Category: The Yellow Wallpaper

Introduction

A piece of writing will always leave its author’s mark. Every piece of literature exposes something fundamentally important about the author. Some literary works, meanwhile, are regarded as autobiographical portraits of their writers. The Yellow Wallpaper, a short novella by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has a striking similarity to her own life. There are many parallels between Gilman’s life and that of the story’s main character. Therefore, it is clear that Charlotte’s cognitive patterns are reflected in every idea the story’s protagonist has. There are various ways to analyze this tale, but psychoanalysis seems to be a significant option in this vein. Using psychoanalytic concepts in general and defensive mechanisms in particular, the discussion below aims to examine the parallels between Gilman and the main character in the mentioned novel.

Plot Summary

The Yellow Wallpaper is a first-person narrative – the whole tale is recounted by a lady who has just given birth. She experiences postpartum depression. For her rehabilitation, the family has leased and relocated into a colonial home. John, her husband, is a physician, but he has placed her on a relaxation cure. He had requested that she do nothing but rest. She is not actually permitted to write or interact with others (Gilman 648). Her living space is decorated with yellow wallpaper; the latter immediately repels her. Due to her isolation, she becomes obsessed with this wallpaper. She starts to inspect its patterns with great care. She gets bored in the outside world over time. She is always glancing at the wallpaper and realizes that the design conceals a shadow.

She says nothing about the wallpaper’s shifting patterns and the appearance of a shadow underneath them. Eventually, this shadow appears in the form of a lady. The wallpaper’s shifting patterns and the woman’s shadow are her delusions (Gilman 655). When she is isolated in the room, she notices a shadow emerging from the wallpaper and creeping over the walls and floor. Because of the wallpaper and the woman’s shadow, she senses that her life is becoming fascinating. She starts to crawl inside the room as she gets so preoccupied with the shadow. She believes that woman’s shadow is attempting to get independence. She believes that by removing the wallpaper, she can release the lady. Therefore, she removes the wallpaper and confines herself in the room. When her husband catches her doing it, she informs him that she has escaped and acquired independence.

Applied Theory

Psychologically speaking, psychoanalytic theory is a method for treating personality disorders. It was used to examine the unconscious portion of the human mind. Through a comprehensive exploration of a patient’s unconscious, suppressed thoughts and feelings might be alleviated. Dreams disclose the unconscious portion of the mind, and every individual and item in a dream has a symbolic meaning. The same holds true for literature; there are no straightforward assertions in literary works. In fiction, poetry, and drama, the author never speaks directly. It may be concluded that a text also reflects the author’s unconscious thoughts. By analyzing the letters, symbols, pictures, metaphors, etc., one may grasp the author’s inner self. Thus, this is how a connection between the psychoanalytic concept and literature is established.

Discussion

Repression is the first shared characteristic between the protagonist and the author. Repression refers to the mechanisms that assist one in ignoring unfulfilled aspirations and unsolved issues. However, suppressed desires do exist and manifest in mind, although in a different manner. In this instance, the symptom is the thought that arises in the patient. It is the replacement for what was suppressed (Tabla et al. 2). The physician advised Gilman to stop fantasizing and writing; it was a severe hit to her creative abilities. It was more harmful than beneficial. The intensity of suppression forced her to need to write out of her unconscious, and she thereafter became insufferable to others. Therefore, the shadow lady represents the author’s suppressed desires and wishes.

It can be noticed that there is the same fury and disillusionment in the heroine when John forbids her to even write in her journal. She followed his advice, but her emotional and physical health worsened as a result. The protagonist likewise experiences the same circumstance as Charlotte. Therefore, the shadow lady is likewise a manifestation of the protagonist’s repressed desires (Manzoor et al. 1062). Condensation is another similarity between the protagonist and the author. Multiple personalities, ideas, images, and events are merged into a single vision, according to Freud. Therefore, this picture represents condensation. It is also possible to say that condense is a stage in which two distinct desires will converge. The shadow lady is thus a compressed picture. Gilman was prohibited from pursuing her literary love. She was constrained by her spouse and a male physician and instructed to rest as much as possible and avoid socializing. Therefore, one might infer that there were two forms of restriction: cognitive and societal.

A similar circumstance occurs throughout the narrative. The heroine was prohibited from engaging in any intellectual endeavor or social interaction as the shadow lady was a condensed representation of the protagonist’s unconscious in the novel. This narrative and the female’s shadow are also a compressed representation of Gilman’s unconscious. Her incapacity to write was symbolized by the entangled shadow figure. She was also a feminist, and the shadow lady caught in the wallpaper represented women’s dependence.

In regard to the protagonist and the author, sublimation is also evident. In sublimation, suppressed desires are given a new form. The suppressed desires might be of any sort, including feelings of envy, anger, sadness, and sexual urges (Manzoor et al. 1066). These ideas and emotions are forced into the unconscious by repressive forces. However, these suppressed ideas reappear in a new form after being transformed. This new and distinct form is known as sublimation. Freud has specifically highlighted the conscious reappearance of suppressed sexual urges. They adopt a form that has nothing to do with sexual behavior. However, these suppressed sexual cravings are the root of this picture.

The piece of writing and the shadow lady might be seen as the manifestation of Gilman’s suppressed desires. These desires may be sexual or nonsexual. Gilman’s first marriage was in 1884, and she divorced her husband the following year. This tale was composed in 1892 (Tabla et al. 4). Therefore, we might presume that sexual urges were suppressed via the role and the shadow lady. While the suppressed desires to write may have resurfaced in the guise of the shadow lady in the narrative. The suppressed desires for independence in a society dominated by men were likewise sublimated in the shape of that woman’s shadow.

The situation of the narrative’s protagonist is the same; her suppressed desire to write and live a life free of masculine guidance manifested itself as the shadow of a woman. She attempted to adhere to her husband’s and the doctor’s directions. By means of suppression, she forced all of her desires into unconsciousness. However, via transformation and sublimation, these energies returned to her awareness as a shadow lady. Furthermore, there is no indication of a physical relationship between the heroine and her spouse. She said in the narrative, “Yet I cannot be with him because it makes me so anxious.” Therefore, one might argue that the protagonist shoved unfulfilled sexual impulses back into the unconscious (Manzoor et al. 1064). However, these desires returned to her awareness through the shadow lady.

Another similarity between Gilman and the protagonist of the narrative is projection. Projection is the attribution of unconscious conduct to another individual. It is important to realize that we are discussing the attribution of unconscious action here. We are not considering the substitution of one person or item for another. Therefore, the noteworthy aspects of this situation include unconscious conduct that is attributed to someone else.

