Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper through the psychoanalysis and feminism lens

Throughout the years, women have been oppressed through the image that men have given them.
Women have been restrained by the image that women are helpless, and that men know what is
ultimately best for them. I will be using the psychoanalysis and feminism lense to prove how the story
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Gilman shows this oppression of women through the
narrator's battle between being trapped by her mental illness as well as being trapped by the way her
husband treats her. The narrator of the story is a women who clearly has mental issues, but there is
more that contributes to her despair. She is stuck between her own psychological issues but also the
issues that her husband brought to her as well.

It seems as if the narrator suffers from Postpartum Depression, which means that her negative feelings
formed after giving child birth. However throughout the story, her husband, a physician repeatedly
explained to her that there was nothing really wrong with her even though it is clear to the reader that
the narrator is mentally unstable. Her husband stated that she was just too nervous and frantic, and
that all she really needed was rest in a place that made her feel relaxed. “John is a physician,
and perhaps- (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is a dead paper and a great relief to
my mind)- perhaps that is the reason I do not get well faster.” (Gilman 956) The narrator felt trapped
underneath her husband's care because he did not treat her as if she was a patient with a mental
problem, and he refused to give her any real diagnosis or treatment. Her brother was also a physician
and he treated her the same way as him, telling her that all she really needed was rest and to relax her
mind. John thought that he knew what was best for his wife, even though he was only further
hindering her condition. This is an example of the struggle between gender roles through the feminism
lens because the husband believes that he knows what is best for her simply because he has a degree
in the matter and because he is a man. He had the mindset that if he didn't see anything wrong with
her then it can not be true.

John decided that the only way to help her recover would be to take her out of the current place she
was living in. He did not understand that it wasn't necessarily the place that created the narrator's
depression. Unfortunately, the home he took her to did not make her feel relaxed or any better at all.
All that John did was lock her up in one room and take her away from society. Instead of working with
her towards getting better, he isolated her as if she just needed to be alone in order to get better. He
would monitor her meals, activities and rarely allow her to have any visitors at all besides himself.
Using the psychoanalysis lens, I believe that being alone was the problem for her. She knew that from
a young age, she had a wild imagination. She spoke of how she used to imagine the wildest of
creatures as a child, and that she would end up scaring herself from this imagination. She was finally
letting her imagination control her without any help from the one person she was forced to depend
on. In the past, that's how it was for women. They were forced to depend on their husbands because
they were not allowed to fend for themselves by working or doing anything a man “should” do. The
narrator needed to express herself and handle her emotions in a healthy way instead of being told by
John that it's all in her head and that she doesn't have any real mental problem. According to apa.org,
an estimate of 16% of women undergo Postpartum Depression. This means that John's argument is
invalid because her illness isn't something that her imagination created. It's real and even common.

The narrator lets her imagination get the best of her because she became obsessed with the yellow
wallpaper. The wallpaper taunted her as if it was a living person or monster. She had suffered from her
imagination in the past but never like this. It consumed all of her thoughts and made it even more
difficult for her to get better. John helped to destroy her by not realizing that there is a woman inside
of her who is struggling to be herself and to show her true feelings. The yellow wallpaper drives her
imagination further than ever, and she looses herself in the thought it provokes. She sees figures in the
wallpaper, and begins to think about all of the other women who are imprisoned just as she is. The
narrator begins to question herself and how many others there are. She further opens her mind to the
amount of people who must be restrained by their husband, and this only adds to her insanity.

At the end of the story, the woman speaks as if she herself literally came out of the wallpaper and
wonders if all the trapped women will escape from it just as she has. “I've got out at last, in spite of
you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!”. (Gilman 967) The
narrator tears off the wallpaper and reaches the peak of her insanity. (parrishco.com) By mentioning
the name Jane, I think she is referring to herself since the narrator is without a name throughout the
story. It seemed fitting that Jane is herself because she exclaims that she finally escaped her husband
and Jane's efforts to keep her trapped which could mean that she finally let her hysterical thoughts
and feelings show through whatever sanity she had left. Her mention of Jane connects to her insanity
because we know that she has become so delusional as to mention people we have no clue of. She
begins to talk about her husband, but isn't aware of who he is. “Now why should that man have
fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!”.
(Gilman 967) All that the narrator sees is a fainted body on the floor who she has to creep over.

