Yellow Wallpaper by Cp Gilman

¶ … Yellow Wallpaper" by CP Gilman

Oppression and Empowerment in the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Nineteenth century (19th) literature reflected the prevalent issues of society and marginalized groups at the time. Specific to this reality is the internal struggle that women experienced in their 19th century society, when their social environment was oppressive against women, placing expectations upon them to their detriment and for the benefit of men.

It is in this context that writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman developed the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892). This controversial short story has influenced readings of women's plight during this period, illustrating in its protagonist's persona the socio-political dynamics that women encountered within the very institutions that promoted female oppression -- marriage and the family. Social critical analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper" assessed this literary work as "valued not only for its intrinsic aesthetic merits but also as a site for all manner of feminist debate during the last quarter-century [sic]" (St. Jean, 2002:399). Based on this critical assessment, the analysis that follows discusses the theme of oppression and empowerment of women in the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper." Further, this paper posits that Gilman, in writing the short story, mirrored the stories of 19th century women who were suppressed and restricted by their society to express themselves physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

Oppression and eventual empowerment of the female in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is illustrated in a complex way, since the protagonist in the story was illustrated as gradually sinking into insanity. The story was narrated through the woman's journal entries, and in these entries, the readers can see how the woman was constantly guarded by her husband. She was always subjected to long rests and sleep because of her constant 'depression,' which he mistakes to be when her wife insists that 'she's sick.' The initial part of the story showed and established the woman's relationship with her husband and her society: "... I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good." The woman wrote this statement in her journal after lamenting how John, her husband, and her brother often told her to rest and sleep as a remedy for the depression, or 'sickness,' she always complained about. However, it was evident that instead of rest and sleep, what the woman needed was 'work, excitement, and change.' Through this scene in the story, Gilman already gave her readers a glimpse of the woman's suppression of her will to move about -- that is, to exercise her 'mobility' (in all aspects -- physically, emotionally, and mentally) in her society.

As the woman's insanity progressed further, the significance of the yellow paper came into focus as the story's symbolic object that illustrated women's oppression in Gilman's society. The house that they rented for the summer for rest and relaxation had yellow wallpaper pasted on a wall in one of the bedrooms where the woman sleeps. The constant suppression of her husband to let her roam around the house, and his insistence to rest and sleep all day, became the catalyst for her to have delusions about the intricate patterns on the yellow wallpaper. Her daily 'imprisonment' inside the bedroom, and constant deliberation of where the pattern leads to and what the pattern is, revealed to the woman an important discovery: the pattern in the yellow wallpaper "... is like a woman stooping down and creeping about... By moonlight, it becomes bars!... [b]y daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still." This summarized and showed best the woman's own feelings about her constant 'imprisonment' by her husband, and in general, by the society. The woman became aware that the pattern is a 'woman' like her. In fact, the wallpaper served as her reflection of everything that was happening to her, what she is feeling and thinking. The woman in the wallpaper symbolized her oppression, and the images she was seeing on the wallpaper made her realize that was also 'stooping down and creeping about,' and it was then that she started seeking her own empowerment by breaking free from the 'bars' that were her husband and her society.