It indicates that a person is anxious about something but is not aware of it or the worry that exists in their unconscious psyche. However, they assert that others are anxious when they may not be. Therefore, Gilman’s assertion that others are anxious is a projection of her own concern. The captivity of the shadowy figure behind the pattern represents Gilman’s confinement in the chamber during her rest treatment. Her conduct of anguish and despair was shown by her attempts to escape these patterns and her creeping about the room.

She addressed their plights and stressed the advancement of women in her writings. Gilman’s conduct of sadness and suffering might also be ascribed to the protagonist. She poured her physical and emotional suffering onto the main character. Regarding the heroine and the shadow lady, everything is crystal apparent. The shadow lady is the protagonist’s mental projection. She transferred her feelings of helplessness, reliance, and intellectual aridity onto the shadow lady.

Conclusion

The above discussion applies the fundamental concepts of psychoanalytic criticism to The Yellow Wallpaper. It was proved that certain mental conditions inherent to the protagonist are connected with the author as well. Through the lens of psychoanalysis, the novel was interpreted as Gilman’s reflection of herself.

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892. Web.

Manzoor, Mohsin et al. “The Yellow Wallpaper: A Psychoanalytical Parallelism Between Character and Author.” Palarch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, vol. 19, no. 1, 2022, pp. 1059–1068.

Tabla, Myette et al. “A Psychoanalytic Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.” International Journal of Modern Developments in Engineering and Science, vol. 1, no. 12, 2022, pp. 1–7.

Most of the short stories have profound meaning in their analysis. Indeed, Anton Chekhov, the author of “The lady with the little dog”, admitted that conciseness is a literary sister of talent. This fact might explain the short size of most of his works and the deep symbolization that he provides in the story. While some critics admit that “the lady with the little dog” illustrates typical marriage issues such as betrayal, the author could have tried to represent the life dilemmas of unrealized possibilities and their impact on personal well-being.

On the one hand, some individuals consider that Chekhov’s main idea was to describe the typical man who is cheating on his wife. Dmitri Gurov, the main character of the story, meets the woman with a little white spitz who also spends her vacation in one of the Crimean cities, Yalta. Furthermore, he discovers that Anna Sergeyevna has the same issue: an unhappy marriage partner (Americanliterature.com). As a result, their joint problem incites them to start a secret love affair until the woman does not return home. Throughout the whole story, the author describes intimate details of their passion, which is usually accompanied by meaningless meditations on the subject of marriage. Malcolm’s magazine article named “The Kernel of Truth” supports the opinion that the explicit and intimate characters’ life description is the most interesting and significant part of the story (Malcolm). Since the main subject is focused on Gurov’s love affair, the main idea is represented by illustrating unhappy marriage problems and their possible solutions.

On the other hand, marriage issues do not represent the moral of the story. Chekhov involved the realization of possibility in Gurov’s character. More specifically, with the help of a mirror, he understood that his whole life had already passed without any sense, and he could not recall any valuable moment throughout his existence. The author states, “and it seemed to them that they were within an inch of arriving at a decision and that then a new, beautiful life would begin. And they both realized that the end was still far, far away and that the hardest, the most complicated part was only beginning” (Chekhov 15). The main character is completely lost, but he finds the power to go further, already with a profound understanding of his priorities. As a result, the main idea of the story was not only to represent the intimate details of joint betrayal but also the realization of the absence of life goals, which force individuals to ponder their life values and objectives.

In conclusion, Chekhov succeeded in demonstrating the possible explanation of human-life sense through the main character’s marriage issues despite the critics’ opinion of the inverse interpretation of the story’s moral. While the author effectively and in detail illustrated the main character’s marriage struggles, he represented a person with no sense of lifespan. However, luckily, Dmitri Gurov realizes his reason for existence at the end of the story, and the unofficial couple understands that it is only the start of their new but more reasonable life.

Most feminism-focused books describe the females’ struggle with life challenges. At the same time, “The yellow wallpaper” represents an illustrative example of how a dissocialized person might experience consistent degradation supported by other factors just due to social biases and prejudices. While the author illustrated the consequence of constant confinement as the most dangerous issue for human beings, the process of becoming paranoid due to personal freedom restrictions has a more significant influence on an individual’s well-being.

From the feminist’s perspective, the story represents the male’s tyranny in addition to the mental health problems that the main hero experiences. While Narrator has different self-consideration problems due to forced confinement, husband John demonstrates absolute indifference to his wife’s life problems. The author of the newspaper article concerning feminist trend analysis “House of Horror: The Poisonous Power of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” agrees with the statement that women’s sentiments were ignored. And she experienced significant life struggles (Hughes). Moreover, the author states that the story directly links # MeToo’s contemporary trend for female rights (Hughes). However, the most significant problem was the process of the female’s personality degradation.

The detailed description of the Narrator’s sentiments considerably influences the story’s perception. The author states, “I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And I’ll tell you why – privately – I’ve seen her! I can see her out of every one of my windows! It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight” (Gilman 17). As a result, the consequences of the story do not fully reflect on the main Narrator’s issue, but the process of her inner personality deterioration fully represents the importance of emphasizing feminism’s essential problems.

Finally, even though the critics effectively argue that “The yellow wallpaper” is a consequentialism-based representation of struggling women, the author included a more profound meaning by describing and emphasizing the process of personal internal degradation. From the feminist’s standpoint, the narrative shows the male’s oppression in addition to the mental health difficulties that the main hero suffers. However, the precise portrayal of the Narrator’s thoughts exerts a great effect on the story’s perception.

Works Cited

Americanliterature.com. “The Lady with the Little Dog.” Americanliterature.Com, 2021, Web.

Chekhov, Anton. The Lady with the Dog. International Alliance Pro-Publishing, LLC, 2012.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Van Duuren Media, 2017.

Hughes, Kathryn. “House of Horror: The Poisonous Power of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” The Guardian, Web.

Malcolm, Janet. “The Kernel of Truth.” The Guardian, Web.

Introduction

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the American female writer, had mental illness a large part of her life, an experience that became a direct inspiration for “Yellow Wallpaper”. It was written mainly in an autobiographical tone, so the writer describes her inner and outer world from the first hand. A simultaneously heavy and light-hearted style of the writing is a significant part of the narrative, which demonstrates the sharp contrast between the perception of the main heroine and the rest of the characters.

