The Yellow Wallpaper: A Tragic Triumph Essay

The Yellow Wallpaper: A Tragic Triumph

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born July 3, 1860 in Hartford, and was an advocate for Feminist Social Reform and for the right to die. As a result of this she committed suicide August 17, 1935, using chloroform and choosing a quick and relatively painless death over wasting away from cancer. She had one daughter and consequently suffered from a bout of post-partum depression, a disease not yet understood in this time. As a result of this she was sent to a mental hospital under the care of Dr. Weir Mitchell and prescribed his infamous rest cure. This led to the writing of The Yellow Wallpaper in 1892. It was intended to educate people about the dangers of the rest cure and how she had to save herself from utter mental ruin using the remnants of intelligence that remained, (King and Morris, 24). She even went as far as to send a copy to Dr. Mitchell, who never acknowledged it. In this story, the narrator, Jane, actually suffers a mental breakdown which actually functions as a metaphor between the inner struggle of fulfilling her role as a wife and mother and having an identity that she could call her own.

In the 1800s the roles of women was very limited. Most could only aspire to be a wife, mother and a support system to their husbands. Either they were angels in the house, loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste as wives, mothers and daughters, or they were she-devils and Delilahs, dangerous, sexually enchanting, but always ultimately doomed (23). The only approved images of women were those that reflect and sustain patriarchal ideology and because of that were imprisoned and closed off from movement and exploration (23).

In this time period many men interpreted a characteristic of his wife as a defect because of his own failure of imagination and attempted to cure [their wives] through purely physical means, only to find [they] destroyed her in the process (Schumaker 592). Mental illness was often times viewed as the inevitable result of using ones imagination (Schumaker 592). Evidence of this found in the story is John, the narrators husband and physician, labels her requests to change the wallpaper as unreasonable and tells her that it isnt good for her nervous condition for him to give way to her silly fancies (Gilman 747). Jane even calls herself unreasonably angry (747) and constantly retreats to within the prescribed limits, countering any of her own viewpoints with But John says Not only is her husband a doctor but so is her brother, and when it seems like she is not getting better they threaten to call in another (27). This demonstrates that America is full of Johns (Schumaker 593) and that not only do men have the power to prescribe what [women] may or may not do, but they also have the power to name what is sickness and health, abnormal and normal (27). There is also Johns sister, Jennie, who is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper and hopes for no better profession (Gilman 747), and who the narrator later refers to just as sister perhaps suggesting a subconscious recognition that they both share the same role despite Jennies apparent freedom and contentment (Schumaker 596). Gilmans use of the two conflicting viewpoints makes the reader wonder if the woman is seen as sane enough for her testimony to be taken at face value or whether there is a truer subtext, the implicit account as it would be given by her husband (23).

The prescribed treatment for the narrator is total inactivity, no mental excitement or writing and she is not allowed to see anyone who might stimulate her mind, her imagination, or her feelings, (27) and that John would as soon put firecrackers in [her] pillowcase, (Gilman, 748). Her imprisonment also seems to be physical as she describes a room that was obviously used to house violent mental cases. The narrator describes a room with barred windows, a gate at the head of the stairs, a long, straight even smooch and a bedstead that is fairly gnawed (755). This theme of being imprisoned carries on outside the house with hedges, walls and gates that lock (748). She also describes a beautiful shaded lane that runs out from the house but is cautioned by John not to give way to fancy in the least so she tries to check the tendency. (748) Despite feeling constantly contradicted and imprisoned by John, the narrators view of her husband is colored by the belief that he really does love her, a belief that provides some of the most striking and complex ironies in the story (Schumaker 594). Throughout the story John tries to impose his version of reality on his wife, saying whether you can see it or not and I am a doctor, dear, and I know (Gilman, 751). When Jane offers her own opinions he rewrites them to fit into his own boundaries, referring to her as little girl and saying Bless her little heart! She shall be as sick as she wants to be (751). After many requests by the narrator to remove the wallpaper that tramples on you (Gilman 747) and which nobody could climb through (749), he labels her wishes to take the wallpaper down as a false and foolish fancy unbeknownst to him that this will ultimately cause the very thing he is trying to prevent (751).

As the story progresses, the narrators anguish becomes more and more apparent. However, instead of confessing her feelings to John, she self-projects them onto the dead paper she has grown to hate, even talking to it and revealing her greatest deception and her attempt to be honest (Schumaker 593). The narrator describes the pattern on the wallpaper as having two different designs. There is the silly and conspicuous surface pattern of the wifely role behind which most women lurk (596). There is also another pattern which lies underneath that starts off as uncertain curvesthat suddenly commit suicide (Gilman 747) and as the narrators mental state deteriorates develop into a woman that creeps by daylight and is very still in the bright spots and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard (Gilman 754). It becomes the narrators personal mission to free the woman trapped in the wallpaper after she realizes that she sees her everywhere and sympathizes with her humiliation because It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight (754). The empathy shown by the narrator takes the identification between herself and the woman a step further when she reveals that she creeps too but behind a locked door (754). Finally, as they are preparing to leave the house the narrator decides that if the woman does get out and tries to get away, [she] can tie her! (755). However, you later find out that she has tied the rope around herself and instead of referring to the woman in the wallpaper she is saying I. It is revealed that she was the woman behind the pattern, and not even Jane can put her back (Schumaker 598). It is at this moment that she symbolically triumphs over her husband by crawling over him as she crawls around the room, even though she has been reduced to a helpless creature who creeps, child-like, round and round the nursery floor, (King and Morris 31). The irony in this story is that an infantile figure is who finally succeeded in silencing the authoritative figure of the husband and her husband is stuck with a madwoman, a creature who is the logical product of his own ideology, (King and Morris 31).

The Yellow Wallpaper is a haunting memory of repression of a male dominated world and the female anger and aggression caused as a result of it. Although times have changed some elements of this essay still ring true in todays world. Many woman struggle with the question Can I really have it all? and are often torn between being homemakers and mothers and having a successful career and an identity of their own. Many women fail to realize that they can be mothers, wives, career driven and still maintain a sense of self. I think that Gilman was not only trying to rescue people from the failed ideology of the rest cure but also to encourage women to break out of their own personal wallpaper prison and to be themselves, whoever that may be.

Works Cited

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William E. Cain, and William Burto. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 747-756. Print.

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The Yellow Wallpaper. Studies in Short Fiction. Winter 89, Vol. 26 Issue 1, 22-32.

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Schumaker, Conrad. Too Terribly Good to Be Printed, Charlotte Gilamnss The Yellow

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