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The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late 1800 's, focuses on a distressed woman with no place to turn. The woman narrates the story to give the reader an inside look at what she feels and how she reacts to her surroundings. She initially turns to her husband, John, as a doctor and as her companion and he dismisses the notion of mental illness as a "slightly hysterical tendency." He isolates her by taking her to a secluded house with no human contact outside of his sister and himself who both view her illness in the same way. Gilman makes a convincing statement about gender roles in this time period, the debate of mental illness vs. physical ailment, and the concept of freedom in insanity in her exquisitely written short story. By focusing on the male dominance over the narrator, Gilman shows that a troubled mind, with no outlet, has no defense but to retreat to its inner sanctum.
In order to understand the gender roles in Gilman's short story, we must first understand the era in which she was writing. The period of the late 1800 's was a time when male dominance was prominent in society and women were meant to be seen, not heard. Women of the time did not defend their own opinions or beliefs by opposing their male counterparts, regardless of the relationship between them. The narrator recognizes this fact in many ways from the beginning of the story. She even says, in the opening lines, "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage. " This shows that she understood her submissive position in life and that, in general, men viewed women as senseless or silly people. By portraying John as the typical man of the era, Gilman shows the underlying effect of gender roles on the narrator's psyche.
John tells the narrator that she is creating "silly fancies" in her head and that he doesn't believe she is in any real danger. John tells her what to do and when she tries to disagree, he "sat straight up and looked at [her] with such a stern, reproachful look that [she] could not say another word. " It is as if he doesn't care how she feels because he is a man and therefore knows what is best for her. He puts her down by saying things like, "Bless her little heart" and "What is it, little girl?" He speaks to her as if she is his child and not his wife or equal. She begs him to let her have company, and he denies her. She wants to disagree with him, but he makes her feel guilty because she doesn't appreciate what he's trying to do for her. Essentially, he makes her feel as if she doesn't know what is in her own best interest.
He "hardly lets [her] stir without special direction" and "he takes all care from [her], and so [she feels] basely ungrateful not to value it more. " Another issue raised by Gilman is the medical debate of mental illness vs. physical ailment. Popular opinion of the doctors in this era is that mental illness simply does not exist because it is "not to be felt and seen and put down in figures. " As a doctor, John "does not believe [she] is sick" and tries to make the narrator feel as if her illness is not real. He refuses to listen to her feelings on the issue instead of talking to her to find the problem.
He isolates her and locks her away to dwell on her thoughts. She knows, from the beginning, that his treatment for her will not work and she wishes, to herself, that she "had less opposition and more society and stimulus", but John would not allow it. With no one to talk to and nowhere to go, the narrator instinctively begins to seek freedom through insanity. She gets to the point where she consciously masks her illness to make John leave her alone and to make him think she is getting better.
She even takes "pains to control [herself] - before him, at least. " Madness sets in stronger with each day she spends alone. The wallpaper in her room becomes symbolic to her as she begins to see figures behind the pattern that are trying to escape. She compares John to the pattern and wishes "that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one." She starts to see a woman behind the pattern and starts to see that "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. " The narrator relates to the woman in the wallpaper and believes that John is the pattern keeping her in. She feels trapped and has no escape and ultimately comes to the realization that "nobody could climb through that pattern - it strangles so. " Eventually, as the days pass, the narrator becomes completely absorbed by the idea that she is the woman in the wallpaper and that she has gotten free.
She worries that someone will find her and she locks herself in her room and tosses the key onto the porch. By tossing the key, she makes the statement that her mind is safe and stored away in a space that only she can access. Because of John's dominance over her, as well as popular medical opinion of the time, the narrator has no choice but to seek freedom through insanity. By going mad, she "got out at last" from John's controlling ways and from every person who refused to believe she had a problem. John is no longer able to make her decisions and to her, "It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please. " To the narrator, her inner sanctum is the "great room" and in her madness, she is truly free.
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Research essay sample on Late 1800 Woman In The Wallpaper