Plot

First, the plot, as expected, revolves around the female heroine like the writer herself. She behaves as a modest and kind-hearted woman who seemingly obeys her family’s recommendations on improving her health. However, she is, in fact, not wholly obedient, it is possible to note by her saying: “I disagree with their ideas” (Gilman, p. 392). Where does the root of disagreement lie? It includes several things like the prohibition to write and the unpleasant atmosphere in her room. They discord the harmony in her surroundings, a quiet mansion with a beautiful garden where the events take place. The heroine views her world in the house as almost happy, and a few things do not allow her to enjoy it. According to Gillman, the heroine continually points out the idea of “horrid wallpaper” with multiple patterns which she tries to decode (p. 397). Why exactly the wallpaper? The wallpaper likely turned into the subject of her fixation, which disrupts her inner state of peace. The obsession is described in a systematic, but frightening way, as is the process of her deciding to pull the wallpaper off the wall. Thus, the leading theme of the plot shows the attempt to understand and then destroy the unexplainable fear. This fear is deeply individual and cannot be comprehended by anyone else, so it must be torn down despite them.

Conclusion

To sum up, in “Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman managed to explore her issues and the ways to handle them in her way. The leading character wishes for a peaceful life and improvement of her health yet struggles against the fear of wallpaper in her room, an enigmatic and eerie existence. This struggle presents her impressions of things she cannot understand which must be destroyed to bring relief.

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Yellow Wallpaper”, The Story and Its Writer, Compact, edited by Ann Charters, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 391-403.

Introduction

The Yellow Wallpaper is the famous short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicting the terrible mental stance of the main character. It is one of the outstanding literature works with socially progressive background in its plot. The story is based on the real life case through which the author went, while being in a deep depression for some period of her life.

The value of the composition lies in the progressive moral it brought to the world of literature as well as social views, redirecting the social mind from the old patriarchal foundations to the recognition of the new social reality. The Yellow Wallpaper gave impulse to the rethink of the position of woman in the society. Along with many other literature and art compositions of the beginning of the XX century, the short story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman became one of the powerful drivers of the women emancipation.

The Place of Woman in the American Society of the Turn of the Century

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narration is led by young woman, the wife of the doctor, who became seriously diseased with mental illness. She tells the readers her story of being isolated from the surrounding world in her room which was considered by her husband as the place of her depression treatment and which essentially became the place of her mental pressure.

The story gives us an idea of what position woman took in the American society of the turn of the century. The mental disorder of the main character resulted from the pressure of the American reality of that period. At the time, when the technological progress and rapid industry development led to the accelerating speed of life, the development of new communication systems and the increase in the business activity, men were more and more engaged in the business sphere of life spending the majority of their time at work. However, the situation was different for women. It should be emphasized that the end of XIX century – the beginning of the XX century became a period of the social and gender inequality sharpening.

The Defeat of Patriarchal Order by the Main Character of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Short Story

Turning back to the plot of The Yellow Wallpaper, it would be logical to compare the life style and the ensuing attitudes of wife and husband to the surrounding reality. He is a successful physician, enjoying his work. He has a beloved wife who moves with him to the colonial mansion. The wife says that “he is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Perkins Gilman 12). It can be said that to some extent she describes the order of the traditional relationships between husband and wife in the, at the first glance, stable family. However, her situation was not so sweet.

Suffering from depression, she becomes isolated in the room and, although she had a right to express her negative attitude to the room, it was inadmissibly for the wife to protest and to say a final word. The absence of the real decision making opportunity made hard pressure on her.

The room is depicted as follows, “It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Perkins Gilman 12).

The choice of the exactly this room was made by her husband. He argued that she can fully relax there, keep calm and enjoy the garden outside the window. When making his treatment prescriptions, he says that “your exercise depends on your strength, my dear, and your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time.” (Perkins Gilman 12). In this phrase the patriarchal order of that time can be noticed. He naively thinks that he can cure her mental disease by taking care of only the physical aspects. Furthermore, the “air she can absorb all the time” (Perkins Gilman 12) will not give her a chance to breathe deeply in the isolated atmosphere. The real “air” for her is the ability to live a meaningful life.

The yellow wallpaper irritates her in this room. She became focused on not only its color but rather on its strange pattern which makes her stance even worse. However, after some time she found the wallpaper the most interesting element of the room, because a strange pattern made her thinking, giving her the opportunity for the intellectual activity and a chance for being occupied with something.

The story ends with the episode when the wife decided that it would be better for her to become a part of many of the patterns elements, than to turn back to the reality. Her husband could not do anything at that time as she locked the door of her room. In this episode the author figuratively tells us that the wife locked the door of her room like the society closed the entry to the American industrial reality for women.

Conclusion

To summarize all above mentioned, it should be said that The Yellow Wallpaper belongs to the masterpieces of not only American but the world literature. It reflected the progressive ideas of the beginning of the XX century and had given the rise to the social transformations, the discussion about the gender inequality and the rights of people. The author make people think about the place of women in the society of that time and the importance for everyone to be occupied.

Works Cited

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper, New York: Feminist Press, 1996. Print.

Art in general and literature in particular can be powerful tools to discuss social issues, including pointing out a given society’s flaws and shortcomings. A well-written literary piece can shed much-needed light on various problems. Yet choosing the issues to focus the work on is just half of the problem – the author also has to find a proper literary device to weave a narrative that will draw the readers in. In a best-case scenario, the synergy between the problems at the heart of the text and the device that showcases it allows addressing a wide range of serious problems. This is precisely the case with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” as the author focuses on mental illness as the vehicle for the plot, showcasing the acute shortcomings of Victorian society. As the story’s main character gradually withers away, the reader faces the question of why those around her do not recognize the illness in the first place. Gilman’s use of mental illness demonstrates the shortcomings of the materialist patriarchal society that is more likely to duck under rationalizations rather than accept any alterations to the neatly organized worldview.

Before delving into the analysis, a short summary is in order. The text, represented as diary entries, reiterates the story of an unnamed woman who lives in a rented cottage with her husband John. The reader soon learns that the couple moved to the cottage on the woman’s account – John believes that she had overstrained her nervous system and the place would do her good (Gilman 648). As a means of treatment, John, who is a physician himself, forbids his wife to engage in any activity that stimulates the nervous system, such as writing or painting. The narrator admits that she does not feel well, tires easily, and is more emotional than usual. Yet she laments that those around her interpret her condition as a nervous overstrain rather than a genuine sickness that affects the mind instead of the body (Gilman 647). Confined to the nursery with nothing to do, the main character focuses her mind on the peculiar designs of the yellow wallpaper on the walls. As those around her continue ignoring the mental rather than physical nature of her problems, the poor woman slowly descends into madness.

