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"The Yellow Wallpaper" By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
About
Author
Charlotte
Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. She grew up
living a rough childhood. Her father, Frederick Beecher Perkins, left
Charlotte's mother to raise their 2 children on her own. As a result, Gilman
moved around a lot which caused her education to suffer greatly. In 1884 she
married artist, Charles Stetson and they had a daughter named Kathrine, who was
born in 1885.
Her
battle with postpartum depression and the doctors she dealt with during her
illness inspired her to write "The Yellow Wallpaper ".
Aside from being a writer, she was also a feminist who called for women to gain economic independence. Perkins Gilman made a living as a lecturer on women’s issues, labor issues, and social reform. She toured Europe and the U.S. as a lecturer, and founded her own magazine, The Forerunner.
In 1900 she got married for the second time to her cousin, George Gilman. They stayed together until George's death in 1934. The following year she was diagnosed with breast cancer and committed suicide on August 17, 1935.
About Short story:
"The Yellow Wallpaper" was published in 1892 in New England Magazine, and in 1893 she published a book of satirical poetry, "In This Our World", which gained her fame.
Theme
of this Story
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is often cited as an
early feminist work that predates a woman’s right to vote in the United States.
The author was involved in first-wave feminism, and her other works questioned
the origins of the subjugation of women, particularly in marriage. "
During Perkins Gilman's lifetime, the role of women in
American society was heavily restricted both socially and legally. At the time
of its publication, women were still twenty-six years away from gaining the
right to vote.
This viewpoint on women as childish
and weak meant that they were discouraged from having any control over their
lives. Women were encouraged or forced to defer to their husband’s opinions in
all aspects of life, including financially, socially, and medically. Writing
itself was revolutionary, since it would create a sense of identity, and was
thought to be too much for the naturally fragile women.
Women's health was a particularly misunderstood area
of medicine, as women were viewed as nervous, hysterical beings, and were
discouraged from doing anything to further “upset” them. The prevailing wisdom
of the day was that rest would cure hysteria, when in reality the constant
boredom and lack of purpose likely worsened depression.
Perkins Gilman used her own experience
in her first marriage and postpartum depression as inspiration for The Yellow
Wallpaper, and illustrates how a woman’s lack of autonomy is detrimental to her
mental health. Upon its publication, Perkins Gilman sent a copy of "The
Yellow Wallpaper" to the doctor who prescribed her the rest cure for her
postpartum depression.
Characters
in this Story
The
Narrator
The narrator of the story is a young,
upper-middle-class woman. She is imaginative and a natural writer, though she
is discouraged from exploring this part of herself. She is a new mother and is
thought to have “hysterical tendencies” or suffer from nervousness. Her name
may be Jane but it is unclear.
John
John is the narrator’s husband and her
physician. He restricts her activity as a part of her treatment. John is
extremely practical, and belittles the narrator's imagination and feelings. He
seems to care about her well-being, but believes he knows what is best for her
and doesn't allow her input.
Jennie
Jennie is John’s sister, who works as
a housekeeper for the couple. Jennie seems concerned for the narrator, as indicated
by her offer to sleep in the yellow wallpapered room with her. Jennie seems
content with her domestic role.
Mary:
A nursemaid who takes care of the
newborn baby. Use of the name "Mary" conjures up the idea of the
iconic Virgin Mary
Short
Summary
"The Yellow Wallpaper" details the deterioration
of a woman's mental health while she is on a "rest cure" on a rented
summer country estate with her family. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper
in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout
the story.
The narrator (Jane) of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
begins the story by discussing her move to a beautiful rented summer country
estate with her family. Her husband, John, is also her doctor, and the move is
meant in part to help the narrator overcome her “illness,” (hysteria) which she
explains as nervous depression, or nervousness, following the birth of their
baby. John’s sister, Jennie, also lives with them and works as their
housekeeper.
