Room With the Yellow Wallpaper

Infantilizing and Dehumanizing Women in the Victorian Era In 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman published "The Yellow Wallpaper," a tragic short story told from the first person point-of-view tracing a woman's descent into mental illness. The narrator remains unnamed, highlighting the problem of lack of identity and lack of respect for women in Victorian society, the primary theme of the story. The title refers to the wallpaper adorning a room that becomes a prison cell, in which the narrator remains trapped.

The room symbolizes the trappings of patriarchy, as the narrator's husband will not allow his wife access to the outside world. The husband likewise disallows access to creative outlets, and because of this, the narrator quickly goes insane. Yet rather than realize his complicity in her insanity or the insanity of his own actions, the husband remains convinced that what he does is in the best interest of his wife.

Trapped by social conventions and gender roles and unable to express herself, the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" succumbs to madness. The narrator is from an upper middle class, white background, evidenced in her description of the colonial mansion she is trapped in. It is also described as a "hereditary estate." Class is integral to Gilman's feminist analysis, because a similar type of experience would not have been possible for women who were poor and therefore conscripted to working. The narrator notes that her brother is a "physician ..

of high standing." It is ironic that the brother is a doctor given the fact that John, the husband, insists his wife is sick when she is really not. The labeling of women as sick is a means by which to oppress them as well as control their bodies and minds.

The narrator notes that she has been "absolutely forbidden to work," but that she "disagrees with their ideas." She feels powerless because she actually is; if she were to escape from the room and the mansion, the narrator would have nowhere to go. Confined to the room with the yellow wallpaper, the narrator perseveres in maintaining a positive mind state for as long as she can. Her strength slowly fades as her humanity is stripped from her.

She is dehumanized, and she is also infantilized because the room had been used as a nursery for children. John carries her in her arms at one point and calls her childish terms like a "blessed little goose," which also represents his view of his wife as being nothing more than a waterfowl. At a later point the husband also calls her a "little girl," overtly signaling his beliefs.

Yet whereas children would have been eventually able to leave the room as they grew older, the narrator has no way out. She starts to reveal her turmoil and suffering and even mentions "suicide" as a bit of foreshadowing. The narrator wavers between sympathizing with John and cursing him. She knows that being trapped is what is causing her to feel anxious and suffer mentally, and yet because she suffers, she confirms John's belief in her incapacitation.

The narrator's dichotomous views on the wallpaper parallel the way she feels about her husband: "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps BECAUSE of the wallpaper," she states as she descends into madness. Fixating on the wallpaper is the narrator's means of drawing attention away from her anger. With stream of consciousness occasionally characterizing the narrator's method of description, she frequently mentions the way some of the wallpaper has already been worn off or fading.

The use of exclamation points throughout the narrative also indicate the agitated emotional state the narrator finds herself in throughout her ordeal. Because the narrator has children, her being torn from them exacerbates her pain. She knows that a servant is taking care of her children, while she has been deemed incapable of mothering. Ironically, it is precisely her being trapped that makes her incapable of caring for her children because it is impossible to do so while a prisoner.

The narrator does not seem to get in touch with her anger at any point, and has been so fully indoctrinated by patriarchy that she continues to believe that her husband wants what is best for her and "loves her." She never speaks ill about him, instead directing her attention onto the wallpaper and blaming herself and her presumed illness.

The woman's experience parallels the experiences of women who, in less hyperbolic situations, buy into the patriarchal mentality and fail to question the ill intentions of the system that disempowers half of the population. While the narrator cannot be blamed, she does acknowledge her complicity by directing her anger inward rather than offering a more scathing and honest critique of patriarchy and her husband's.