Viewing this story through a psychoanalysis lens, I concluded that when some one has a real mental
illness they need more than just a change of scenery. There is no easy way to just escape a mental
disorder, such as one as serious and painful as depression especially in her case. It is a lot harder for
women to escape their depression when it formed from them having a baby since a baby is something
you can not change nor get rid of. Not only could the narrator not escape her mental illness, but she
could not escape the hindering she received from her husband. The woman knew that something was
wrong with her, whether other people believed her or not. She felt helpless, hopeless and overall
crazy.

The narrator knew that she had lost herself, and her husband didn't seem to care about making an
attempt to find her. The character of John is undefinable because it's hard to be sure of what his exact
motives were. It is obvious that he loves his wife because he is trying to fix her, but it is also obvious
that he has complete control over her. “It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so
wise, and because he loves me so.” (Gilman 961) John is too proud to consider his wife's feelings and
think about the fact that he doesn't actually know what it is that she needs in order to get better. Time
and time again the narrator would feel that she couldn't explain to him that he isn't helping her,
because he is positive that she doesn't know what's best for her own mental health. His role as a
physician started to take away from his role as a husband. “He asked me all sorts of questions too, and
pretended to be very loving and kind.” (Gilman 965) During this time, men were the dominant ones
and John contributed to this image by imprisoning his wife and her mental illness.

The story is told through the narrator's writing, which is the only time that the narrator feels she can
express her real thoughts and emotions. It seems as if she is documenting herself and that her writing
is the only real communication that she has- that the pen and paper are the only things that truly
listen to her and believe her every word. Although writing can be a wonderful thing, she becomes
obsessed with it just as she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper. The narrator has a way of
giving her experiences an unhealthy component. She lets her nervous tendencies become obsessions.

The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Gilman demonstrates a prime example of the
struggles of a woman who is imprisoned not only by her mental illness, but by her husband as well.
The narrator goes back and forth between normality and her bipolarity that comes from her illness.
She takes on the role of two characters. The first one is her real self, the one who has a wide range of
emotions and a panicked mind. The second is the one who holds her sanity. Most of the story is told
through the balanced character, yet the mental breakdown she has in the end shows that she has
almost changed characters, and that the mental illness and her husbands lack of help get the best of
her.

Psychoanalysis of ‘The Yellow

Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins
Gilman
As a summary this story focuses on the narrator and her history
with depression that has occurred after her the giving birth to her
first child. On the other hand, her husband who is a doctor at the
same time suggest her to rest in a room as a treatment plan which
eventually kills her productivity and increases the gap between the
narrator’s true self and the narrator itself. The room that she was
suggested to rest in is a room with yellow wallpaper and that
explains where the name of the story comes from, with following
days first narrator starts to analyze and focuses on the pattern
which will eventually leads to her seeing another woman behind
this yellow wallpaper and was trap inside of it. At the end of the
story narrator has another episode and rips the yellow wallpaper
in order to set free the woman behind it, the husband who saw her
wife going mad and ripping the wallpaper faints, after that she
continues to crawl around the room and this is how the story ends.

Focusing on the symbolism that have been used in this story, the
first symbol that pops up after reading the story, parallel with the
name of the story as well is the ‘yellow wallpaper’. The meaning
behind the color yellow is bidirectional, while the bright yellow
stands for freshness, happiness and positivity, the dark yellow
stands for sickness, dirt and has a disturbing effect, which in these
case as the narrator distinguished as well the room that she rests
in she describes the yellow as strangest yellow, has a yellow smell
and unclean yellow, she even states that she can understand how
children hated it. It has been stated yellow is not the greatest color
to choose for a room that an individual suggested to rest in, back
in the history in Egypt yellow was worn to signify the dead, also
studies show that babies cry more in rooms that are painted in
yellow which is parallel with what the narrator suggested earlier. I
believe that the color yellow in this story suggest the narrator’s
own death of creativity and how they killed her courage to create
with trapping her into a room and not letting her write anymore
and how it increased her depression state.

