Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a representation of a woman's descent into madness due to the repression brought on by those around her and society. This story mimics Gilman's own experiences as she suffered from depression at the time of writing this story. At the beginning of the story our narrator reveals her struggle with a nervous depression, but her husband John, a physician, does not truly believe her illness is real. To cure her of her depression he prevents her ability to write in her diary, the one creative outlet she enjoys. She reveals early in the story her writings must remain secret, as John will be angry with her if he finds she went against his orders. She is placed in the nursery of the summer home they are renting, and the room resembles a prison. She describes a room with barred windows, heavy furniture difficult to move, and a peculiar yellow wallpaper that disgusts her. The pattern is described as "sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin." (317) She continues, "The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight." (317)

The more time she spends in this child's room, unable to partake in any sort of activity, the more she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper, studying its every line and intricacy. She writes of the limited happenings of her days, but she always comes back to the wallpaper, almost as if the wallpaper is drawing her in. She begins to see images in the wallpaper she believes are only visible to her. Growing attached to the wallpaper, she undertakes the task of uncovering what exactly is hidden within the paper's pattern. Ultimately she begins to see a woman in the wallpaper. She says, "Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern-it strangles so; I think that is why is has so many heads." (325) As she grows infatuated by the wallpaper, the further isolated she feels with her husband. She begins to feel as if everyone is working against her and is sure the wallpaper is affecting her husband and his sister Jennie, who is working as their housekeeper. At the end of the story her sickness has taken hold of her mind, but she has found the strength to overcome the repression placed on her by her husband. She says, "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!" (328). This references her ability to finally walk over her husband and his repressive nature.

This story is an autobiographical account of the treatment Gilman received while battling depression. Gilman's psychiatrist Dr. Weir Mitchell, the narrator's physician, placed Gilman on the rest cure method of treatment and told her to "never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as [she] lived" (Korb). Gilman later claimed this drove her even further into her sickness. She wrote this story as a message to Mitchell in the illegitimacy of his treatment. Gilman went on to become a voice of feminist writings.
 
Words Cited:
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th. Alison Booth, Kelly Mays. New York:    W.W. Norton & Company, 2011. 315-328. Print.

Korb, Rena. "An Overview of 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Sep. 2012.
Photos: http://www.theglaringfacts.com/staff-essays/point-of-view-in-the-yellow-wallpaper/
            http://www.glogster.com/amanlitt/-the-yellow-wallpaper-by-aman-litt/g-6n11pe5go56c85ph61rg6a0