choice but to creep during the daytime when her husband is away in town working and her minder Jennie none the wiser insofar as her creeping acts are concerned.
She states that she sees the woman in her wallpaper through her window, and adds that the woman gets out of the window and creeps out in the trees along the road, hiding shamefully under blackberry vines whenever a carriage approaches (10). The narrator is the very woman creeping because she states that she sees the woman in the patterns on the wallpaper, yet now she can see this woman out in the fields and along the road outside the house – where there are no wallpapers or patterns. The description thus fits the narrator’s surreptitious actions, and she is the very person who creeps out of her window into the fields and back the same manner without Jennie noticing.
Further certainty that the narrator is the creeper exists in Jennie’s ‘assessment report’ to John that the narrator sleeps a lot during daytime – tired from the long walks and creeping she does at different times of the day. Additionally, she states that “…outside you have to creep on the ground” (12) and also explains that she doesn’t prefer the outdoors anymore because everything seemed green as opposed to her room where everything seemed yellow. Her confession that outside one has to creep on the ground indicates that she indeed did creep outside, and thus the woman she projects on the wallpaper is herself.
Physical attachment to the Yellow Wallpaper as evidence of similarity
The narrator spends long hours analyzing, physically enforcing and rubbing her body on the wall, leading to her inability to distinguish her self from her image on the patterns in the yellow wallpaper. She speaks of the strange color of yellow on the wallpaper and subsequently speaks of a strange ‘yellow’ smell (9). She further states that when they first arrived at the house the smell was not too powerful but after a while, the smell seemed to follow her everywhere she went, and her dislike for the smell almost led her to burn the house to get rid of that smell (9).
She also speaks of Jennie complaining about the yellow wallpaper “stained everything it touched” (9) and that Jennie found yellow smooches all over the narrator’s clothes and those of John. The obsessive nature that the narrator physically clings to the design and patterns of the yellow wallpaper to the extent of having marks of the paper all over her clothes, and having the associated smell of the wallpaper – the one the narrator describes as ‘yellow’ smell – are all indicative of the narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper.
This extreme preoccupation with the wallpaper has blurred her view and she is unable to draw the line between reality and fantasy. Therefore, though she is the woman who is doing all the activities she attributes to a woman behind the patterns on the yellow wallpaper, she is none the wiser due to her mental condition. That being so, the smell that keeps haunting her is, in fact, the smell of the leftover paint that she rubs her body and hair on every day while creeping along the walls of the room in her vain attempts to ‘analyze’ the patterns on the wall.
The Vacation House and Room with Yellow wallpaper as a Prison/jail
Tragically, the narrator viewed the entire house she was spending her vacation at, and specifically the room she was in, as a jail – one that she related to the nearing end of the vacation with her day of freedom. On the last night of the vacation, her husband is away and she refuses the company of Jennie, her unsound mind believing that she needed all the possible privacy she in her quest to free the woman trapped in the wallpaper patterns. She, therefore, begins her attempt to ‘free’ the woman in the patterns, stating, “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” (11).
The narrator thus engages in fantasy efforts of freeing the woman in the patterns, all the while trying to free herself, from her madness, from her confined existence, from the distance she had created between her and her baby, and from the inability of taking control of her fate. She morphs her two discordant images in a possible cure to her madness, and the narrator describes her unified effort with the woman in the patterns to get rid of the wallpaper that represented the imprisonment of women.
The narrator states, “I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper” (11). This effort that the narrator explains as being carried out by two persons is, in essence, an attempt to exercise the torturous images that have plagued her mind throughout her vacation – these images being the indicators of her mental disorder. Her attempts are however futile, and despite exerting herself the whole night, she is still unable to prevent these images from appearing within her mind. She narrates that the pattern even laughed at her failure to overcome that challenge.
Freedom from the Jail – the end of mental disorder
Finally, in a vicious and determined final effort to free herself from the patterns she sees on walls, she locks herself in the room to plan and strategize. She locks the key and throws it at the backyard so that no one comes in to disturb her, and that she is not able to go out. However, the results of her acts again justify the view that the narrator’s real, physical and actual acts are the acts reflected in the by the woman she sees in the patterns.