Focusing on the pattern of the wallpaper, she tries to understand

how the pattern works and recognized how the pattern repeats the
same pattern over and over again. I believe this repeated pattern
symbolizes the female history which narrator itself is trapped too,
when we look at the history we see girls becoming like their
mother and eventually doing the same stuff without any desire to
create or add something different and unique to the world, giving
birth to a child, becoming a mother and doing house work mostly
which is a repeated domestic pattern that has been followed for
years which becomes a cycle. It is important to recognize that the
narrator’s tendency to depression increases with her giving birth
and getting locked up into a room as a treatment without writing
(without creating) with the manipulation of her own husband
which is a trap for her for following the patterns. Specifically, her
seeing another woman behind the wallpaper that has been trapped
and wants to be set free is another sign that this is her who is
trapped in the pattern with her own life and she wants to be set
free, in this case the woman behind the wallpaper can’t be anyone
but the narrator. But if we look from a wider perspective we can
state that the woman behind the wallpaper can be every female in
the history as well and representing their desire to be set free and
break the repeated chain.

Another symbol is the moonlight, which comes up and mentioned

a lot in the story. We can explain this with the opposition of sun,
while sun associated with positivity and energy, the moonlight
which occurs in the night and dark times associated with
suppressed things coming back to life specially feelings and
thoughts. In this case it is obvious that the narrators inside world
have been affected by the moonlight which lead these sorts of
outcomes.

Moreover, bed is another symbol as well, bed can be linked with

two ideas, first it is a place to rest and sleep and second it is place
that opens up the doors of sexuality. In the story bed is strongly
linked with a place to rest and also a trap that she is forced to lay
in, in a deeper sense we know that female sexuality has been
ignored for decades and it is not appropriate for females to have
sexual desires, they should be pure and virgin which forces
females to repress their sexual tendencies. But sex is also
something that ends up with creation, it is the two people coming
together and creating something, just like creating an idea you
attract something, and it comes together with another triggering
stimuli and becomes a new creation of your own. In this case her
laying and resting in a bed also states that how her sexuality linked
with her creation is repressed as well, she cannot write, and she
have to lay and rest in the bed, there is room she stays in but there
is no room for her creation and allowance for her essence to come
up.

Also, the room that she has been forced to stay in is not the
prettiest room in the house, there is another room with a garden
view, but her husband wants her to stay in the room that is in the
upstairs with dirty yellow wallpaper that is already sound
depressing and limits her choice and made the choice for her. Like
the room inside being not depressive enough to trigger her mental
state, the only freedom based thing or inspiration based thing in
the room is the window and the view that comes with it, the room
that narrator stays in does have a window but it is full with bars
and again underlines the fact that her freedom is limited and
creates the sense that there is no way out.

There is also lots of usage of ‘I’ in the story as well which can be
easily recognizable while reading the story, this excessive usage in
‘I’ helps the creation and the link of empathy between the narrator
and the readers and makes story easier to understand and find
something in common. Everyone who reads the story can focus on
a time and associates this with the story to time when they felt
trapped in a cycle and wanted to be set free and free of all the
suppressions that has been exposed from the environment and the
society that we live in.

I would like to focus on the ending of the story as well, the ending
of the story is kind of ambiguous and open to make comments. We
have learned that we should not always trust the narrator and
always read the story with a doubt. In the story there is reference
to a rope that has not been associated with anything, there is
highly depressed woman who sees another woman behind the
wallpaper and there is rope which automatically links into the idea
of suicide, could it be possible if she hung herself and caused in
her own death and this is her way of setting herself free. Another
doubt that pops up while reading the story is her husband’s
reaction, it is understandable that he saw her wife going mad in a
horrific way and ended up fainting to the floor, but how true can
these be? From the earlier parts of the story the narrator suggested
that his husband going on business trips in the city, which
automatically can be linked with him having an affair and calling it
a business trip. This might look simple, but for a depressed
woman who is trapped in a room and having hallucinations this is
actually can be taking into account as a strong motivation to kill
her own husband. At the end of the story after her husband laying
on the floor she does not do anything and continues to craw in a
circle around the room and always paints a picture that she is
stepping on him while crawling without giving any care. Narrator
herself being locked up and not having any kind of freedom in her
life, her disorder and her creativity and her husband going outside
deciding her what to do and probability of him having an affair
increase these sorts of doubts. It might be possible that she
murdered her own husband and that’s how she set herself free due
to her husband being the one who suppressed her ability to write
and suggest a rest treatment, with killing her husband she might
have been liberated both herself and the woman behind the
wallpaper and crawled out of the room to her freedom. Narrator
also ends the story saying;

“Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right
across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every
time!”
Narrator saying that her husband fainted and now she had to
creep over him every time can also be associated with her setting
herself free and becoming independent as well.

