Repression in The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

Analysis of The Yellow Wall-paper

All people wish to be able to express their individuality in some way or form. In The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main character, Jane, exemplifies how women were suppressed during the early 1900s and unable to express themselves. Jane is acting out unlike most women were portrayed to do. She is told she cant write because women cant allow themselves to express their feelings and thoughts unless in a motherly or house-wife manner. Jane would write and enjoy writing, but her husband, John, would tell her that it doesnt do her any good. She starts to act more mentally-ill once she realizes that will be her ticket to freedom. Jane, the narrator of the story, is repressed mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Jane is a mentally repressed individual. During this time period women arent allowed to express their thoughts and are taught to keep them to themselves. Jane would try and write to express her individuality, but her husband scorns her for doing so. He tells her, that with [her] imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like [hers] is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that [she] ought to use [her] will and good sense to check the tendency(1686). Even though John tells her not to write, she know[s] John would think it absurd. But [she] must say what [she] feel[s] and think in some way (1689). Not only is she not able to express her thoughts by writing, but she has to also endure her imaginative thoughts on the wall-paper. She tells John that she wants to change the wall-paper, but he dismisses her concerns on the matter. He says that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on (1686). Janes thoughts and concerns are not enough validation for anyone to care and change the settings to make her comfortable. Her mental repression leads her into creating images and people within the wall-paper.

Jane is a physically repressed individual. She hasnt had much of an appetite even though her husband said she was gaining flesh and color, [and that her] appetite is better (1690). Jane didnt think she was doing better though, she says that she dont weigh a bit more (1690). She isnt eating much and does not get the chance to participate in hardly any physical contact with other adults or even her child. She tells her husband that she wants to go visit her cousin Henry and Julia, but he tells her that she cannot go because she will not be able to tolerate it. Jane isnt able to care for her child because of her condition and she says that, It does weigh on [her] so not to do [her] duty in any way (1686). She craves the need to feel contact with others so much that she creates the women in the wall-paper. Jane cannot even go outside and feels imprisoned by the windows having bars on them and having a gate at the head of the stairs.

Jane is an emotionally repressed individual. She is treated like a child because she has people that look over her. Jane is put into the old nursery where the children were previously put. She is in the same setting and feels child-like.