by Samual Seward

Created on: February 12, 2009

The Yellow Wallpaper

The short story, Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman contains many aspects that revolve around mental health issues during the turn of the century. The narrator is forced to relocate into a mansion, after her husband notices her depression. She then undergoes a serious mental collapse after living in a room with ominous characteristics, such as; barred windows; nailed down bed; and the yellow wallpaper that instantly grabs her complete attention.

After being forced to put down her work, a writer, she draws complete attention to the wallpaper and begins to believe that there is a secret underneath which she is going to solve. In the end the narrator believes a woman has escaped from the paper and she takes on the personality of the women that she believes had escaped.

The mental breakdown of the narrator is directly related to the real life occurrences of Gillman during the late 1800's. Being forced by her husband after her depression, this is now classified as post-pardon depression, to undergo treatment from Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, whose treatment involved totally inactivity without the ability to write. The similarity between her real life and the fictional narrator in the Yellow Wallpaper creates a mental breakdown that is true to form. The narrator continuously falls deeper and deeper into a mental collapse that could only be understood as true to life.

Gillman's feminist undertones are very evident as her husband becomes a major character. The narrator is forced into a room in which she protests that she be removed from, but John, her husband, convinces her to stay due to his profession as a doctor. The narrator then attempts to console her husband by not allowing herself to cry in front of him because she believes that it only bothers him and she does not want to be a bother. By forcing herself to conform to the expectations of her husband she is in fact putting herself in bondage, which allows her to view the wallpaper as a way to let, at first the woman behind the paper, but then as the story continues she begins to take on the identity of the woman who is trapped, therefore attempting to let herself out of the grips of her husband's control.

The short story contains relevance towards the true life events of the author, by paralleling the fictional narration and her true life experiences;
Gillman was able to accurately portray insanity with an infallible precision that allows the read to dive deep within the depths of depression. This accurate portrayal allows one to experience what it means to become insane. Gillman's
exceptional use of the yellow wallpaper as inanimate, then slowly gaining real-life characteristics through the obsessions of the narrator creates an accurate time line highlighting the narrators fall into psychosis.

The feminist undertones are apparent throughout the story, which allows Gillman to give reasons why the narrator eventually becomes frenzied; through the insensitivity of her husband does she really become insane. The story is an accurate description of insanity with apparent and clear undertones of feminism. Although I believe this story to be relevant in the theme of insanity, I believe that the insensitivity on the part of her husband is a little extreme and her feminist ideals could have been etched in the story with the use of other characters and not solely resting on the head of her husband.

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