Though her husband believes she will get better with rest and by not worrying about anything, the narrator has an active imagination and likes to write. He doesn’t allow her to do her favorite activities, like writing which helps her escape reality. He discourages her wonder about the house, and dismisses her interests. She mentions her baby more than once, though there is a nurse that cares for the baby, and the narrator herself is too nervous to provide care.
When the narrator claims to have seen people walking
on the path by the house, he cautions her against allowing her imagination to
overexcite her. The narrator and her husband move into a large room that has
ugly, yellow wallpaper that the narrator criticizes. The narrator starts to
examine the wallpaper, noticing how the patterns form “eyes” that seem to be
staring at her. When the sunlight shines in a certain way, she sees a figure
skulking behind the pattern of the wallpaper. Again, the narrator must stop
writing, for her sister-in-law Jennie is coming up the stairs.
The
wallpaper design begins to fascinate the narrator and she begins to see more
than just the outer design. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her
bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout the
story. She asks her husband if they can change rooms and move downstairs, and
he rejects her. The more she stays in the room, the more the narrator’s
fascination with the hideous wallpaper grows.
In the time between July 4th and their
departure, the narrator expresses feeling even worse and more exhausted. She
struggles to do daily activities, and her mental state is deteriorating. John
encourages her to rest more, and the narrator hides her writing from him
because he disapproves.
The narrator is seemingly driven insane by the yellow
wallpaper; she sleeps all day and stays up all night to stare at it, believing
that it comes alive, and the patterns change and move. The narrator has become
fond of the room, perhaps because of the wallpaper. She enjoys lying on her
bed, following the patterns in the wallpaper and attempting to trace one of the
strands to conclusion. Captivated by the wallpaper, she believes that it knows
things about her that no one else does. More alarmingly, the figure she sees in
the wallpaper has begun to take shape-that of a woman stooping down and
creeping behind the pattern.
One night the narrator tells John that she is not
getting better and wants to leave the house, but he refuses, insisting the
rest-cure will work. She returns to her examination of the wallpaper. Her
diligent attention surmises that there is both a front and back pattern, and
that at night the front pattern forms bars. The woman in the wallpaper is quiet
during the day and more active at night, as is the narrator. The narrator has
also grown fearful of John and Jennie, for they seem to be studying the
wallpaper as if they want to understand its pattern before she does.
Then, she begins to believe that there is a woman in
the wallpaper who alters the patterns and is watching her. The wallpaper gradually consumes the narrator’s being,
offering up more complex images as time passes. She first notices a different
colored sub-pattern of a figure beneath the “front design.” As the story
progresses, the narrator identifies more and more with the figure in the
wallpaper. This figure is eventually seen as a woman who “creeps” and shakes
the outer pattern, now seen to the narrator as bars. After a while, she is
obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room and imagines that a woman, like
her, is stuck in it and wants to come out.
A few weeks before their departure, John stays
overnight in town and the narrator wants to sleep in the room by herself so she
can stare at the wallpaper uninterrupted. She locks out Jennie and believes
that she can see the woman in the wallpaper. To help the imaginary woman, the
narrator starts peeling the wallpaper. John returns and frantically tries to be
let in, and the narrator refuses; John is able to enter the room and finds the
narrator crawling on the floor. She claims that the woman in the wallpaper has
finally exited, and John faints, that to see her creeping around the room. She
continues to creep endlessly around the room, forced to go over his prone body.
The story also highlights how many women are ignored by their spouses, leading
them to depression.
Symbols
in this Story
Nursery:
The nursery symbolizes the way John treats his
wife—like a child incapable of making her own decisions.
Wallpaper:
The wallpaper represents the barrier that the
male-dominated society has against women.
Yellow: The sickly color symbolizes the mental state of Jane
and the dull state of life she leads.
Garden:
The garden represents the development and growth
denied to Jane by her husband and by social expectations.
Detail Tamil explanation for this poem is given in this below video:
Click the image and get the video
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