In addition, if we look at the history man has always been

associated with power and strength, but in these case after seeing
his wife becoming free he is the one who faints which shows that
they are not always the one with the power and males are afraid of
female power. In order for a female to become free they should be
independent and should not be attached to any male figure that
tells them what to do. I believe in the story her husband fainting is
another sign that states the power of free female power.

Artwork by Safa Yakoob

The Other “Madwoman in the Attic:” A Lacanian

Psychoanalytic and a Feminist Reading of
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow
Wallpaper"
by Farah Nada

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) follows the descent of a

woman into madness through seclusion and isolation. The Yellow Wallpaper lends

itself to analysis through the lens of different critical theories, such as Lacanian

Psychoanalytic Theory and Feminist Literary Theory. Lacanian psychoanalytic theory

applies principles and concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis to the study of literature.

Critics who apply Lacanian psychoanalytic theory look for parallels between the

process of psychoanalysis and a literary text, with particular focus on the

unconscious, and the mirror stage. Similarly, Feminist critical theory can also be

applied to Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Feminist criticism is concerned with the

representation of woman in literature. Critics who apply feminist criticism focus on

exposing the concept of patriarchy, highlighting the underlining inequality that governs

this social structure. Feminist literary critics also challenge the stereotypical

representations of woman as passive and mentally unstable, and explore the issue of

female identity. Because the story is concerned with the madness of women,

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper may be analyzed from a Lacanian

psychoanalytic perspective as well as a feminist perspective.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a 19th century American short story by Charlotte Perkins

Gilman that is told in series of journal entries by an unnamed, female narrator. The

story is set in a mansion which the narrator’s husband, John, rents for three months to

provide her with rest and seclusion, the ideal cure for “nervous depression” (Gilman

2). Throughout the story, the narrator remains isolated within her bedroom, with no

companionship and little conversation. She seeks solace in her writing, but her
husband forbids her from working and so she must write in secret. As the story

progresses, the narrator becomes both revolted and fascinated by the yellow

wallpaper in her bedroom. She begins to see figures and patterns in the design,

eventually believing that the figure is that of a woman trying to break free. The story

ends as the narrator descends into madness after ripping out the paper and freeing

herself.

Lacanian Psychoanalytic Criticism

Gilman’s short story may be analyzed from a Lacanian psychoanalytic

perspective. Its subject matter, which is concerned primarily with mental illness, draws

attention to the psychic nature of the text itself. The story, which demonstrates a

woman’s decent into madness, reflects many aspects and stages of psychoanalysis.

One of the most noticeable elements of Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is its form,

which creates a chain of communication between narrator and reader. The story is

written in a semi-epistolary form; however, rather than being written in a series of

letters to another character in the story, it is written as a series of journal entries to the

reader. As a result of this, the reader becomes a silent character within the story and

the relationship between the narrator and the reader becomes similar to the

relationship between a psychiatrist and his patient. Here, the psychiatrist listens to the

periodic input from the patient without comment or interference. For example, with

regards to her husband’s diagnosis, the narrator disagrees but states, “I would not say

it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind”

(Gilman 1). By “this,” the narrator is referring to her written communication, which

none but the reader has access to (Gilman 1). Thus, the narrator quickly establishes a

sort of privileged relationship between the reader and herself.

According to Peter Barry (2009), Jacques Lacan viewed psychiatry as a “verbal

science,” because, “in investigating the unconscious the analyst is both using and

examining language” (Barry 106). Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper language

becomes paramount; written language is the form through which the narrator records

her story, but it also an act that she is “absolutely forbidden” from doing (Gilman 2).

Jeannette King and Pam Morris, in their article “On not reading between the lines:

Models of reading in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’” stated that the authority that the male

characters have in creating the narrator’s reality is an “imposition of patriarchal order

through language,” which allows them to determine not only what she does, but also

what she suffers from (King and Morris 26-27). Language, thus, becomes more than a

form of communication; it becomes a linguistic structure through which the story and

the characters are slowly revealed. As a result, one of the first steps in analyzing

Gilman’s story from a psychoanalytic perspective is to analyze its use of language.

