Ashley Jameson

Mrs. Kelly Armstrong

English 102

March. 3, 2005

“The Yellow Wallpaper”

     Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, in the 1860s, by

her mother. Charlotte Perkins married a artist, and shortly afterwards gave birth to her

daughter. After the birth of her child, Charlotte was diagnosed with an nervous condition.

Charlotte then committed herself under the care of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, after the constant

urging of her husband. The care from Dr. Mitchell, and her husband consisted of isolation and

total rest. It was not long before Charlotte was driven to insanity due to these reprimands

encourage by both her husband, and the doctor. Shortly after she fled the care of her husband and

Dr. Mitchell, she moved to California, and began a career as a lecturer and writer on feminist

topics(Gilman782).

     In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the most significant, and image-like story of her

life, known as “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilman uses an unnamed narrator of the story. The

unnamed narrator is purposely left unnamed; the narrator could be any woman, wife, and

mother. Gilman paints a vivid picture of a woman who is demeaned, deprived and mad.

     Gilman does not leave her readers with an over- powerful image of the woman. Gilman

only conveys the image of a woman creeping around her room, who is suffering from anxiety

and madness.

     The woman is under the care of her husband, who is an physician. He locks her in an

nursery in hopes that the confinement and rest will help aid her troubling nervous condition. The
                                                  

woman seems to be losing her grasp and control over her own life, primarily because she is

under the care of her husband.

     As the narrator opens the story, the first striking image that the readers are presented with

is the character John. The husband of the narrator, John, is described as “practical and extreme”.

(Gilman,782). John refuses to accept his wife’s condition; he does not believe that

there is anything truly wrong with her. The narrative states these comments about her husband.

“You see he does not believe I am sick”! “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own

husband assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one, but

temporary nervous depression, a slight hysterical tendency, what is one to do?”(783).

     The narrator submits to the will of her husband. She gives into his ideas regarding what

is good for her and her nervous condition. She does not stand up for herself, she basically allows

him to control her life.
     
     The narrator wants to be free from the confinement of the room, but she is absolutely

forbidden. So she writes in spite of John. The narrator writes: “I sometimes fancy that in my

condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus-but John says the very worst

thing I can do is think about my condition and I confess it always makes me feel bad, so I will let

it alone and talk about the house” (783).

     John treats his wife as a child. He does not allow her to think or do anything for herself.

He disregards all of her wants and needs, but caters to his own threw her expense.

     The narrator is confined to a nursery at the top of the house. The narrator describes the

room as a “big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with window that look all ways, and air and

sunshine galore. It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge, for

                                                             
the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (784).

     The narrator is kept caged in a prison- like setting with barred windows and walls. The

woman does not feel a sense of comfort in the home. The disturbing stained and yellow

wallpaper is totally faded and repulsive. The color seems to be horrid, and somewhat uneasy.

     The narrator states, “I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure”(786). And it

is like a woman stopping down and creeping about behind the pattern(789). The faint figure

behind seemed to shake the pattern just as if she wanted to get out (787). And she is all the time

trying to climb through, but nobody could climb through that pattern it strangles so.

     All the statements the narrator makes about the wallpaper is ver significant to the story. It

seems that the colors mirror the woman’s relationship with her husband, and ultimately with

herself. The woman is uncomfortable in the barred, lifeless room, because this where all the

demands are made by her husband. It is as if the narrator is trapped behind the walls with the

woman, and cannot free herself.

     The narrator cannot free herself just as the woman in the walls, because she continues to

allow her husband to keep her trapped within the room, isolating her from others. The husband is

the primary reason why the woman cannot get well. He worsens her condition and eventually

drives her into the state of insanity.

     The husbands overbearing, and controlling attitude weakens the woman slowly, but

surely. He pushes her over the deep end, and continues to through out the story so that he can

control her life.
     
     Confining a person to an dark and lifeless room can cause one to go crazy. You are not

capable of doing anything or thinking for yourself. Being subjected to such an environments can
                                                       

cause anyone to go insane. John is physician, and he knows exactly what he is doing. He has

purposely driven his wife to the state of insanity by subjecting her to such an unhealthy lifestyle.

The narrator states, “John is a physician, and perhaps that is the reason why I can not get well

fast” (782).

     Towards the end of the story the narrator seems to be getting better, and it is definitely

due to the wallpaper, and its significant. The narrator says: “Life is very much more exciting

now than it used to be. John is so pleased to see me improve! He laughed a bit the other day, and

said I seemed to be flourishing in spite of my wallpaper. I turned it off with a laughed. I had no

intentions of telling him it was because of the wallpaper-he would make fun of me. He might

even want to take me away” (789).

     The statement, “He might even want to take me away”, supports my indication of the

husband being responsible for driving that woman crazy. Why would he want to take her away if

it’s contributing to her well-being. It just proves that he really does not want her to get well,

because he enjoys being in control.

     At the end of the story, the last night of the narrator’s stay, she finally decides to set

herself free. She and the woman behind the wall peel off yards of the wallpaper by morning. The

narrator seems to have control of her freedom. It’s as if she has gained control over her life once

again. Both she and the woman free themselves from isolation and abandonment. They now

creep around in a child-like manner. The narrator says, “It is so pleasant to be out in this great

room and creep around as I please” (792)!

     As the story closes, the husband arrives home and drastically tries to get into the room.

When he is finally able to get inside he cries, wondering what his wife is doing. However, the
                                                       


truth of the matter was John was astonished by his wife’s recovery, and finally being able to

break threw the vicious hold he had on her life. That is the reason why he fainted, because he

surely did get an rude awakening that day. He had driven his wife insane and she finally broke

through is spell. At the end of the story the narrator says, “I’ve got out at last, “said I,” in spite of

you and Jane. And I pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!” (792). Now why

should that man had fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to

creep over him every time!”(792).
     
     Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses both the narrator and the female images to represent the

isolation and demoted position that she once had to withstand. Neither the narrator nor the

woman behind the wall feel confident enough to walk away from the jail-like setting they are

subjected too. They allow themselves to be trapped behind the wallpaper.
     
     Gilman’s story is a reflection of her life, and what she endured before she set herself

free. Gilman is very much like the narrator of the story. Both women endure nervous

breakdowns, and are confined to a room, isolating themselves due the recommendation of their

husbands and their primary care physicians, Dr. Mitchell. Both women were driven to the state

of insanity and finally gain enough courage to set themselves free.
     
     Charlotte Gilman Perkins, wrote this story to show the readers an vivid description of

what she and the other women were forced to endure during the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries. It portrays the image of how women had no say, and were controlled and overpowered

by men. Thanks to women like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the women of today’s society have a

voice. They are highly educated, strong, and independent. Women have grown to stand up for

what is rightfully their’s and utilize it: the freedom to control one’s own life.