The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Analysis

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1890 feminist short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” follows a young woman’s life battling depression during her retreat at a beautiful, yet haunted looking colonial estate with her husband. During her recovery, the narrator slowly becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper surrounding her room. As her obsession with the wallpaper intensifies, she ultimately falls into an inescapable mentally unstable state. The feminist short story presents literature that illustrates the undesirable future for women in male dominated civilizations.

The Yellow Wallpaper explores the helplessness and oppression women constantly face due to their sex. This is demonstrated when her husband John, a high-standing and well respected physician, insists a “rest cure” is very much needed where she was to be held in a room and prohibited from any physical activities in order to recover from her recent child birth. In the course of staying at the estate, she develops postpartum depression in which John completely neglects. Instead of disputing with her husband, she accepts her fate by stating, “And what can one do?” (Gilman, p. 647) and “what is one to do” (p. 648). Like many women, it feels as though their voices and opinions are undervalued compared to their male counterparts. John’s ignorance of his wife’s overall well-being conclusively ushers her self-destruction. These first few statements greatly display the overall message of the story on how women want to make a change, but are unable to do so because of their gender.

Although the narrator agreed with John not to conduct certain physical activities, she provides herself a journal to keep her right-minded which ultimately fails to do so. This diary is an imitation of the life she abandoned due to John’s authority over her. This journal presents the audience a second perspective of the work where the narrator participates in these rather silent protests within her intellect explaining, “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes” and “Personally, I disagree with their ideas” (p. 648). Although women may be seen voiceless in the society, they provide themselves with voices through works of literature.

During her rest cure, the room she is held in is essentially described as a prison, “there are rings and things in the wall”.  This line indicates that previous individuals have as well been “imprisoned” in the same room. Soon later, she observes the abomination of a wallpaper that surrounds her room. Formless patterns blockade the wallpaper, the colour is described as a  “repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow” (p. 649). The narrator’s first confrontation with the wallpaper is perceived as an artwork, where every detail and colour used is broken down and observed. As her curiosity of the wallpaper surges, she develops this unusual relationship with the wallpaper, it is no longer seen as just a “wallpaper”, instead as a living body that eventually drives her insane. She notices this haunting woman figure within the pattern only visible at certain angles where light shines. It is as if she is “stooping” and “creeping” down on her, desperately trying to get out. The narrator’s only purpose in the room was to scrutinize the patterns of the wallpaper. Only she believes she can determine the origins of the patterns.

This expressive figure obviously fascinates the narrator. When she goes to investigate the entrapped women, John is woken up. “What is it little girl?” he said “Don’t go walking about like that — you’ll get cold” (p. 652) emphasizes that the narrator is seen as a child. Despite her being a grown woman, John still identifies her as a “little girl”. During the production of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, countless women including Gilman were seen as little infants due to their submissive behaviour towards male individuals. These individuals were expected to listen and follow the demands of others, mirroring the lifestyle of children. For instance, John inherently chose the room the narrator stays in which resembles both an asylum and nursery. In Gilman’s struggle, she was told, “never to touch pen, brush or pencil again” and to “have but two hours of intellectual life a day” (pg. 1). She explains that for three months obeying these commands, she was on the edge of “utter mental ruin”. This infantilization of the narrator furthermore showcases the treatment of women in the domestic lifestyle.

Despite having no other individuals in the room, this mysterious woman figure within the wallpaper is no other than the narrator herself. She has completely fallen into a mentally unstable state where she thinks there is an actual woman behind the wall. The narrator once again describes the su-patterns of the wallpaper as “prison bars”.  According to the narrator, “Life is very much more exciting than it used to be'' (p. 653) implies her mental instability and the start of her psychological breakdown. The figure trapped within the wallpaper essentially symbolizes how women feel imprisoned due to reality’s perspective on them.

With “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman provides us feminist work that demonstrates the supression and infanitlization of women. This work is an overall summation of how a woman's only escape from dominant male civilizations is through self-destruction. With John’s influence and his demanding and dominant demeanor, he unknowingly caused her mental ruin. In conclusion to the text, this “liberation” of the women behind the wallpaper including the narrator signifies the complete surrender towards her rehabilitation. Gilman incorporates several true to life experiences that greatly give the audience a sense of the coping mechanism women develop in order to withstand the society’s barbarous outlooks on female individuals.