The Yellow Wallpaper is an essay written in the first-person and depicts the effects of confinement on the narrator’s health, and with nothing to encourage her, becomes preoccupied with the wallpaper placed in her bedroom.
A woman’s encounter with the wallpaper is used carefully by Gilman to exhibit the effects of feminism and individualism in a society. Gilman does this by supernaturally describing the yellow wallpaper and the woman’s near-obsession with it. Although the plot of the story borders on the state of the woman’s mental health, Gilman is bent on delivering a different message: that of individual expression. He does this by recording the progress of the illness regarding the state of the wallpaper. Women’s willing inferiority to men is exhibited when John, the woman’s husband directs her to stay in bed to aid in suppressing her imagination.
John, a physician also directs that she stop her writing. She chooses to heed her husband’s advice although she feels better when she writes. Moreover, the writing may also be beneficial to her and her family. She alludes to feeling good when she does congenial work that brings along the change. It is laughably absurd that she asks herself what she would otherwise do. She describes the room she stays in with her husband as an atrocious nursery and reckons that nothing hinders her writing although she does not have energy. The only thing she fears is going against her husband’s direction. This exhibits her lack of self-confidence and an element of inferiority.
She belittles herself and retorts that she was intended to be a source of help to her husband, some sort of confidence but is now a burden to him. It is ironical
that she says that John is right by staying out late or never coming home at all because his patients’ cases are more serious than hers but paradoxically states that John does not seem to know how much her nervous condition weighs her down (Gilman 162). This is a perfect example of what happens in today’s society where one may be fully aware of what makes him or her feel better, but because of the doctor’s authority, they end up relying on the doctors advice which may seem not to work. The woman knows what she got to do to get well but her personal insecurities, her brother, and her husband’s overbearing nature impedes her efforts of getting well. The way she describes the wallpaper is symbolic of the evolution of her psychological problem: she gets to see herself through the wallpaper.
The reader’s first experience with the wallpaper is reminiscent of the social environment the woman faces in her illness. Gilman describes the paper as dull enough to confuse the eye; pronounced to irritate and provoke study; the lame uncertain curves commit suicide plunge at outrageous angles. The curves destroy themselves in unheard contradictions. The color that is used on the wallpaper is repellant and revolts; it is a smoldering and unclean yellow that appears to fade when the sunlight slowly turns. In some places, the color is dull and lurid orange. The color on the paper is punctuated by some sickly sulfur tints (Gilman 161). Gilman notes that this must have made the children to hate it. She concludes that she also deserves to hate it. She puts the paper away when she sees John approaching. All these are used to depict how the woman feels and how the therapy she is going through is impacting her health.
A sense of inferiority and burden is portrayed when the wallpaper is said to be dull enough to confuse the eye and constantly irritating and provoking study. The lame uncertain curves refer to ridiculous suggestions that her husband makes as remedy to her mental condition. Suicide denotes her fate when she follows the therapeutic approaches suggested by the husband John. Unheard of contradictions as used to describe the wallpaper implies faultiness of her husband prescription. She talks of John saying that the solution to her woes rests with herself and that she has to use her will and self-control to actualize this dream. John advices her against letting any silly fancies run away with her (Gilman 165). Writing indeed relieves her but because of her low energy level, John advices that she directs her imagination elsewhere. Because of this, she begins fantasizing about the wallpaper. Through the wallpaper, she gets to see ‘people’, ‘scenes’, ‘colorful network’, and imaginable things on the paper.
Her persistent dream and use of her mind makes her even more confident. When looking at the wallpaper, she notices a woman who stoops and creeps about, making her feel scared. The wallpaper in this case is the society. The woman scaring her is hidden behind the wallpaper. At some point in time, the woman in the paper seems to get out at daytime and move yet most women do not creep and move during the daytime. At first, she feels embarrassed at the sight of woman moving at daytime. The woman from the paper frequently hides herself in the blackberry vines when a carriage comes, this is used to explain the extent to which the women in this society were looked down upon. This shows that the woman fears presenting herself and her opinions with utmost authority because of fear of what the society will think of her. However, she lets her imaginations to wander thereby building confidence in herself.
John does not seem to associate his wife’s getting well to the wallpaper despite the wife’s allusion to this. At last, she takes to looking at and playing with the wallpaper irrespective of what people would think of her. She finally begins to express her feelings. She talks of peeling papers she could reach for. The paper sticks out horribly, but she does not care as she embarks on destroying anything that limits her capabilities (Gilman 171). Superficially, she would be perceived to have gone insane and that her mental health may have further deteriorated, but the woman cleverly celebrates her self. This is supported by her sentiments to John that she had finally gotten out in spite of the resistance from him and Jane. She asserts that she has pushed off most of the paper from the wallpaper, in this case the society, which subdued her and will never be put back (Gilman 172). At this juncture, John faints as he cannot come to terms with whatever is transpiring. She literally creeps over John, a sign that she has finally gone on top of everything.
Gilman uses a great deal of symbolism when she uses words as ‘myself’ to position herself in the society that does not allow her to be at same level with John, her husband. Her hereditary estate, otherwise portrayed as a colonial estate is used to illustrate how ordinary people endeavor to embody colonial nobility that endows them no title. It is also denotes symbolic order of language. The mansion is made of external instruments that are representative of a prison set up or a ward that holds people with mental problems. The word ‘queer’ is also used symbolically by Gilman when there is cultural transition. With this, she calls upon her readers to know that same sex desire is a reality that exists despite the fact that it is repressed in the heterosexual set up. By this, people get to know about the existence of repression hence their queer self-recognition.
Gilman symbolically uses the noun ‘one’ to disguise her autonomy, helplessness, and inability to change the current undertakings in the society she lives in. Sickness is used to represent the breaking free from madness. Her sickness seems to result from the role that the society expects the women to perform in a society. Her sickness metaphorically refers to feminine anger. The yellow color on the wallpaper refers to the color in Gilman’s cultural era that was used to refer to the Chinese, the Japanese, the Irish and other races to symbolize their inferiority and backwardness. John and the main character’s brother symbolize the overbearing nature of men on women. They chose what is good for women.
Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte-Perkins. Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’?” The Forerunner (1913): 19-20.