The source of the conflict and the main cause of the woman’s unfortunate fate is not so much the mental illness itself but, rather, the refusal to recognize it as such. The main character is not alone – there are her husband and the housekeeper, and other characters mentioned in the course of the story. Yet none of them consider even the slightest possibility that the narrator’s condition may be something more than a purely physical strain on her body’s nervous system. Even the husband, who takes great care of his wife in his own way, does not recognize that this might be the case. The text introduces the reader to this central problem in the very first diary entry when the narrator exasperatedly remarks: “You see he does not believe I am sick!” (Gilman 647). Having mental health patients denying that anything is wrong with them despite the diagnosis is a familiar plot device, but Gilman puts a spin on it. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it is the patient who recognizes a problem and medical professionals who refuse to see it – and the reader is left to understand why.

Having posed the question of why John and other physicians who have seen the narrator do not register the possibility of mental illness, Gilman soon provides the first clue to the answer. Her husband is the most telling example and this respect and – not coincidentally – the one whose motivations are explained and clarified at some length. In the main character’s own words, her spouse is “practical in the extreme,” which also applies to his professional assessments (Gilman 647). John’s logical and rational approach to everything is the key factor that defines his perception of his wife’s condition. As the narrator puts it, “he knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilma 649). John’s own rationalizations matter more for him than his wife’s pleas and testimony. This is why he does not recognize the possibility of mental illness being a real thing until it is far too late and his wife is already consumed by madness. With this in mind, it becomes all the more important to understand what are the social conditions that lead the rational husband to deny mental illness.

The first and likely foremost reason why people around the main character deny the reality of mental illness is that he is socially empowered to do so. The narrator alludes to this fact early on when she refers to her husband as “a physician of high standing” (Gilman 648). As a medical professional – and a well-known and respected one at that – John is supposed to know more about illness than a layperson, which gives him a sense of professional entitlement. He is not the only one either – the narrator mentions that her brother is a prominent physician as well, and he “says the same thing,” fully agreeing with John’s assessment of the situation (Gilman 648). The problem here is that a physician, just as any educated professional, tends to think and work within the same paradigm that he received education at. If the prevailing medical paradigm does not recognize psychology as a science, it would not have the apparatus to recognize mental illness as an entity. In other words, John’s rationalizations are so important for him because they are fully in line with the scientific knowledge of the time – which just happens to overlook the existence of mental illness.

This oversight would only be half of the problem if rational John were able to recognize the possible limitations of his scientific knowledge and professional expertise – yet, sadly, this is not the case. John is deeply entrenched within his professional field and does not let any doubts in. Whenever he speaks about medical issues, it is solely from the position of unquestionable authority that he naturally assumes – he cannot possibly imagine there can be something in medicine that he does not know. When his desperate spouse tries to convince him that her problem is mental rather than physical, he gently chastises her and all but orders to “never for one instant let that idea enter [her] mind” (Gilman 652). While he addresses this recommendation to his wife, it could well be his own motto as well. John does not allow any idea that contradicts his notions to enter his mind, and this adamant conviction that science already knows all there is to know. As a result, it prevents him from accepting the reality of mental illness even when it stares him in the eye.

Yet another reason why assuming the reality of mental illness proves too much of a challenge for the medical professionals surrounding the main character is unrestricted materialism of Victorian thought. As with many other social flaws that prevent people from seeing the existence of mental ailments, the narrator foreshadows this one early on in the story. When describing her husband, she points out that he is most only extremely rational but also “scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (Gilman 647). John is only interested in things that can be measured and assessed through direct physical contact, which is why he attributes his wife’s illness to a purely physical strain on her nervous system. When she suggests that she might be getting “better in body” but worse in mind, it immediately earns her a sharp rebuke (Gilman 652). Mental illness is not something that materialist Victorian science is able to quantify, which is one more reason why John and others prefer to ignore even the possibility of its existence.

Finally, yet another one, more aspect of Victorian social mores that prevents mental illness from being recognized as a problem within the story’s framework is the gender power structures. The main character suffering from the mental illness is female, and those who diagnose – or, rather, fail to diagnose – her are all men. Gilman consistently intertwines the themes of power obtained from professional competence and authority obtained from being male to show how they both lead to the same neglect. A description like “a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband” emphasizes that the power John wields over the narrator is dual. Surely, his opinion on all things medical weighs more because he is a doctor – but there is also a simple matter of having the authority over his wife as a husband. John is anything but malevolent, and the main charter openly admits that he “loves her very dearly” (Gilman 651). Still, the overwhelming power given to him by patriarchal social institutions leaves the narrator no room to breathe – and, in particular, no opportunity to be taken seriously when speaking of her condition.

To summarize, Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses the theme of mental illness to highlight the multiple shortcomings of Victorian society through the lens of a sick woman’s experience. While the main character is firmly and rightfully convinced that her problem is mental, all other characters insist on a physical explanation and posit that she had overstrained her nervous system. Firstly, it shows how the primacy of neurology over barely existent psychology was a staple of science at the time. To make things worse, medical professionals think they already know all there is to know and refuse to admit the existence of any ailments they have not yet registered. Apart from that, the sheer materialism of Victorian thought leads the characters to scoff at the very idea of an illness that cannot be physically measured and neatly quantified. Finally, gender power structures of patriarchal society make it even less likely that male medical professionals would question their decisions. Thus, Gilman’s approach to the theme of mental illness showcases how Victorian society ducks under rationalizations rooted in its social mores rather than trying to actually recognize the problem.

Work Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.”National Institutes of Health, Web.

The current paper will analytically compare the two works, namely The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. The main character in The Yellow Wallpaper is a woman who has recently married a successful physician (Gilman 3). After she gave birth to their child, her mental health deteriorated, and her husband prescribed her the rest cure – absolute isolation forms the world she lived in. The narrator soon found herself observing the patterns of the yellow wallpaper of the room she stayed in. She started seeing women behind the wallpaper, and she was convinced she had to set them free. Eventually, the narrator began to perform the same behavior she observed from the women in the wallpaper. The narrator of My Last Duchess tells about the painting of his latest duchess (Browning 1-56). He is talking about her beauty, yet blaming her for being happy with something to expect for him. It becomes clear that he is directly related to the duchess death. Thus, these two works will be analyzed and contrasted further.

The Yellow Wallpaper is represented as diary notes of the narrator, while in My Last Duchess, the narrator is talking to a present audience. The Yellow Wallpaper’s main character is a victim of circumstances. The duke in My Last Duchess does not seem to care about the death of his wife. Instead, he is pleased that now he is the only person she smiles at. Despite these differences, there are significant similarities between the characters. The narrators of both stories show an obsession – either for another person or for an idea in their mind. Furthermore, the main characters of both stories are unreliable narrators, and their sanity is questionable. Moreover, the characters represent the mutual elements of patriarchy. In other words, the duke is the man who takes control of his wife, and the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is a woman who feels unhappy but believes she can not change anything. Thus, the narrators of the stories may be considered as very close types of narrators, and this paper explains each point of the argument in detail.

