The Yellow Wallpaper
Alyssa Butler
Allen Anderl
English 124
November 16, 2012
A Critical Analysis of Formal Elements in the Short Story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, published in 1899, is a semi-autobiographical short story depicting a young woman’s struggle with depression that is virtually untreated and her subsequent descent into madness. Although the story is centered on the protagonist’s obsessive description of the yellow wallpaper and her neurosis, the story serves a higher purpose as a testament to the feminist struggle and their efforts to break out of their domestic prison. With reference to the works of Janice Haney-Peritz’s, “Monumental Feminism and Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look at “The Yellow Wallpaper, and Anita Duneer’s, “On the Verge of a Breakthrough: Projections of Escape from the Attic and the Thwarted Tower in Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Susan Glaspell 's "The Verge", I will explore the themes of female imprisonment and inequality in association to gender relations using the story’s setting, symbols and characters. The story is framed as a journal entry written by the main protagonist. She begins by writing about the estate that her and her husband are staying at for the summer so that she can recuperate from “. . .a slight hysterical tendency. . .” (Gilman). Her husband, John, a physician, has prescribed a “rest cure” treatment, confining her to bed, forbidden to work or write. Restricted to a former nursery room with yellow wallpaper, she describes it as “. . .committing every artistic sin.” (Gilman). She detests the wallpaper but John refuses to change rooms. As the story progresses, the protagonist grows increasingly depressed and anxious. With John’s constant observation of her, making her unable to write, her only stimulation is manifested in the intense scrutiny of the yellow wallpaper. She begins to notice a woman “. . .stooping
Allen Anderl
English 124
November 16, 2012
A Critical Analysis of Formal Elements in the Short Story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, published in 1899, is a semi-autobiographical short story depicting a young woman’s struggle with depression that is virtually untreated and her subsequent descent into madness. Although the story is centered on the protagonist’s obsessive description of the yellow wallpaper and her neurosis, the story serves a higher purpose as a testament to the feminist struggle and their efforts to break out of their domestic prison. With reference to the works of Janice Haney-Peritz’s, “Monumental Feminism and Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look at “The Yellow Wallpaper, and Anita Duneer’s, “On the Verge of a Breakthrough: Projections of Escape from the Attic and the Thwarted Tower in Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Susan Glaspell 's "The Verge", I will explore the themes of female imprisonment and inequality in association to gender relations using the story’s setting, symbols and characters. The story is framed as a journal entry written by the main protagonist. She begins by writing about the estate that her and her husband are staying at for the summer so that she can recuperate from “. . .a slight hysterical tendency. . .” (Gilman). Her husband, John, a physician, has prescribed a “rest cure” treatment, confining her to bed, forbidden to work or write. Restricted to a former nursery room with yellow wallpaper, she describes it as “. . .committing every artistic sin.” (Gilman). She detests the wallpaper but John refuses to change rooms. As the story progresses, the protagonist grows increasingly depressed and anxious. With John’s constant observation of her, making her unable to write, her only stimulation is manifested in the intense scrutiny of the yellow wallpaper. She begins to notice a woman “. . .stooping
Bibliography: Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism And Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Literary Reference Center. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. Janice Haney-Peritz’s essay is a critique of the “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the field of feminist literature. Her main idea of this critique is “. . .pointing out some of the more troubling implications of a literary critisicm in which Gilman’s story functions as a feminist monument, . . .” (114). The discussion in the text is the suggestion that the “. . .specific oppressive structure at issue is discourse.” (116). Haney-Peritz states that the structure at issue is a man’s prescriptive discourse about a woman or John’s oppressive discourse to the narrator. She uses the term “imaginary feminism” claiming that just as the narrator is freed from patriarchal domination because of her identification with her double, real women could also be freed through “identification” with what could be called a feminine literary critical canon. However, she also raises the possibility that one could read “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a “story of John’s demands and desires rather than something distinctively female.” This is a direct contradiction then to her idea of feminine freedom through identification. In the end Haney-Peritz suggests that “. . .we look to Gilman rather than to the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” for the inspiration we seek.” (124) and I wholeheartedly agree with this thought. Gilman has made the narrator in the story “mad” which provokes feelings of pity and sympathy rather than feelings of empowerment and identification for the feminist struggle.