After weeks and weeks of being told
to read The Yellow Wallpaper by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman I finally gave in. Fortunately, my breakdown
corresponded with this assignment. Gilman wrote the story in 1899 not “to drive people crazy, but to save people
from being driven crazy.” Over the past century, different groups have
interpreted the story in various ways. Early feminists latched onto the
numerous elements of domestic imprisonment and used the story to convincingly
argue against it. My interpretations are similar, though I found the story to
have other compelling aspects as well.
The Yellow Wallpaper tells the story of
a woman who has just given birth and is essentially shut away in a strange room
of a mysterious house. The room is covered in hideous yellow wallpaper. Her
husband, who is also her physician, makes her stay in the room endlessly. After
two months, her disgust in the wallpaper turns to fascination as she begins to
see a figure moving behind it at night. She sees a woman, who I interpret to be
herself, trapped in the yellow wallpaper. Days before she is set to move out of
the room and back into her house she begins a plot to tear down the paper.
Seemingly insane, she tears all the paper down while her husband pounds on the
locked door and pleads with her to open it. When he finally gets in, he
faints at the sight of her creeping across the old wood floor, like she had
seen the woman behind the yellow wallpaper do. She feels liberated by embracing her desires instead of repressing them and allowing him to run her life.
To me, it
reads like an Edgar Allen Poe story. It starts slow but creepy and gains momentum
as it gets stranger. I would recommend this story to people who enjoy in older
literature, Poe, and anyone interested in early feminist literature.
Here’s a link if you’re interested:
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/yellowwallpaper.pdf
I'm so glad that you reviewed this story, Niel! I remember Kirsi bringing it up in class and as with everything I intend to read but largely forget about, this one slipped my mind. I loved the way this story was written. I agree, it is much like Edgar Allen Poe's work but I think I liked this one a bit more. I loved that it felt like we were reading about a child all the while knowing this was an adult who obviously had something seriously wrong with her. I loved the subtle hints about the woman in the wall paper being her own self and her desires; it was almost beautiful in a way to see her holding on so strongly through her hate for the wallpaper to what seems to me as her last strand of "herself". Her husband has so forcefully held her back and controlled her life that the entire time I read this I was envisioning the other girl in the paper to be the side of her that's trying to escape that and be let free. I found myself almost holding onto the girl in the paper as much as she did. Except, strangely, the way in which she tears off the paper is slightly demonic and she says herself it's out of spite and yet I still felt the desperation to set the girl in the paper free. I almost imagined it as a desperate plea in ripping yourself apart to find your self. I felt like the moment that they merged was when she said, "It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!". To me, that line was profound to the story and very telling. It was my favorite part. I loved the ending and I loved the story. Thank you for sharing, again.
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