To start with, the world of both narrators is limited with their obsessive thoughts and intentions. The duke from My Last Duchess pays much attention to whom his previous wife smiled at, what was she happy about, who was she grateful to, except form him. He explicitly states that his duchess should only care about and pay attention to him in the lines “She thanked men—good! but thanked / Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift” (Browning 31-34). Similarly, the main character of The Yellow Wallpaper aims focuses on the wallpaper pattern. She starts to see something more significant than a pattern, and soon she recognizes meaningful figures behind the pattern: “I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in my mind so!” (Gilman 16). Thus, in both stories, the main characters are obsessed with an object of thought and can think beyond.

The narrators are sure they are free or are becoming free. For example, the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper claims “I’ve got out at last” (Gilman 38). It is worth mentioning that in this final scene, she can hardly be seen as herself because her identity seemed to transform into the pictures from her hallucinations. This probably means that she did not see any way to escape from her situation except for denying her personality. When she accepted and revealed her transformed identity, she felt released and able to do whatever she wishes. Likewise, the duke demonstrates that he thinks he is almighty and unconstrained, and, therefore, he thinks that he is free from his responsibilities. However, this freedom is delusional because the narrators are not free from their obsessions, from other objects that actually controls them. They do not belong to themselves, and their life is stuck in this delusional world.

Furthermore, the sanity of both characters is questionable, but they seem to be unaware of it. They do not show the ability to stand at a critical position to themselves. The duke casually tells how he caused the death of his wife but does not show any regrets or other negative feelings: “This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands / As if alive” (Browning 45-47). The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper asks without irony “Now why should that man have fainted?” when her husband saw her creeping around the room (Gilman 38). The narrators’ questionable mental state is also particularly salient because their motives and beliefs are revealed to readers. Although they are supposed to be unreliable narrators, they are only unreliable in terms of their perception of the world, but not in what they believe in. The narrators are sure that they are truthful, which makes the analysis more difficult in terms of narrator’s objectivity.

The deviation from a typical stream of thought especially reveals in their paranoia. Almost from the beginning of The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator starts to notice “something strange about the house” (Gilman 6). Although there is nothing wrong with the feeling, the story reveals further that is was the beginning of a bigger issue. As for My Last Duchess’s duke, he was also very attentively observing and noticing anything that matched his idea, that his wife did not belong to him.

Another point they share is that they are both in the situation of the discriminative society. Although the stories take place in different centuries, the narrators represent two polarities patriarchy. They both live in a world where it is men who decide how women should behave and what is better for her. They both are inside this social structure and perceive it as the normal one. The narrator from The Yellow Wallpaper states about his husband that he laughs ae her, “but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 3). And then she blames herself for not being grateful for his caring saying “he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman 7). The duke also expresses his position about the treatment expect from his wife claiming “Just this / Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, / Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let / Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set / Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse— /E’en then would be some stooping;” (Browning 37-42).

However, one would say that it is a fallacy to treat these two characters as similar. It is possible to consider the duke as an amoral and egocentric person, whom he cares only about possessing, while the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is a victim of the circumstances. Therefore, one could conclude that she is sincere in her writings to her diary, unlike the deceitful duke. Nevertheless, the point is not that they are the same, but that despite their obvious dissimilarity, there are similarities that show their unity in their reasoning and behavioral pattern. Moreover, as it was mentioned above, they are both sure they in their own truths that are objectively delusions. Thus, as the narrators of their stories, they are quite similar, although they represent different kinds of personalities.

To conclude, one can find specific similar features of the narrators in The Yellow Wallpaper and My Last Duchess. These characters demonstrate an obsession with their objects, and they build their world around this pervasive idea. Their ideas control them, and that is why one can hardly see where is still the narrator’s true self speaks and where is already their insanity. The narrators seem to be fine with their final state of mind, they are delusionary convinced that they are free. Although they live in different eras, they are within the same social structure. They belong to patriarchy, but since they represent the opposite sides of it, their destiny is also opposite. However, in their discourse, they clearly represent the part of this society, and they are determined by these social rules. Overall, the narrators demonstrate different personalities, but the motivation and the characteristic of the narrative can be described in a common way.

Works Cited

Browning, Robert. “My Last Duchess.” My Last Duchess and Other Poems. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1993.

Gilman, Charlotte P. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Floating Press, 2009.

Abstract

Bed rest also called rest cure, has been used in medical practice for centuries. As a rule, it implies that the patient should voluntarily stay in his or her bed. Nowadays, this method is prescribed as an addition to regular medication-based treatment, but this was not always the case. As far back as the 19^th century, rest cure was the primary practice that was imposed on women in a variety of physical and mental conditions. In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman published “The Yellow Wallpaper” in an attempt to reflect on her personal experience after being treated this way. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the novel narrator’s encounter with enforced bed rest, which was inspired by the author’s memories.

Background

The concept of rest cure was widely supported even by the most prominent neurologists of the 19^th century, including Silas Weir Mitchell. At that time, Gilman was suffering from postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter (Ghandeharion and Mazari 116). As she was departing for treatment, she prepared a detailed letter for the doctor describing her history and current condition (Bergman 195). However, Mitchell was known for his authoritative views on the relationship between a doctor and a patient, especially if the latter was a woman. Therefore, Mitchell saw the letter as a sign of self-conceit on behalf of Gilman, as he believed that “wise women choose their doctors and trust them; the wisest ask the fewest question” (Bergman 195). Such negligence of the patient’s effort later became one of the factors that inspired “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

As far as the letter is concerned, Gilman went to great lengths to provide Mitchell with as many details as possible. She wrote sixteen pages, including an in-depth analysis of her family tree and the health history of the ancestors and relatives, as well as her mental records (Bergman 195). In the letter, Gilman highlighted Mitchell’s expertise and assured them that she had complete trust in his neurological experience while presenting herself as the one who desperately needs help. Besides. Gilman mentioned that she felt constantly tired, especially by communicating with people, and could barely form letters. Her idea was to have her case adequately examined and evaluated rather than limited to a “mere casual examination” (Bergman 196). In other words, Gilman wanted to take an active part in her treatment instead of being a silent patient.

Nevertheless, the described events took place at the time of Victorian gender roles. Bergman notes that the system could only “silence women and deny them self-determination” (198). Following the conventional procedure of the time, Mitchell ended up enforcing a strict rest cure therapy on Gilman. As the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper” remembered afterward, she was allowed no more than two hours of intellectual activity per day combined with complete social isolation (Ghandeharion and Mazari 116). In addition, Gilman could not fulfill her creative desires, as writing was also restricted per doctor’s orders. Since she was an aspiring author, the restriction only made already unbearable confinement worse.

