Transcript The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN
The Yellow Wallpaper
 Was first published in 1892 in New England
Magazine and is largely considered Gilman’s best
work of short fiction.
 At 24 Charlotte married Walter Stetson, who was an
artist.
 Following the birth of their daughter in 1884,
Gilman suffered a severe depression. She consulted
the noted neurologist S Weir Mitchell, a leading
specialist in women’s nervous disorders in the 19th
century.
Silas Weir Mitchell
 Weir believed Gilman had neurasthenia and
prescribed his “rest cure”: complete bed rest and
limited intellectual activity. The goal of the treatment
was to promote domesticity and calm her agitated
nerves.
 Mitchell’s “rest cure” was also prescribed to other
great literary figures:
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Virginia Wolf
Walt Whitman
Edith Wharton
Jane Addams
Science of the Times
 The narrator of the story is diagnosed with
neurasthenia, a disease characterized by “nervous
exhaustion” and extreme excitability.
 The story exposes a great myth that still survives in
medicine today: the relationship between weak
nerves and women in the medical practice, the idea
that nervousness is a “woman’s” problem.
 Because they were thought to have delicate bodies
and sensitive minds, women were thought to be
susceptible to these diseases because of their fragile
emotional states.
Male vs. Female
 Although men could be diagnosed with a nervous
disease, their treatment was different. They were
encouraged to exercise and sweat out the stress, and
read extensively to promote and encourage positive
intellectual activity.
 While women with the same ailment were made to
rest and refrain from intellectual activity because of
their physical and mental inferiority to males.
The Question
 Was the narrator suffering from these nervous
disorders at the beginning of the story or is she
simply “too imaginative”?
 Whether or not she is actually ill the narrator is
forced to accept her diagnosis and undergo a
treatment that suppresses her creativity and
emphasizes her inferiority to males and her inability
to be a proper wife and mother.
Gothic Tradition
 Many critics agree that while “The Yellow Wallpaper”
is a feminist writing it also embraces the conventions
of the Gothic genre:
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Horror
Dread
Suspense
Supernatural
Ruin Estate
Isolation
The Yellow Wallpaper
CHARACTERS
The Unnamed Narrator
 The narrator is the only character in the story that
has no name, no identity.
 She is a paradox because as she loses touch with the
outer world, she comes to a greater understanding of
herself.
 It is her external world that stifles and impairs her
inner self.
 This is symbolic of the wallpaper itself and it
representation of 19th century society.
The Unnamed Narrator
 Our narrator is presented as a highly creative
individual: she remembers terrifying herself with
imaginary nighttime monsters as a child, she enjoys
the notion of the house they are staying at as being
haunted.
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“A colonial mansion…I would say a haunted house, and reach
the height of romantic felicity.”
 Yet as part of her “cure” her husband forbids her to
exercise her imagination in any way.
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“There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a
temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you
trust me as a physician when I tell you so.”
The Narrator – The Rebel
 The narrator rebels against treatment and turns her
imagination on objects, the house, wallpaper,
gardens etc.
John
 John is the opposite of the narrator. He is a practical
man that revolves his world around the logical and
tangible.
 His antagonism towards her imagination stems from
his own rationality and personal anxiety about
creativity, and is incapable of understanding her true
nature.
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“John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with
faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs at any
talk of things not felt or seen and put down in figures.”
John the Controller
 John also represents the patriarchal hierarchy of the
society. Not only is he an authority figure as her
husband, but he is also her doctor so he controls that
aspect of her life as well.
 When we analyze John’s role we quickly see that he
in fact controls every aspect of his wife’s life.
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“He is very careful and loving and hardly lets me stir without
special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour
of the day.”
John the Demeaning
 John is sure that he knows what is best for his wife and
disregards her opinions and suggests:
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“I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day,
and tell him how I wish he would let me go to make a visit to Cousin
Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn’t able to go…and did not make a
very good case for myself, for I was crying before I finished.”
 He often patronizes her and calls her
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“His blessed little goose,” “what is it my little girl?” and “Don’t go
walking about like that – you’ll get cold.”
 Or treats her as an infant
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“And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me
upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat me and read to me till it
tired my head.”
John’s Big Mistake
 John is fixed in his authoritative position as husband
and doctor and cannot adapt his strategy to account
for her opinion. He believes there should be a strict,
paternalistic divide between men and women; men
work outside and woman like Jennie tend to inside
domestic duties.
 By treating her as a “case” or a “wife” and not as a
person with a will of her own, he helps destroy her,
which is the last thing he wants.
Jennie
 Jennie is the narrator’s sister-in-law and takes are of
the house during the narrator’s illness.
 She is a constant reminder of the narrator’s inability
to assume her proper role as wife and housekeeper.
 She represents the “Stereotype” always maintaining
a passive position under John’s supervision.
 She symbolizes the happy domesticated woman who
does not find anything wrong with the narrator’s
domestic prison, would never think of questioning it.
Mary
 Mary take care of the narrator’s baby.
 Her name is an allusion to the Virgin Mary “the great
mother” the idealized maternal figure.
 She also symbolizes the happily domesticated
woman. Although Mary is even less present in the
text than Jennie, she still serves to remind the
narrator of her personal failings as a 19th century
woman, particularly in terms of her own child.
 The lack of a female voice in the text reminds us that
women are to be seen and not heard.
Woman in the Wallpaper
 Although the narrator believes that she sees many
women in the yellow wallpaper, she centers on one in
particular.
 The woman appears to be trapped within the bar-like
pattern of the wallpaper, and she shakes the pattern
as she tries to break out.
