The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

September 15, 2014

Gilman(1860-1935)

• Married twice, once with a local artist called Walter Stetson, later with her first cousin George Houghton Gilman with whom she lived over 30 year.

• She killed herself after being di-agonosed as having an inoperable breast cancer.

A Utopian Feminist and Socialist

• proposing community kitchens and childcare centers as a way of reduc-ing the burden of domestic work on women and allowing them to con-tribute to society in other ways, by working on equal terms with men in Women and Economic

Weir Mitchell’s treatment

• prescribing complete isolation and bed rest; to begin with, the patient was not allowed to talk to others, nor to read, write, do any other kind of practical activity or even feed herself.

• telling Charlotte to devote herself entirely to domestic work, and to raising her child, to do no more than two hours reading a day, and 'never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live'.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

• initially seen as a horror story, in the tradi-tion of Edgar Allan Poe, but now as an an-gry, but chillingly controlled, attack on the author's treatment in Mitchell's sanatorium

• seeing the figure of a woman 'creeping about' behind the pattern at night, trying to get out, clearly an alter ego for the nar-rator herself, who ends up ripping the wallpaper off, locking herself in the room and 'creeping' across the floor.

Gilman’s own words on the novel

• the narrator's insanity as a way to protest the medical and professional oppression against women at the time.

• the outbreak of women being diag-nosed as mentally ill was the mani-festation of their setbacks regarding the roles they were allowed to play in a male-dominated society.

Feminist Interpretation

• a condemnation of the androcentric  hegemony of the 19th-century medi-

cal profession focusing on the degree of

triumph at the end of the story.

Reading and Writing as Gendered Practices

• allowed neither to write in her journal nor to read, she would begin to "read" the wallpaper until she found the escape she was looking for.

• At the end of the story, as her husband lies on the floor unconscious, she crawls over him, symbolically rising over him. This is interpreted as a victory over her husband, at the expense of her sanity.

The Subordination of Married Women

• The story reveals that this gender di-vision had the effect of keeping women in a childish state of igno-rance and preventing their full devel-opment. John’s assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his wife, all in the name of "helping" her.

The Importance of Self-Expression

• The narrator’s eventual insanity is a product of the repression of her imaginative power, not

the expression of it. She is constantly longing for an emotional and intellectual outlet, even going so far as to keep a secret journal,

which she describes more than once as a "re-lief" to

her mind.

Verbal Irony

• In her journal, the narrator uses verbal irony often, especially in reference to her husband: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage." Obviously, one expects no such thing, at least not in a healthy marriage. Later, she says, "I am glad my case is not seri-ous," at a point when it is clear that she is concerned that her case is very se-rious indeed.

Dramatic Irony

• when the narrator assumes that Jen-nie shares her interest in the wall-paper, while it is clear that Jennie is only now noticing the source of the yellow stains on their clothing. The effect intensifies toward the end of the story, as the narrator sinks further into her fantasy and the reader remains able to see her ac-tions from the "outside."

Situational Irony

• John’s course of treatment back fires, worsening the depression he was trying to cure and actually driving his wife insane. Similarly, there is a deep irony in the way the narra-tor’s fate develops. She gains a kind of power and insight only by losing what we would call her self-control and reason.

Wallpaper as a Symbol

• representing the structure of family, medicine, and tradition in which the narrator finds herself trapped. Wallpaper is domestic and humble, and Gilman skillfully uses this nightmarish, hideous paper as a symbol of the domestic life that traps so many women.

• Being able to ‘read’ the woman figure is recognizing her own identity.

The moment of Change

• Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John's, and she wished we would be more careful! Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself! Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch. I really do eat better, and am more quiet than I was.

Ending

• "What is the matter?" he cried. "For God's sake, what are you doing!“

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. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"

Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!