According to Ferdinand de Saussure, “meaning in language is a matter of

contrasts between words and other words, not between words and things.…[it] is a

network of differences” (Barry 106). Lacan exemplifies a similar notion in his essay

“The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious,” demonstrating that the same

signifier may have a multitude of signifieds. Hence, meaning is not essentially existent

in any given object; it is external. Lacan states, “no meaning is sustained by anything

other than reference to another meaning” (Lacan 65). This ‘chain’ of signifiers is

exemplified in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper when the narrator attempts to describe

her summer residence. The narrator calls it “a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate…

a haunted house,” leaving readers with no clear image as to what the residence really

is, or how it looks like (Gilman 1). Similarly, when describing the room, the narrator

gives several possibilities, all of which are either incomplete or inaccurate, claiming

that the room was “nursery first, and then playroom and gymnasium” (Gilman 2).
Thus, the realities of the house and the room are not as significant to the narrator and

the reader as her descriptions of them are.

In addition, the most important symbol in the entire short story is the

yellow wallpaper itself, which fascinates and enthralls the narrator. While looking

through a Lacanian lens, the wallpaper can represent both the narrator’s alter ego or

doppelgänger, and the narrator’s unconscious. At the very start of the short story, the

reader is told that the narrator suffers from “temporary nervous depression—a slight

hysterical tendency” (Gilman 2). Today, her illness would probably be classified as

post-partum depression; however, given that this diagnosis was not an option in the

19th century, she is prescribed a ‘rest cure’, which keeps her secluded and inactive.

Her sole companion becomes the yellow wallpaper, and she begins to see in it a

strange sort of life. Soon, the narrator recognizes the figure of a woman within the

wallpaper; she states, “it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind

that pattern” (Gilman 6). Hence, the narrator identifies with the figure of the woman;

she is, to a certain extent, her “mirror” image. The more the narrator seeks her and

recognizes her, the more she realizes that she too is similar to the woman. This

recognition reflects Lacan’s “mirror stage,” when, according to Barry, the person sees

their ‘reflection’ in a mirror and begins to see him or herself as a “unified being,

separate from the rest of the world” (Barry 109).

Through his work in psychoanalysis, Lacan devised a three-step model of

mental development: The Real Order, The Imaginary Order, and the Symbolic Order.

The Real refers to a period in the infant’s life in which all needs are met. As the child

matures, he or she moves into the Imagery, where there is no distinction between self

and other. Then, the child sees their reflection in the mirror and begins to differentiate

between themselves and others, a stage that Lacan calls the “mirror stage.” Having

achieved this sense of self, the child enters the Symbolic stage; they learn language,

which allows him to refer to people and objects (Barry 109).

In Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator exhibits these Lacanian stages of

development. However, what is peculiar to this psychoanalytic reading is that, unlike

Lacan’s traditional stages of development, the narrator of Gilman’s The Yellow

Wallpaper seems to exhibit a reverse form of Lacanian development. According to

Barbara A. Suess, “because of [the narrator’s] relative nonrelationship with the

Symbolic Order and her correspondent inability to fully constitute herself, [she]

attempts to create her own order, and thus to constitute herself” (Suess 90). As her

obsession and association with the woman increases, the narrator’s awareness

becomes consumed with this “other” (Barry 109). Here, these stages of Lacanian

development appear to be turned on their head; as the narrator identifies with this

“other” woman, she becomes more at one with her. This moment of identification may

thus be interpreted as recognition of the unity between the narrator, “the self,” and the

woman behind the wallpaper, “the other” (Barry 109).

In addition, as the story progresses, the narrator becomes less of an adult

and more of an infant, which further demonstrates this reverse Lacanian

development. For example, the narrator’s husband, John, refers to her as he would

refer to a child, such as “little girl” and “bless her little heart” (Gilman 6). Similarly, the

narrator’s final degradation and insanity is evident in her “creeping” around the room

in the final scene; she states “here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder

just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way” (Gilman, 10).

This idea of “creeping” reduces the narrator to a crawling child or an infant. Moreover,

she is being guided by the wall, much like a child who is incapable of acting without

guidance or assistance. Hence, her final representation as a child-like being highlights

her descent into madness; her return to the Real Order is an escape from her mental

and physical confinement.