Writing is a vital self-determination tool, similar to other creative activities. Deprived of opportunities to realize the potential, an individual is prone to depression and other mental disorders, which was especially detrimental in Gilman’s already poor condition. Ghandeharion and Mazari state that letting the patient at least keep a diary would alleviate some of the pressure (117). As time went by, Gilman noticed a correlation between unfair treatment toward her as a woman and her symptoms. Subsequently, she found the will and the means to take her daughter and escape to California, where she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a way of expressing her feeling. The author herself did not feel that it was a work of fiction, as she intended to demonstrate the implications of rest cure to the public (Ghandeharion and Mazari 117). Each page of the novel is explicitly written to reflect on a confined woman’s conditioned and inspired by Gilman’s personal story.

Novel Summary

The plot of “The Yellow Wallpaper” revolves around a middle-class woman, the protagonist, as well as the narrator allegedly named Jane, and her husband, John. The novel is written in a specific manner that resembles a diary with several entries. Gilman opens the first chapter with Jane’s description of a colonial mansion that the couple has decided to rent for the summer. Once at the house, the narrator mentions that she is worried about her condition, but her husband, a physician by profession, does not believe that she suffers from any condition aside from “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 1). Moreover, John restricts his wife from any kind of activity except for house chores and advises her to stay in an isolated room at all times. Besides, the room, in which the narrator is confined, evokes unpleasant feelings in her. She is especially unhappy with the yellow wallpaper, which she calls “almost revolting” because of the color (Gilman 3). Nevertheless, John dismisses any complaints and insists that the narrator should follow his recommendations.

As time passes, the narrator does not feel any improvements in her condition. Furthermore, she begins to miss the mere act of communicating with other people. The narrator is devastated by the fact that she is not allowed to write, as she is sure it would “relieve the press of ideas and rest” her (Gilman 5). The diary remains the narrator’s only form of self-expression, which is why afraid John might take it away, she hides it from her husband. Forced to stay in what she calls an “atrocious nursery,” the narrator pays increasingly more attention to the repulsive yellow wallpaper (Gilman 4). Having examined it more closely, the narrator is convinced that she begins to unravel its mysteries hidden in peculiar patterns. She soon becomes obsessed with the idea that there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper and decides to set her free.

Eventually, the confinement makes the narrator feel even more miserable. The tone, in which she describes her surroundings, becomes darker, while the yellow wallpaper obsession persists. The narrator makes several attempts to convince John to leave the mansion, but the latter remains sure that his wife has been receiving the right treatment. As a result, the narrator’s paranoia grows, as she suspects that Jennie, John’s sister, who has been staying with them, challenges her in uncovering the secrets of the yellow wallpaper.

The narrator’s obsession increases, as she becomes assured that she has a deeper connection with the wallpaper and even begins to feel its smell “hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor” (Gilman 13). She even considers burning the house down to escape the “yellow smell” but admits that she has grown used to it. As her mental state worsens, the narrator begins to keep secrets not only from her husband but also from the reader, including her finding regarding the mysterious lady in the wall. Overwhelmed by her obsession, the narrator tears down the yellow wallpaper and assumes the persona of the trapped woman, who has broken free. The format of the novel shifts at this point, as John is shown arriving at the house only to find his wife mindlessly crawling on the floor. At the end of the book, John faints and falls on the floor, as the narrator continues going over his body with each turn around the room.

Rest Cure Experience

As mentioned above, the plot of the novel is based on Gilman’s personal experience with Mitchell’s rest care. Unlike her character, the author was able to escape confinement and recover after the crippling treatment. She used her suffering and put it in a written form in an attempt to attract the public’s attention to the severe implications of rest care enforced on women. The narrator’s journey from mental discomfort to madness is portrayed through a series of diary entries. The format is chosen with a clear intention to show a woman’s thoughts from a first-person perspective, which would highlight the shift in her perception of the world.

The very personality of the narrator causes several questions. In the beginning, Gilman reveals that the narrator is a woman who is married to a man named John and does not provide other details, including her name (1). The lack of more information allows the reader to focus on the events and the character’s feelings, instead of her past and personality. It might be true that Gilman arranged it this way to make the protagonist as relatable as possible.

The narrator enters the mansion as an unhappy yet sane woman in need of treatment. Like the author, she suffers from postpartum psychosis, having recently given birth. Nevertheless, her husband and her brother, who are both physicians, do not believe that the condition requires any specific medical attention and claim that bed rest and absence of work will be an effective treatment. At first, the narrator is reluctant to accept the idea but does not express strong opposition to her husband’s views, as he does not see her disorder as anything more than a minor issue. Furthermore, the narrator’s illness has put them in a weaker position in comparison to her husband, who uses his reputation to assure people around them that this condition can effectively be treated with bed rest.

In reality, the narrator ends up being confined to one room, which she finds unpleasant. The description of the ancestral mansion that John rented for the summer shifts throughout the story as well, which is another way for Gilman to portray the growing paranoia of the protagonist. She perceives the house as a more menacing place and, simultaneously, loses trust in her husband and his sister Jennie. When John restricts the narrator from working, writing, and overall thinking about her condition as a way of treatment, she agrees that she will only speak about the house (Gilman 2). Tuttle supposes that this line serves as Gilman’s metaphor of a woman’s role in 19^th century America, i.e., “her imprisonment within a domestic role” (Tuttle 197). Therefore, the austere mansion shows the narrator’s cage, to which she would be confined regardless of her condition. This image translates the author’s experience as well because Gilman herself ended up fleeing home with her daughter to become the most prominent feminist writer of the turn of the 20^th century.

As far as the novel’s structure is concerned, it is another instrument that shows the narrator’s progressive insanity. Having been confined to bed rest, she has no other means of expressing her thoughts than a secret diary. As the reader goes through the entries, he or she sees the events through the prism of the narrator’s perception. At some point, when she points out several damaged objects in the nursery, a question arises whether she has done it herself in her search for the yellow wallpaper mysteries. Eventually, as the narrator’s mental state worsens, the diary entries become shorter and less detailed, while she begins to keep secrets from the reader, too. This writing tool is called “unreliable narrator,” and, in the case of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it serves to emphasize the narrator’s unstable condition.

