Roystan 1 Shana Roystan Professor Burt LIB 112 R 2 February 2012 Analysis of Charlotte Perkins The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilmans short story, The Yellow Wallpaper is about a couple who moves into a house for three months (70). The woman in the story has a disorder that she and her husband, John, call nervous depression. They have a child; however the child is only mentioned a couple times throughout the story. Johns sister, Jennie, comes to help out with the baby and the woman. The woman is not allowed to work or to write. However, she does write in a journal when she doesnt fear being caught. I did write for a while in spite of them (71). Although her husband tells her that he doesnt think she should write, she does it anyway when he cannot see her. The woman talks about how beautiful the house is and goes on about the beautiful gardens and rooms. She does not like her and Johns room though. I dont like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had but John would not hear of it (71). She told John that she wanted the room downstairs but he did not allow it. Their room is the nursery at the top of the house. The woman describes some of the things up on the nursery floor when she says, For the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls (72). The windows have bars on them and there are rings in the wall from the previous tenant. Although she does not enjoy the bars on the windows, there is something very particular that the woman does not like about her room. She makes it very clear throughout the story that the yellow

Roystan 2 wallpaper hanging in her room bothers her. John decides not to fix the wallpaper because he does not want his wife to get caught up in something as silly as wallpaper. John has a lot of say in what his wife does and does not do. This is shown by the fact that he tells her that he does not want her to write, the fact that he does not let her have the room she really wants, and by not changing the wallpaper that bothers her. The woman soon becomes completely insane and tears down the wallpaper the day before they are leaving the house. The Yellow Wallpaper depicts the role of women and men in the Victorian time period of the story and how this affected her illness and her worsening condition of insanity by the end of the story. The womans husband John loved his wife very much as seen in the text when the woman states, Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick (76). He knows that his wife is sick and he wants her to get better. He does not, however, realize just how sick she really is. This is shown when the woman says, John does not know how much I really suffer (72). John never really asks his wife what she feels like so he doesnt know how bad off she truly is. He wants to uphold his reputation as a physician and falls into the trap of gender roles by telling his wife what is best for her instead of trying to listen to her views on the matter. She also wants to get better for herself and for John. She says how she meant to be a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already (72). She does not want to be of such a burden to John. She wants to play the part of the Victorian woman in doing things for her husband, not the opposite. John is a physician and tries in every way to help out his wife. She does what he says because she trusts him because of the fact that he is a physician. Another reason she listens to him is

Roystan 3 because she knows that women are supposed to listen to their husband and men in general. Although she trusts his judgment, she says, perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster (70). This shows that she doesnt agree with some of the things he says about her illness. Women in the Victorian time period were not allowed to speak up for themselves although they may have known something was wrong. This can further be exemplified when she is forbidden to work and write. The woman explains, Personally, I disagree with their ideasI did write for a while in spite of them (71). She writes although she is not allowed to do so, however, she does so in a sneaky manner when no one is around to reprimand her for it. She goes on saying, Having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition (71). This shows that women in the Victorian time period were expected to do as they were told to avoid punishment. It also shows that women did know that everything a man did was necessarily right; however, they knew they were supposed to just accept it. When his wife tells him about the wallpaper, John refuses to take it down because nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies (73). He has the say in what is to be done about things in the house. Nowadays if the woman wanted to change the dcor in the house it would be up to both partners in what to do about it. In this case the husband gets the final say in what happens because this is what the gender roles were like in the Victorian time period. This is also true about the way he was going to treat his wifes illness. He made her stay in solitude because he thought it would help her. He also did not let her have any creativity. This is shown first with not letting her write, then with the wallpaper not being fixed, and then with the fact that she wanted a

Roystan 4 bedroom downstairs with beautiful decorations. She talks about how John wants her to rest by saying, John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can (78). All of this sleep may in fact be worse for her condition because she barely has any human contact but because John thinks it is right for her, she will have to do it. Because she has no human contact, she continually notices the wallpaper more and more. Being confined to her room she gets to contemplate it everyday. She sees a woman inside of the wallpaper and lets this be known when she says, the woman behind it is as plain as can be (78). She truly believes that she is seeing a woman inside of the wallpaper. She knows she cannot tell John the things she is thinking about the wallpaper for fear of what he will say. She says, I had no intention of telling him . . . he would make fun of me (79). This shows the true Victorian woman gender role of being submissive and compliant. In the end of the story the woman hits the point of no return and becomes completely insane and tears down the wallpaper. She declares, Ive got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back (83). When she says that she has gotten out, she thought that she was the woman trapped inside of the wallpaper that she was seeing. Like the woman in the wallpaper, Johns wife was trapped in her house. She did all she could to listen to what John said and take his advice; however, it ultimately led to her demise. John, although he had the best intentions, did not help his wifes condition by confining her and not listening to her needs. Both John and his wife tried to uphold the true Victorian gender roles although in this case, it did not help either of their situations. Because John and his wife were trying to stay true to the Victorian gender roles, the wife increasingly became more and more ill

Roystan 5 due to the fact that John kept telling her what to do and his wife not speaking up and telling John that his remedies were not working for her.

Roystan 6 Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Literature: A Portable Anthology. Ed Janet E. Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, and Peter Schakel. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 70-83. Print.