The narrator acquires a rope supposedly to tie up the woman in the patterns so that she does not attempt to flee after she frees her – “I’ve got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out and tries to get away, I can tie her!” (12). In a twist of events, she, however, ends up tying herself with this rope. She tells a mortified John when he enters the room that she finally got out, at last, indicating that she was, in the end, successful in freeing that woman – by herself – and had ‘tied her’ so that she does not run away, but stays on to savor her long-fought victory. John faints to shock of her actions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the analysis has shown that the woman that the narrator perceives in the wallpaper patterns is herself. Additionally, the images that the narrator saw in the patterns, the behaviors she attributed to the woman in the patterns, and the intimacy with which she acknowledges the attributes of that woman all reflect the character of the narrator as mentally disabled. Her efforts to free this woman were indeed efforts to free herself from her madness. She finally succeeds in being free from her madness – a condition the images in the patterns represented.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. Alabama Virtual Library: Literature Resource Centre, n.d. Web.
A Rose for Emily and The Yellow wallpaper are two lamentable tales of tragic women who were driven insane by their dysfunctional families. In Rose for Emily, the aloof, aristocratic bearing of the Grierson in a time when the old Southern Aristocracy had died out prevented Emily from developing a healthy personality and kept her from reaching out and making proper acquaintances with them. Her choice to remain oddly superior and shut out led to very tragic circumstances in the end. The Woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper was not actually insane in the beginning. Instead, she was driven mad by her enforced imprisonment and her lack of any external stimulus besides the infernal Yellow Wallpaper. However, the true cause of her insanity was the Androcentric views of her husband, which denied her rationality and made him substitute his observations of her symptoms over what she really felt.
“I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves.” Tells Emily haughtily when the Jefferson aldermen come to her house and ask her to pay real estate tax on it. In So SHE vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. The story says later, after the aldermen failed to reason with her. Truth be told, Emily was the daughter of a Grierson, an old aristocratic family the held itself above the simpletons around them. This was despite the fact that the American Civil War had likely ruined their fortunes, and the changing winds of the Reconstruction were also buffeting the social order in the South. However, her father had insisted that she comport herself as an aristocrat. The effect was the even if the people around her no longer believed in the old order, they still had strange deference for Emily. For example, when she went to buy poison, the druggist was powerless to enforce the law that required her to tell him what the poison would be used for. All she had to do was this ‘Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him an eye for an eye until he looked away. He was completely intimidated.
One of the most severe effects of Emily’s upbringing was shown when her father died. She adamantly refused to allow people to grieve and bury him. In her mad raving, she refused to believe he was dead. One reason for this was because her father’s aristocratic tendencies had driven off all her suitors. Another was because of her father’s attitudes, which were ingrained in her personality, she had no friends, and he was all she had in the world.
Later, when Homer Baron came to Jefferson, she apparently fell in love with him and made all the obvert moves to marry him. Including an interview with a minister and purchasing intimate toiletries engraved with his name. However, tragedy struck, and the full measure of her insanity was not known until her death. Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of ahead. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair. She was so afraid of losing him like she lost her father that, in all likelihood, she poisoned him with Arsenic just so he would stay with her for the rest of her cursed life.
The Woman in the Yellow Wallpaper was not insane. In fact, based on her writings, she was a perfectly normal woman who just had a minor nervous breakdown. A Woman in the later 19th century was trapped in an androcentric world. John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage. She writes as if it was fully expected that a husband would completely ignore the opinions of his wife.
She obviously had a lot of love and respect for John, her husband. For example, she says I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already! Despite her husband downgrading her to the level of a thoughtless, inutile child, she still loves him and wishes to be of help to him. She also respects his opinions quite possibly too much; It is so hard to talk with John about my case because he is so wise and because he loves me so. John’s opinions as a doctor a valid in their own right; however, the Woman is obviously lucid and is capable of diagnosing her own malady. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. She says this understanding that she is in need of some stimuli to keep her brain occupied. Sadly, because of the prevailing attitudes at that time, she never has the chance to express this opinion and instead has to struggle with herself and creeping insanity throughout the story.
In the end, she really does go mad. “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”. In prison with nothing to do, she eventually lost her mind and imagined that she was trapped in the yellow wallpaper. During her progression into insanity, her husband continued to enforce the “healing” policy that was, in fact, driving her insane, not realizing that the childish, doting treatment he was giving her was the cause of her insanity.
In both stories, the Androcentric attitudes of the late 19th century and the respect the women had for the men in their lives led them to their fateful ends. Emily loved her father and lost him, making her kill Homer so he would never leave. The Woman respected her husband so much she believed him till the end.