 The narrator begins to associate with the woman in
the wallpaper:
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Both are trapped and imprisoned
Both resort to creeping
The woman is most active by moonlight as is our narrator
The Yellow Wallpaper
TECHNIQUES
Narration
 Gilman uses styles to enhance the breakdown of her
character:
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Notice how the sentence structure changes throughout the
story. The sentences become choppy, often disjointed, even
fragmented at times to demonstrate the breakdown of the
writer.
The paragraph structure changes and near the end they often
only consist of two or three sentences.
The language becomes curt, and the tone moves from one of
humility to paranoia and at times anger and apathy.
Irony
 Verbal Irony is used throughout the story by the
narrator to poke at her condition and herself. It is not for
humour, but to represent the submissiveness of the
narrator and the demeaning nature of her husband.
 Dramatic Irony centers around the room and the
setting: As readers we become aware of the odd nature of
the nursery and we can see before the narrator the
oncoming affects of the rest cure in her mind.
 Situational Irony: John insisting that the narrator
control her will, yet he controls every aspect of her life so
this is unlikely. John faints at the end of the story, which
is a feminine reaction.
The Yellow Wallpaper
SYMBOLISM
The Journal
 An epistolary is a work of fiction that takes the form
of letters between characters. Gilman played with
this format and we have a character writing letters to
us.
 This shows the narrator’s descent into madness, but
it is also an act of rebellion that we are a part if as
readers.
 The journal symbolizes creativity and expression,
two things that were abhorred in women. These are
what we consider the narrator’s strengths, but
ironically bring about the woman’s madness.
Barricades and Boundaries
 The house is a microcosm of the imprisonment the
narrator finds in the nursery. There is a emphasis on
the setting consisting of boundaries and barricades,
much like those that imprison our narrator both
physically, mentally and socially.
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“The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back
from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me
think of English places that you read about, for there are
hedges and wall and gates that lock, and lots of separate little
houses for the gardeners and people.”
The Nursery
 The description of the nursery is most alarming.
Initially we can see that it symbolizes the narrator
being treated in an infantile manner. As she is put
into a room made for children, yet cannot care for
her own.
 Later the description of the nursery takes on a
bizarre setting and we realize that it was meant for
someone insane and there are clues that our narrator
is not its first prisoner.
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“The floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plastic
itself is dug out here and there, and the bed is nailed down and
has been gnawed at.”
The Yellow Wallpaper
 The colour:
 “It is the strangest yellow, that wallpaper! It makes me think of
all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like
buttercups, but foul, bad yellow things.”
 Yellow is often associated with illness: jaundice and
the liver was considered the organ of emotion, so to
show an infection of the liver through the colour of
the wallpaper is clever.
 The colour is also associated with sunlight, which is a
male symbol, Apollo, the Sun God of Greek
mythology.
The Yellow Wallpaper – The Smell
 The odour of the paper seems to be associated with
the patriarchy and authoritative nature of men that
permeates all parts of her life and is always hanging
about her life.
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“Such a peculiar odour too! It was not bad – at first, and very
gentle, but quite the subtlest, most enduring odour I ever met.
In this damp weather it is awful, I wake up in the night and
find it hanging over me.”
The Yellow Wallpaper – The Pattern
 The wallpaper begins to serve as text for the narrator
to decode and read. She begins to see that it consists
of two layers.
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A ghostly sub-pattern behind the main pattern, visible only in
certain light.
The sub-pattern behind the main pattern, visible only in
certain light. The sub-pattern comes into focus as a desperate
woman, constantly crawling and stooping, looking for an
escape from behind the main pattern, which has come to
resemble the bars of a cage.
The Yellow Wallpaper –
The Heads of Many
 The narrator sees the vision as festooned with the
heads of many women, all of whom were strangled as
they tried to escape.
 Clearly the wallpaper represents the patriarchal
society and how women are caged and victims of its
authority.
The Yellow Wallpaper
MOTIFS
Sunlight
 Sunlight is associated with John’s ordered,
dominating schedule and the rational sphere of men.
 Men control these daylight hours of work and
activity, it is John who prescribes something for the
narrator to do for every waking hour while he goes
and does his real “work” outside the home.
Moonlight
 The moon is a traditional symbol of femininity and
associated with the Goddess Artemis.
 At night, however, the balance shifts. Men’s jobs in
the public sphere are irrelevant, and women can
achieve some equality with their husbands.
 John is unable to monitor the narrator’s actions at
night, she has a bit of freedom and allows her
imagination to roam freely.
 The woman in the wallpaper is only active at night,
too frighten during the day to move.
Creeping
 Creeping, stooped and hunched over indicates
someone who is trapped and seeking escape.
 Even when the narrator is free she still feels she has
to creep throughout the world, not yet able to stand
on her own. Her identity is not yet formed, and her
strength as an individual is still to be developed.
The Yellow Wallpaper
THEMES
Role of Women
 According to the social norms of the time period,
women in the 19th century were expected to fulfill
their duties as wives and mothers and be content in
their existent as nothing more. Men and women
were divided between the public sphere and the
private sphere, women were to remain in the home.
Those women that ventured into the public sphere
were seen as the lowest levels of society.
 The desire of our narrator to have creativity, to be a
writer goes against these norms, these women were
often rejected and shunned by society.
Creativity vs. Rationality
 From its onset the story exposes the narrator’s as being in
direct conflict with John’s rationality. As a writer, the narrator
thrives on using her imagination. John cannot recognize her
wife’s creativity more than the cause of her illness. In essence
a part of the rest cure was trying to stifle and suppress this
creativity.
 Because her husband represses her imagination and she
cannot use it productively it actually accentuates her
madness.
 Gilman suggests that when we deny a fundamental part of
ourselves a part of our nature we are doomed from the
beginning. John should have been able to accept the true
nature of his wife, rather trying to force her to adhere to his
prescriptions of the what the stereotype required her to be.