The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte

Gilman Perkins

Setting

“A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity but that would be asking too much?” (1) First-person Thoughts revealed through journal, enables plot

movement with out too many details Secluded and isolated from society

Sanatoriums in the Victorian Era

Sanitariums in 1900’s secluded and disconnected from outside world Created a home environment No outside stimulation No expression of creativity or socialization

Separation of Spheres

“It is seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself…My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing…what is one to do” (1)

Indicates her separation from male dominated society Not even on same level as the men “one” repeated throughout

• Echo of anonymity

• Conventional acquiescence

Separation of Spheres

If a physician of high standing, and 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? . . .So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again (1) Indicates her illness Dominance of husband & medical professionals

want her to be passive • she thinks she needs the opposite

Dominance of Husband

“Personally I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (1) Social commentary on oppression on women Tone is childish, submissive

Dominance of Husband “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less

opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house” (2)

Interrupts her train of thought to recall John’s thinking

– Conflict between narrator and husband

– Feels bad but cannot communicate these feelings

» Submissive and passive nature contributes to her declining state of mind

Dominance of Husband “John is away all day, and even some nights

when his cases are serious. I am glad my case is not serious!” (3)

“John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” (3)

John as dominant image of sunlight • Keeps her imprisoned behind the bars

Mental struggle to try and not think about her illness causes her to focus on the wallpaper

Irony- onset of her obsession

Obsession Her obsessive nature and anxiety

“It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide-- plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.” (3)

Diction • “confuse”• “irritate”• “provoke”• “uncertain”• “suicide”• “outrageous”

Obsession

“…but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my good will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.” (4) Ironic causes her obsession with the paper Patronizes her, acts as if her opinions are worthless

• he should use his good sense and medical background

• Comment on sexual politics of man/ woman, husband/wife of socioeconomic class

Role of Women

John’s sister “She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper,

and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick.” (5)

• Serves as substitute wife for John

• Fills traditional role

• Flat character - foil to narrator

Dr. Weir Mitchell

“John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don’t want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John” (6).

• Social commentary on Rest Cure

• John’s domineering ways have imprisoned narrator in a domestic prison

Obsession

“I don’t know why I should write this. I don’t want to. I don’t feel able. And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way-- it is such a relief.” (7)

Style and tone• Urgent and hurried writing

• Indication of anxiety and nervousness

• Short, simple, staccato sentences

• Reveals her unconscious awareness of her

• Ironic that she finds relief in expression which she is supposed to avoid

The Yellow Wallpaper

“There are things in that paper which nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous.And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder—I begin to think—I wish John would take me away from here!” (8).

Sub pattern comes into focus She is drawn further into the paper, thus her mental instability Jealous of the secret (“nobody knows but me”) and frightened of what it seems to imply Trying to escape social conformity Tone of secrecy and immediacy

The Yellow Wallpaper

“Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” (10). Her obsession occupies her time Turning point in her depression turns to

complete madness• “I am determined that nobody shall find out but

myself” (10).

Obsession

Increase in her paranoia “It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It

makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw- not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old, foul, bad yellow things.” (11)

Gradual to subtle decline into insanity Tone changes from naïve and depressed to

paranoid and excited• Diction and style of sentences reflect this

Woman in the Paper

“The front pattern does move-- and no wonder! The woman behind it shakes it! (12)

Symbolic action of tending to the house, no intellectual stimuli, her prison

Symbol of light• Masculine oppression

• Sickness/ jaundice

• Minorities (Chinese of the time period) Represents society and escape from its’ restrictions

Daylight and Liberation of Night

“I don’t blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!” (12)

She comes to life at night When the sub-consciousness wanders Daylight represents John’s ordered, dominating

schedule

Escape

She becomes the woman and “frees” herself “I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled,

and before morning we had peeled off yards of the paper.” (13)

• Symbol of freeing oneself from an oppressive marriage and role in society

• Represents the destruction of her other self

Escape “I don’t like to look out of the windows even—there are so many

of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?” (14-15).

She has freed the women behind the paper from social restrictions How many other women are trapped, stooping and creeping about

• social comment on treatment of all women

• “It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.” (Gilman)

Escape

“’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!’” (16)

Madness represents feminine repression and anger Her repressed shadow is able to gain freedom First mention of name

• Conflict between heroines two selves, wife and mother

• Subconscious resentment