Toward the end of the novel, the protagonist begins to personify the mansion and namely the titular wallpaper. Gilman demonstrates that a woman deprived of meaningful relationships outside her house becomes entrapped in her surroundings, which exacerbates her pre-existing condition. As mentioned above, Gilman wrote the story not to entertain the readers but to highlight the issues of enforced bed rest promoted by physicians of that time. The author mentions the name of Silas Weir Mitchell in the text, thus strengthening the novel’s connection with reality and with her own experience. In a way, “The Yellow Wallpaper” invites its readers to put themselves in the narrator’s position to experience the same desperation as Gilman did when being treated by Mitchell. The horror of this book is caused not by terrifying creatures or elements of surprise, but by the cruel reality of the situation.

Overall, the novel represents a social commentary on a woman’s role in 19^th century America. Gilman wanted to highlight that, while a female patient may be ready to cooperate with her physician on equal terms, the latter did not bother to consider her opinion. Most of the women’s concerns regarding their health could be dismissed as meaningless hysterical breakdowns. As far as the novel is concerned, the narrator’s husband disregarded his wife’s worries until the point of no return in the book’s climax. John was stunned when he saw his wife lose her mind, which caused him to faint. Perhaps, Gilman wrote this scene to demonstrate how ignorant such men could be about the issues discussed in the novel.

In the end, unlike her protagonist, Gilman managed to live on after her dreadful experience with rest cure. She filled “The Yellow Wallpaper” with her memories attempting to demonstrate the detrimental effect of enforced bed rest on women with mental disorders. While medicine and society have come a long way since the end of the 19^th century, it is vital to remember the consequences of neglecting such problems. Gilman wrote the novel as a warning, and, despite significant progress, it has remained relevant until nowadays.

Works Cited

Ghandeharion, Azra, and Mazari, Milad. “Women Entrapment and Flight in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Alicante Journal of English Studies, vol. 29, 2016, pp. 113-129.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings. Gibbs Smith, 2019.

Tuttle, Jennifer S. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and a Woman’s Place in America. Edited by Jill Bergman. The University of Alabama Press, 2019.

Introduction

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, throughout the early 20^th century, it contributed rather substantially towards advocating the legitimacy of psychiatry, as a newly emerged medical science. At the same time, Gilman’s story represented a powerful critique of the discourse of male chauvinism – hence, the sheer progressiveness of this story’s themes and motifs. In my paper, I will aim to explore the validity of this suggestion at length.

Essay Body

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 was assumed to prove beneficial to the narrator’s mental condition, because for the vacation’s duration, she would be unlikely to experience any socialization-related distress. As Treichler noted: “Her (narrator’s) physical isolation was in part designed to remove her from the possibility of over-stimulating intellectual discussion” (61). This suggests that, prior to the couple’s relocation, John was already aware of his wife’s 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 647). Partially, the narrator herself provides an explanation as to why, despite having been an accomplished physician, John nevertheless could not help referring to his wife’s 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 649).

This narrator’s remark helps us to understand the essence of John’s 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 the majority of physicians at the end of the 19th century, John believed that the reason why some people do exhibit the signs of a 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 course of the historical period in question, physicians remained utterly unaware that it is specifically one’s unconscious, which defines the workings of this person’s rational psyche, and not the other way around. Partially, this had to do with the fact that by the end of the 19^th 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 one’s 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 one’s mental volatility, as having been physiologically (externally) triggered.

Thus, there is indeed nothing odd about the fact that, even though throughout the course of her stay at the mansion, the narrator continued to exhibit more and more indications of her mental state’s continual deterioration, John could not come up with anything better but to prescribe his wife to lead a socially withdrawn lifestyle. Apparently, John could never bring himself to consider the possibility that the worsening of his wife’s 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 mustn’t 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 651). Being an ego-centered male, John never thought of the possibility for his wife’s mental troubles to have been the direct consequence of her socially imposed inability to lead a normal life.

The reading of Gilman’s 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, despite the fact that John continued to observe many signs that there was something definitely wrong with his wife; he nevertheless refused to give much thought to what should have been considered these signs’ actual significance.

In John’s mind, the narrator’s mental anxieties were seen confirming the validity of his 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… one’s 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 647). This, of course, implies that, despite having been in love with his wife, John nevertheless could not help patronizing her, as someone who simply did not have what it takes to be able to keep its irrational feelings under control.

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” (Gilman 652). 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 one’s psyche can be subjected to a conscious control, on this individual’s part. Yet, contemporary psychoanalysts know that this is far from being the case. Quite on the contrary – one’s conscious attempts to suppress its unconscious anxieties only result in the worsening of the concerned individual’s 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 John’s advice, she tried to disregard the symptoms of depression, caused her mental despair to continue becoming even worse. Moreover, 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 John’s 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 character’s consciousness. As a result, the narrator’s ability to indulge in the rationale-based reasoning sustained an irreparable damage. The validity of this statement can be illustrated, in regards to the fact that at the end of Gilman’s 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 century’s approaches to treating mental illnesses. Apparently, besides having been scientifically illegitimate, these approaches were also perceptually arrogant. The fact that John did allow his wife’s 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 story’s main character can be best defined as a victim of the 19th century’s healthcare conventions, correlates well with the paper’s 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 story’s 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 women’s emancipation.

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper. Web.

Treichler, Paula. “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 3.1/2 (1984): 61-77. Print.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s epistolary Gothic horror tale, the monster’s part is played by family, medicine and society. Gilman uses setting, character and irony to demonstrate the damage to women from oppressive marriage, medical paternalism, and societal expectations. Over the course of intermittent diary entries, the narrator chronicles her descent from mere postpartum depression (Merced, A Case of Postpartum Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Part 1 ) into madness, hastened along her downward plunge by a putatively solicitous family, assiduous but misguided medical care, and an enviable seaside setting for recuperation.

She responds with the only weapons she possesses: writing in her secret journal, weeping, whimsy, apparent submission, dissimulation, withdrawal, and eventually, dissociation. Gilman, regards women as deserving of greater consideration than was accorded to this “little girl” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 553). Gilman’s story also advocates indirectly for all mentally ill individuals: for their humane, thoughtful, and personalized treatment (Gilman, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”).

The narrator is characterized as sympathetic and self-deprecating character, rather than a self-indulgent malingerer. She laments, “I wish I could get well faster.” She regrets feeling “ basely ungrateful” for her husband’s care (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 548). She is acutely perceptive, sensing, early on, jarring dissonances in the situation, for example, the availability of a “colonial mansion” for short-term rental (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 547). She does not, however, trust her own judgment, since,

“If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter…what is one to do?

My brother is also a physician…and he says the same thing. “ (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 547)

John dismisses the vapors of his “blessed little goose” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 549). (This is almost a tease for ‘gaslighting’ (Dirks) but is not confirmed). She cannot communicate her distress because “he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 553). This is a deeply ironic statement, since love should make us more sensitive to the needs of a loved one, not less. When she expresses anger or frustration at his medical choices or attitude, his patronizing response stifles her.

