The Yellow Wallpaper

Yellow Wallpaper

Breaking Free: The Ironic Liberation of "Yellow Wallpaper"

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a quintessential feminist story, even though it can be interpreted on many levels within that rubric. The narrator is married and has a child; she is thus engaged in some of the strongest trappings of a patriarchal society. However, she is removed both physically and spiritually from her stereotyped role as wife and mother. The narrator's removal from her role is, however, imposed upon her, or forced upon her by her seemingly well-intentioned but condescending husband. Therefore, the narrator calls into question her own dreams and desires. The reader is asked to investigate what a woman's dreams and desires would be independent of social norms or expectations. Although the narrator does break free from patriarchy at the end of the story, she does so symbolically and tragically: which suggests that there are few legitimate roles for women in a patriarchal society. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman explores the complexity and paradoxes of the role of women at the turn of the century.

The narrator's husband labels his wife as ill, and no plausible explanation is offered for his or the doctor's diagnosis. Thus, it seems that the narrator might have been labeled as being "ill" because she is socially deviant; in the same way that homosexuals were labeled as "ill." The fact that the husband prohibits his wife from writing proves that he is intimidated by her expression. The act of writing symbolizes self-expression. By preventing his wife from writing, he is inhibiting her. Rather than consult his wife as to what would make her feel better, the husband plays a paternal role. His attitude solidifies that of most men in a patriarchal society: that women are subservient like children and can be told what to do. The husband directly talks to his wife as he would speak to a child: "What is it, little girl?...Don't go walking about like that -- you'll get cold...Bless her little heart!" Gilman places her narrator in the room with the yellow wallpaper, which resembles a nursery, to emphasize the way that men treat women like children in a patriarchal society.

The narrator robotically refers to her husband in kind and loving terms, ostensibly because she has been socialized into her own gender role. When she speaks about him, her voice comes across as being inadvertently sarcastic: "he is so wise, and because he loves me so." This is because the narrator grows and changes in the story; she is coming to terms with her own sense of self and identity. Part of that process of awakening is the realization that her husband really isn't wise, or loving. Women have been taught to "love and obey" their husbands as part of the social, even cosmic, order. The narrator exposes the farce in patriarchy by revealing the ways it entraps a full fifty percent of humanity and drives the whole human race into a state of despair and depression.