khaihiok's blog

From The Yellow Wallpaper and Gilman’s experiences, it is not difficult to find out the parallel between Gilman and the narrator, and the narrator and the woman behind the wallpaper. In other nonfiction works, Gilman expresses that she suffers from depression and is once treated by Silas Weir Mitchell, also a character in the story. His “rest cure” almost destroys Gilman’s life and she abandons the rules of no working and no writing to heal herself from the torturing cure. This work is one of Gilman’s efforts to expose the gravity of improper treatment and to save more women like her, not only the mental disease but also the depressed female role in both family and society.

Back to the text itself, a confined, inferior female role in marriage is the main theme of The Yellow Wallpaper. In Gilman’s time, late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, women are asked and forced to subject to men. Women are responsible to domestic chores and forbidden to be too intellectual. Gilman subtly expresses her ideas by combining a sick woman who has a doctor husband and the woman barred by the pattern of the wallpaper. Perhaps there is no woman behind the wallpaper at all but just a symbol of the plight of the narrator. The narrator is imprisoned in the nursery with barred windows just as the woman behind is caged by the patterns. Both the bars and the patterns represent patriarchal authority of men. Before being destroyed, the narrator has to destroy the wallpaper to unshackle herself from all those repression and assumption to women. This is the cure the narrator really need.

However, the narrator, since she has “a slight hysterical tendency,” is treated by a famous physician, and more, by John, as a husband more than as a doctor. Mr. Mitchell just recommends rest cure, but John is the executioner. John treats his wife both as a patient and as a child, not as an individual. He calls her “blessed little girl” and “little” that he doesn’t regard the narrator as his equal in their marital relationship. John is a bit like Torvald Helmer in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House that both of them are in a high social class and do not really respect their wives. Both of them interact with their wives as toys and are quite shocked at the end of the stories. Although John means to benefit the narrator, his ignorance and dominance almost bring havoc. John’s attitudes and orders silt up the channel of communication that the narrator finds no other ways to release her emotions and pressures by tearing up the wallpaper and scrawling on the floor. However, John is not the only one who should be blamed; Jennie is an accomplice.

While discussing the unequal status of men and women, people often only focus on men. Women are not irresponsible though. It seems ironical that women are both the victims and the catalysts, but both men and women experience a similar socialization. Though their roles are different, the plot of their life story is the same and already written. Men are characters who oppress and women are the oppressed. Since women are instilled that they should be kind, weak, and subdued, their words and behaviors often strengthen the distinction and resonate with the social tune, helping complete the symphony of mores and norms. The oppressed thus become the oppressors when they share profits with men. Jennie is the example that she is also a woman, which means she may suffer in some way at that time, but she helps John “cure” the narrator without recognizing the two conflicting roles as a woman.

It is injustice to accuse either gender of stranglers of women’s tragedy, not written by any individual but by the society as a whole. Utterly differentiating men and women, however, does not bring the greatest utility. Trapped at home, women’s ambitions and desires are not fulfilled and their constrained identities may affect the family negatively. As the only economic resource, men bear more pressure than they should have if women can share the financial yoke. Then, men’s responsibility to support the family becomes the backbone for men to be authoritative and reproduces the inequality of power distribution. But, if men unexpectedly expire, the burdens fall on women and it often deteriorates the economic situations, miring women in predicaments. Both men and women working and getting paid may help loosen the traditional sexual limits and guarantee families from financial crisis more.

Finally, is the narrator crazy at the end of the story? Readers at Gilman’s time may think the narrator not only crazy but also ridiculous. On the surface, she is lunatic, straying from the main stream. Her insanity may be the result of her “writing too much,” may be her discovery of being repressed, may be her intention to drive John insane too. Or perhaps, she is insane just because people at that time think her so. The truth may be that she is awakened but the society doesn’t accord with her. No matter the narrator or the society is crazy, her creeping over John somewhat demonstrates her or female success, overthrowing the power of men.

Reference

• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia (Eds.), An Introduction to Fiction (pp. 571-584). United States: Longman, 2005.


• Image resource: YellowWallpaperCover