Summary:
This essay discusses Charlotte Perkins Gillman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" from a psychological and historical stand point. It is a snapshot of the women of the era.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow
Wallpaper", is a great example of the effect of the
pressures of society placed on women of her time. In
this time period, women had enough boundaries and
limitations to drive them crazy. This character
illustrates the maltreatment of women in this period
of American history. Women were seen as objects;
something used to please men, bear children, and look
pretty. She is a nameless character to demonstrate the
fact the she is representing all women who suffered
from this oppression. It is not the yellow wallpaper
that drives this woman insane, it is the men and the
role they created for women of her time that drives
her crazy.
When the woman first arrives in her new bedroom, she
writes about the wallpaper. "It is dull enough to
confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to
constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you
follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance
they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous
angles, destroy themselves in unheard of
contradictions " (Gilman para. 35). This paper is a
powerful symbol for the lives that women were forced
to led. The narrator describes the wallpaper's pattern
as dull because the mistreatment of women was so
common and overlooked; the injustices against women
did not jump out and scream that they were wrong. The
pattern is as pronounced and irritating as the roles
women of that day were forced to fill, and the curves
are so uncertain because there is no just reason for
the barriers set against women.
While the narrator sits in confinement in the house,
she speaks of her husband John. She says, "John does
not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is
no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him" (Gilman
para. 45). Gilman is trying to depict the way that men
completely overlooked the plight of women. Husbands
thought that if they could put a roof over their wives
head and supply them with all of the material things
that they needed or desired, then they were considered
a great man. They could not see anything wrong with
their actions. John wants his wife to get better and
be happy, but he fails to see that he is, in part,
responsible for the insanity of his wife.
The narrator becomes very frustrated with the
situation as the story continues. She tells the
reader, "I get positively angry with the impertinence
of it and the everlastingness" (Gilman para. 69).
While the narrator is speaking of the pattern on the
wallpaper, Gilman is speaking to the reader of her
impatience and frustration over the lack of changes
being made. "The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn
off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a
brother--they must have had perseverance as well as
hatred" (Gilman para. 74). Gilman recognizes the
feminists before her who have helped to tear these
walls down, but she also shows the reader that these
beliefs are embedded into society and are difficult to
break down.
Gilman acknowledges the women who have tried to break
through the barriers . "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 it has
so many heads. They get through, and then the pattern
strangles them off and turns them upside down, and
makes their eyes white!" (Gilman para. 191-192).
Gilman is saying that many women have tried to break
free. In that time, women could divorce their
controlling husbands or choose not to marry, but, in
doing so, they lost their place in society. They were
ostracized for being a divorced or single woman. "If
those heads were covered or taken off it would not be
half so bad." (Gilman para. 193). It was considered a
very shameful and difficult life to live. She could
not earn a decent living or have custody of her
children. Larger changes needed to be made than a few
divorced women could handle.
By the end of the story, the narrator can no longer
stand the wallpaper. "I pulled and she shook, I shook
and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off
yards of that paper. A strip about as high as my head
and half around the room. And then when the sun came
and that awful pattern began to laugh at me, I
declared I would finish it to-day!" (Gilman para.
219-220). Gilman is telling the reader that feminists
were mocked for their endeavors, but that only fueled
her desires.
Today, women have come a long way; they have broken
the mold and are no longer the submissive objects they
were once seen as. While some still hold onto the old
ideals of Gilman's time period, authors like Gilman
have ripped down the bars and barriers of the
wallpaper to set women today free.
This is the complete article, containing 733 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
