"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
is one of those stories that albeit short (about 6000 words) it can be
read on many separate levels that any dissertation should discuss in
order to avoid a void in the interpretative function.
At first, Gilman's story can be simply classified
as Gothic fiction. In the story we have the classical unreliable
narrator, a strange situation, an uncanny event and some satellite
characters that are unable to understand what is happening,
worsening the whole situation. As in Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart", the
narration is obsessed with something or someone, although it should be
noted that the typologies of obsessions are slightly different. Poe's
narrator tries to find freedom from the evil eye
but committing a murder, which is a traumatic event external to the
problem. Gilman's narrator tries to find freedom by using, spoiling and
interpretating the meaning of tapestry, which is an event intrinsic to
the problem. In other words, Gilman's narrator
needs the tapestry, while Poe's narrator wants to get rid of it. In
both stories we do not know much of the details of the narrator; however
in "The Yellow Wallpaper" we know that she is diagnosed with some sort
of post-partum depression. For this reason her
husband decides to confine her to the attic, removing any sort of
intellectual stimuli. She desires to do some work around the house, but she is not
allowed to. She desires to do something than just getting bored, but she is
not allowed. Bored to death, she starts believing that
the wallpaper is not just a regular yellow wallpaper but it hides some
mysterious secret. Day and night she is so obsessed in her belief that
she starts seeing it move. Her condition worsening, she thinks that
women are hidden behind it and come out at night
and by tearing it apart she will free them and free herself. In the
final scene, the husbands finds out that her condition is now
unrecoverable (I won't spoil the precise ending).
The story itself is quite intriguing, and it interesting to observe how the narrator's mental health worsens daily.
The second level of interpretation of this story is
feminism. Gilman's story is a small manifesto for woman's liberation.
Here's where the husband comes in play. Although he may seem a simple
single dimensional character (honestly, in part
he is), he is actually the stereotype of the possessive husband, very
popular in the years Gilman lived in but being a doctor he has seemingly
good motivations for his choices. He is a doctor convinced that is wife
is going crazy and he tries to cure her.
His solution? Drive her even crazier. The problem which Gilman is
clearly talking about is not that the husband is wrong, but that he does
not listen to what she says. In every conversation he never believes
her (and he is right) and never listen to her suggestion
(and he is plainly wrong). Clearly he works as a metaphor for the low
value that men placed on women's opinion back then. With her story,
Gilman tries to explain that a woman by the use of her head is free, no
matter what chain is she constrained to.
Another level is the scientific one. By
researching online (well... reading on wikipedia) it becomes clear that
Gilman had issues with an early psychologist/doctor who treated her
depression by removing almost all distractions from her.
In a figure of speech, there is not much difference between Gilman and
the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper". Clearly, the author wants to
criticize certain scientific methods that are based on traditions,
guesswork and little else. She also criticizes those
doctors that don't listen to patients because they are so sure of their
methods that they would not change them even if hard proof is in front
of them. Until irreparable damage is done.
Obviously, I strongly suggest reading this classic.
It was one of Lovecraft's favorites and for a good reason. The text is
freely available on Project Gutenberg. In addition two movies, one transposition by BBC and one that took some liberties, have been made (I haven't seen either).