 Similarly, the yellow wallpaper may also symbolize the narrator’s

unconscious, demonstrating its significance for the conscious mind. When the

narrator first begins to describe the wallpaper she states that:

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 2-

3, emphasis mine)

This description of the wallpaper in this passage reflects the process of

psychoanalysis itself. Much like the narrator tries to follow the pattern of the yellow

wallpaper, the psychoanalyst tries to find the patterns within the unconscious. In

addition, the fact that the wallpaper “provoke[s] study” also reflects the field of

psychoanalysis as a whole, which is concerned with the study of the elusive

unconscious (Gilman 2). The unconscious’s effect on the conscious mind is also

evidenced in the text as the narrator personifies the wallpaper, stating that it “knew

what a vicious influence it had!” (Gilman 4). Hence, the significance of the yellow

wallpaper in Gilman’s short story mirrors Lacan’s conviction of “the centrality of the

unconscious” (Barry 110).

In addition, the images within the yellow wallpaper are described almost

like images within a dream. The narrator states that there is a “recurrent spot” in the

wallpaper, which has a significant effect on her, much like a recurring dream (Gilman

4). The pioneer of the field of psychiatry, Sigmund Freud, saw dreams as an escape

route for the unconscious mind. Lacan, like Freud, recognized the significance of

dreams, borrowing linguist Roman Jakobson’s concepts of metaphor and metonym to

demonstrate how the unconscious and the conscious minds communicate (Barry

107). In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator describes the figure in the wallpaper as a

“broken neck” with “two bulbous eyes” (Gilman 4). This metonymic description of the
figure, which is later revealed to be a woman, is a representation of the narrator’s

trapped self. Hence, it demonstrates how the yellow wallpaper can represent a model

of the narrator’s unconscious mind.

Moreover, the wallpaper itself has a “sub-pattern in a different shade”

which is not always visible (Gilman 4). This may also reflect the model of the mind

itself: the conscious and the unconscious. As the figure of the woman shakes the

wallpaper, we can see a parallel with the unconscious mind that is trying to seep

through. According to King and Morris, the energetic figure within the wallpaper is “a

metaphoric substitution for the desire which haunts her socially conforming self” (King

and Morris 29). This “forbidden” desire is the desire to “work,” to participate in social

life, and to experience “excitement and change” (Gilman 2). Hence, as the narrator

tears the wallpapers and frees the woman, she liberates herself both mentally and

physically.

Feminist Criticism

Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper can also be analyzed using feminist

literary criticism. The subject matter of the story, the issue of women’s insanity, is

highlighted in several works written by women, especially in the 19th century. One of

the most famous examples of female insanity is in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, from

which the phrase “The Madwoman in the Attic” emerged. In Gilman’s The Yellow

Wallpaper, the most striking element, particularly for a feminist critic, is the conclusion.

The woman’s ultimate descent into madness reflects many patriarchal stereotypes

with regards to female hysteria and insanity and highlights the realities of these

women. In fact, in “Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman explains how the story

emerged from her own experience with mental illness. Gilman describes her own

illness, and states that she was also given a ‘rest cure,’ which almost led to her
complete mental breakdown. Gilman states that the story “was not intended to drive

people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (Gilman).

Hence, by exemplifying the conditions of 19th century female existence in her story,

Gilman attempts to fight against them, and save others from becoming victims of an

unjustified social construct.

One of the important elements in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is the

representation of the male and female characters. According to Barry, feminist

criticism looks at the representation of women and studies the “power

relations” between men and women in literature (Barry 128). From the very start

of the story, the power dynamics within the narrator’s marriage are revealed.

Her husband, John, is clearly the dominant figure in the marriage. At the very

start of the story, the narrator describes her husband through a series of

negative portrayals. For example, she states that John “laughs at [her] of

course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 1). She also uses words such

as “practical,” “has no patience with faith,” and “scoffs openly” (Gilman 1).

Through these descriptions, the narrator highlights John’s patriarchal role in

the story; this is the role through which most of John’s behavior may be

interpreted.

In Rula Qawas’s article “A New Woman’s Journey into Insanity: Decent and

Return in The Yellow Wallpaper,” she states that:

John becomes [the narrator’s] jailer, policing every move and forbidding

her to affirm her creative self. He denies her an autonomous existence as

he tries to reshape her in accordance with all that being a wife/patient

entails, including being submissive, childlike, and subservient. (Qawas 43)

Qawas’s statement demonstrates the kind of behavior that was expected of

women in Gilman’s time, which is precisely that which feminist critics reject.

