Introduction
‘The yellow wallpaper’ is a famous short story written by American writer charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is considered as a landmark in American feminist literature and the same was published in a magazine in the year, 1892. Writing such feminist story was a brave step and this was very innovative for any contemporary writer. This paper intends to discuss ‘The yellow wallpaper’ with a special perspective to examine feminism along with discussing several other related aspects of the story.
Discussion
The yellow wallpaper is the story of a woman who is also the narrator of this story. This woman belongs to upper middle class society and has been portrayed suffering from a nervous disorder after giving birth to her first baby. John, her husband, is a doctor who, in course of treating her, recommends a bed rest. This was an effort of cutting all social contacts as well as all scholarly activities of the lady. By following the advice of her husband, she confined herself in a room where she expresses herself on yellow paper. Narrator becomes gradually sick and develops some characteristics of abnormality.
This yellow wallpaper appears to be the focal point of the narrator. She describes it in these words, “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions” (Gilman, 5). The yellow wallpaper is dull as well as hideous but even then narrator keeps watching it. The act shows that narrator is very much confused in her life and unable to handle inconsistencies of her life.
The story progress and narrator keeps following her doctor husband’s advice in order to improve her health but also she feels a strong need to express her thoughts and emotions at several occasions. Narrator also feels that she deserves a better cure for her illness and current treatment is not enough. Her doctor husband does not pay much attention on what she says and also starts neglecting her. She starts writing a journal in a secret way and hides it from her husband and other members of his family.
Narrator’s writing expresses her anger, suppressed behavior and also describes about developing abnormality in her behavior. Narrator seems to releasing her anger and frustration over the yellow wallpaper in these words, “I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Gilman, 5). The yellow wall paper portrayed in the story is not yellow like sun but the same resembles like toadstool and decaying. Flowers in gaudy outline look as if they are venomous mushrooms and are proliferating in an endless manner.
The condition of narrator continues worsening. She starts seeing different horrible shapes in the patterns of flowers and expresses her imagination in these words, “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down. I get positively angry with the impertinence of it” (Gilman, 6). She feels that the yellow wall paper watches her like her husband and his sister. She starts getting angry and her narrative suggests that she was getting disturbed because of her confinement as well as due to the hostile atmosphere where she was placed.
The yellow wallpaper describes narrator inside struggle and also her efforts to maintain her sense in adverse circumstances. The yellow wallpaper also portrays social and economical dependency of women that confines their role to the domestic slaves. Story and struggle of the narrator represents the story of all women of the society. The story describes the condition of women in a society that is dominated by men.
The yellow wallpaper is a story that deals with the problem and condition of women in male dominated society. Author has portrayed the pain and sufferings of all women in a very lively and striking manner. Story describes a glimpse of contemporary society where men used to be everything of the family because they used to go out and earn bread and butter for the family while women were kept inside the houses where they were assigned the role of homemaker, mother and domestic care.
Image of Women was painted as cult of domestic caretaker. Taking care of home, family, husband and children was considered true womanhood. A wife, who used to work at home without any demand, served every member of the family and without complaining about anything, represented an ideal woman. Such women were promoted in newspapers and gains appraisals in magazines, novels, journals and others were encouraged to follow such women. As Walter says, Piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness were expected from young women and these special qualities were highly appreciated (Showalter).
The yellow wallpaper perfectly symbolizes the ideal women of domesticity as well as ideal womanhood. Deborah suggests that Gilman tried to mention that women “were constricted to the set parameters that men determined. Women are conditioned to accept these boundaries and remain in place, in the private sphere”. Gilman though adopts a cautious behavior while portraying women condition because completely rejecting the reality was also not digestible. She was very practical and portrayed the things in a way that her message could be delivered but in a practical and smooth manner.
Gilman through the Narrator of her story strikes at the traditional family system and also challenges the role of women. She is not ready to admit her role that is to serve every member of the family right from husband to the child and elderly of the family. Gilman describes her anger and dissatisfaction through the narrator in the story. She appears to revolting against the ongoing trend where a woman is trapped inside their houses and are unsatisfied and depressed due to more than a few reasons.
Veneration of children was fundamental duty of women and it was considered an essential component of true womanhood. This behavior is also condemned by the author indirectly through the narrator. Author raises questions on the trend that mother only is prime responsible for child and sometimes this creates the situation difficult for women (Jean). Author portrays narrator that she has anger for her husband but it appears that she is also irritated and feared by children.
Narrator expresses her irritation and ager at several occasions though she has portrayed to be a loving mother for sake of the progress of story. Gilman succeeds in portraying her own thoughts through the narrator which is her believe that child is one of main reasons why a woman is confined inside the house. Child a child becomes an obligation of a mother and she keeps tolerating everything just because of her child. Narrator also becomes irritated at several occasions because of children.
Narratives of the story describe how cruel and selfish the husband is. John symbolizes the male fragile thought and exploiter of women. He and people like him are responsible for the oppressions of women in the society. Author describes how john kept ignoring his wife and caused her pain and sufferings. Narrator was suffering in hands of her husband and his family who did never care about her. Narrator indicates how insensible they were towards her pain and feelings.
Conclusion
After having observed succinct analysis of the story, ‘The yellow wallpaper’ it can be concluded that this story is used as an apparatus to express feminist views of the author. Gilman describes the torture of woman, physical as well as mental sufferings that women used to face by the family and society in contemporary period. Author strikes at the trends and traditions of the contemporary society. Author expresses her feministic views through different characters and by portraying several incidents of the story. Author steers incidents of the story in a particular direction with intention of describing author’s feminist thoughts. The Author expresses her views through actions of narrator’s husband and other incidents that take place in the story. Author also uses different symbols to express her own thoughts and compels readers to understand what she thinks.
Works Cited
C. P. Gilman and R. Shulman. The Yellow Wall-paper and Other Stories. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yelllow Wallpaper. Madison, WI: Cricket House Books LLC, 2013.
—. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1997.
Jean, Shawn St. "The Yellow Wall-paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Dual-text Critical Edition. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2006.
Showalter, Elaine. A literature of their own: British Women Novelists, from Brontë to Lessing. USA: Virago, 2009.
Thomas, Deborah. "American Literature." 7 July 1998. itech.fgcu. 21 November 2013 <http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/gilman.htm>.