She tells us, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself – before him, at least, and that makes me very tired” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 548). Anyone who has dealt with depression knows that unexpressed anger is exhausting and destructive. This is a double dose of blindness on his part: paternalistic sexism and medical arrogance, and is ultimately devastating to her recovery.

We are also cued that this character is an intelligent, accomplished writer who misses her “congenial work”, “society” and “stimulus” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 548) “advice and companionship” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 550). John notes her “imaginative power and habit of story-making” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 550). Instead of pursuing her beloved avocation, she can now merely “dress and entertain, and order things” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 549), take “journeys, and air, and exercise” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 547) and be, “absolutely forbidden to “work” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 547) ^{CITATION Gil p 552 l 1033} .

She is largely solitary, save for her “perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 551) sister-in-law, who blames her writing for her disorder, John is often away on call. She is isolated from her baby, since, as she says, “I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 540). This deprives her of the calming and uplifting effects of oxytocin (Merced, A Case of Postpartum Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” , Part 2), and probably adds guilt for her inadequacy. Ironically, because sleep deprivation often exacerbates postpartum distress, she has sleep derangements anyway ^{CITATION Gil p 552 l 1033} , since she says, “I don’t sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 555) ^{CITATION Gil p 552 l 1033} .

In the face of “heavy opposition” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 547) to her writing, which could be the very means of processing her feelings¹, she chooses to “let it alone and talk about the house” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 548).

Her setting then, becomes a character in her narrative. She spends time observing the ”optic horror” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 552) of the wallpaper, an exercise “as good as gymnastics“ (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 549) She hates if for its hideous pattern, “smouldering unclean yellow” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 549) color that wipes off on clothing, and for her idiosyncratic perception of a ubiquitous “yellow smell” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 556)².

We read myriad clues to the building’s painful sanitarium past. There are rings, bars, gates, fixed bed, clawed surfaces, and an odd wall smooch, “rubbed over and over “ (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 556) in an endless round of obsessive, compulsive zoo behavior, and in general, “something strange”) (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 548).

Immured without constructive activity, she engages with this hideous wallpaper. She begins to hallucinate the prescence of a woman trapped the pattern, but sometimes perceived creeping “as fast as a cloud shadow in a high wind” from out her windows (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 556). This woman could symbolize her oppressed self, hiding her crawling (impaired, non-human?) identity “under the blackberry vines” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 556).

She finally literally interacts with the room, pulling the wallpaper off to liberate the trapped ‘woman’, hiding a rope, gnawing her bed, considering defenestration, fitting her shoulder into the smooch and crawling), and eventually locking herself in.

Fully dissociated, she sees her husband as a stranger, creeping over his unconscious body. She identifies with the wallpaper-trapped women (plural now). However, she declares triumphantly that, “I’ve got out at last,” and “ you can’t put me back! ” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 559).

The narrator thus escapes (if only mentally), the confinement of her family, doctor, and sanitarium, all of which have driven her to this point. Although John’s fundamental decency shows by his swooning (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 559), Gilman pleads for us to acknowledge that oppressive systems, no matter how lovingly imposed, are damaging to women, and all who suffer mental disorders.

Works Cited

Dirks, Tim. “Gaslight (1944).” 2010. Filmsite. Web.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz and Samuel Cohen. Literature: The Human Experience: Reading and Writing. Bedford: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. 547-559.

—. “Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”.” The Forerunner (1913).

Merced, Charleen. A Case of Postpartum Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Part 1. 2004. Web.

—. A Case of Postpartum Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” , Part 2. 2004. Web.

Footnotes

CITATION Gil p 552 l 1033 This would be the ideal treatment for a serious concussion, wherein the brain must heal over time, and anything that robs glucose or blood flow from that task is to be avoided (even video games).

CITATION Gil p 552 l 1033 (even without babycare responsibilities).

CITATION Gil p 552 l 1033 She is also being treated with phosphates, a powerful source of phosphorous. Freshman Biology teaches us that while necessary for life, too much phosphorous can cause the body to excrete other minerals, like Calcium and Magnesium, both of which are important for relaxation and sleep.

1. “But I must say what I think and feel – it is such a relief!” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 552).
2. The phenomenon of e mixture of visual and olfactory sensations is symptomatic of some mental disorders and brain injuries, and is called Synesthesia.

The yellow wallpaper is a short, poignant story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman involving a woman confined by her husband in a bedroom for summer holiday. The story portrays various effects of confinement including emotional and physical effects on the woman’s health. Temporary nervous depression, as termed by the husband, is a factor that makes the husband prohibits her from roaming in the rest of the house but only upstairs. The story is a first person narration with main characters john and her wife dominating the whole story.

It has a plot in a house as described by her as, “a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house”. It is a house where the woman as exclaimed is an antagonist trying to find her way out of confinement. The husband John, on the other hand, is a protagonist who believes in his principles although not caring, whether they infringe other people’s rights. The first version of the book got published during the 19th century in the New England magazine, in January 1892.

The born of contention in the story arises due to varying opinion and interest where the man John feel he should be responsible for the wife. He believes the wife’s confinement is correct, in order to prevent her temporary nervous depression. This is because the disease hysterical tendency was common among women during the period. Since movement is healthy for any living organism, the confinement affects the wife’s health and finally developing a psychosis. The room where she stays has nothing to stimulate her; this makes her develop an interest in the yellow color of the wall paper. For instance, she says, “it makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw, not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things”. This is an indication of the obsession in the yellow color, which only came due to confinement in the room.

Feminism critics remain, the conflict evident and dominant, in the whole story acting as a denunciation of the androcentric hegemony during the 19th century. The man diminishes the woman role of engaging with the society, giving birth to children and working as other women when she gets isolated. She does not get the chance to interact with other people and does not have even the responsibility of taking care of her own children. This, therefore, gives a man to woman conflict as the woman gets trapped not only in marriage but also to the man’s confinement.

The story starts with a soft and soothing mood but soon rises to with increased tension. As the wife insanity continues to increase, the climax gets reached with many people blaming the man while other people blame the woman. The woman gets secluded in the room and does not fight for her freedom. Once in the room she fantasies many things but does not attempt to obtain her freedom. The man, on the other hand, uses all his force on order to protect his wife from the dominant disease at the time affecting women.

In conclusion, John gets depicted as an assertive and caring husband who protects her kind, submissive and receptive wife. Feminism remains the dormant theme as the wife lacks empowerment to enjoy what other women enjoy. The story, therefore, is a real life event, which educates women to develop enthusiasm and ambitions in life.

Work Cited

Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. Chicago: Mundus Publishing, 1973. P rint