For example, while the narrator disagrees with her husband on many accounts,

at the early stage of the story she is still extremely passive and obedient; she

does not provide any comment on his behavior, and only repeats the phrase

“what can one do?” several times. This repetition highlights her helplessness

and her inability to assert herself as a wife, mother, or woman. It isn’t until the

end of the story that Gilman’s narrator finds her own way of asserting her

dominance; through her final descent into madness, she undermines John’s

dominance and escapes her physical and mental imprisonment.

Similarly, Qawas states that feminist critics may interpret “the narrator's

descent into madness as a way to health and well being, as a rejection of and escape

from an insane society” (Qawas 42). In The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman demonstrates

how many women believe that the patriarchal order is the right order, and that any

other order cannot exist in a patriarchal reality. The narrator’s inability to defy her

husband, and her constant submission to his wishes demonstrates the extent to which

women had to be submissive and obedient; any alternative behavior is quickly

dismissed. Thus, the narrator’s ultimate madness is her only way to escape. She

states, “I peeled off all the paper I could reach...It sticks horribly and the pattern just

enjoys it! All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes…just shriek with derision”

(Gilman 9). In this final scene, the narrator has a frantic desire to liberate herself from

the patriarchal controls of John and the rest of society. Her madness, thus, becomes

the key to this liberty; she had “got out at last,” and is no longer under anyone’s

control (Gilman 10).

In addition, according to Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, the narrator of The

Yellow Wallpaper is surrounded by “paraphernalia of confinement” (Gilbert & Gubar

90). This can be seen in the house itself, which the narrator describes through a
series of perpetual barriers. For example, she states that the house has “hedges and

walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses…” (Gilman 2). These

features are all physical barriers that surround the narrator. However, they can also be

interpreted as psychological barriers that trap the narrator in an isolated sphere, away

from society, and away from mental well-being. Similarly, the room itself suggests

confinement. There are rings on the walls and the windows are barred, which the

narrator assumes were for “little children” (Gilman 2). However, what she initially fails

to see is that the room and the house are both physical and mental prisons that are

meant to isolate her, the woman, from the rest of the world. Hence, through the

physical entrapment of her narrator, Gilman highlights both the physical and the

psychological entrapment of women in the 19th century.

Another important aspect to note in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is that

the story is about reading as well as about writing. While telling the story, the narrator

gives readers a first-person account of her thoughts through writing. However, through

her communication and interpretation of the yellow wallpaper itself, the narrator

engages in her very own analysis of what the yellow wallpaper represents, and who

the figure within it really is. In a patriarchal society, Patrocinio P. Schweickart explains

how “taking control of the reading process means taking control of one’s reactions

and inclinations” (Schweickart 438). Hence, the reading process itself becomes a

symbol of power for the narrator, allowing her some control within the male dominated

structure of her ancestral home. At one point in the story, the narrator expressed great

surprise when John and Jennie observe the yellow wallpaper. She states, “I’ve caught

[John] several times looking at the paper! And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her

hand on it once….I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that

nobody shall find it out but myself!” (Gilman 7). Here, it can be seen that the wallpaper

is the only thing that the narrator has any control over. She has discovered it, and

discovered its secret. She is the only one who understands this secret, and she is the
one who will eventually liberate it. Her desire to possess it, then, can be seen as an

attempt to possess something. Similarly, the access to the wallpaper gives her

purpose in life. For example, the narrator states that “life is very much more exciting

now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to,

to watch…” (Gilman 7). Through her access to the meaning of the wallpaper, the

narrator becomes empowered. Thus, Gilman demonstrates that, in order to achieve

autonomy, women must be able to understand, to have opinions, and to have

purpose.

It is evident that a story such as Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper can be

analyzed in a variety of ways, using a variety of different theories. Due to its

particular subject of women’s madness, the story is well suited to analysis

through Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and Feminist critical theory. The yellow

wallpaper itself, which is the most significant symbol in the story, symbolizes the

inner most desires of the narrator, both as a character and a female character.

Her interactions with the wallpaper throughout the story are like a dialogue that

allows readers to understand more about her psyche and her position as a

woman in the house. The more she interacts with the wallpaper, the more of her

character is revealed. Her final decent into madness represents her internal

recognition that madness is the only physical and psychological freedom.