Hannah Riesa L.

Abangan III-14
Literary Criticism AB/BSE Literature

He Said, She Said

Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” presents the following: The clash of
perspectives between opposite genders; and the dominance of one perspective over
the other. What makes the text “feminist” is the struggle and the resolution of the
protagonist (the wife) to find and establish her own identity by sticking to her own
perspective and by asserting it despite the opposition and the dominance of the
patriarchal party. Consequently, this paper will expound on the following: The difference
of gender perspectives as reflected in the text; the dominance of the patriarchal
perspective over the matriarchal; and the struggle of the women (and of a woman) to
break from the dominance of the patriarch.

Difference of Perspectives
From the very start, the text presents a huge difference between the husband
and the wife. It is clearly seen through their way of thinking, through their preferences
and through their expectations. The difference is so stark that it presents binary
descriptions of the husband and the wife.

For example, John is always portrayed as the facts-and-figures kind of man. He

bases his decisions on logical reason and not on personal whims,

“John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror
of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen
and put down in figures.”

Whereas, his wife admits that she’s the “feeling” type; and that oftentimes, she is
being unreasonable as she bases her decisions on impulse or on what she feels even
though she doesn’t understand why.

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 “That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care -- there is something
strange about the house -- I can feel it.”

Consequently, the differences between these two characters can also be seen in
a larger perspective as differences between being male and being female. Their
different preferences and expectations do not only dictate their distinction as separate
individuals but are also used to represent the collective group of their sexes.

In the chapter eight of his book, Guerin has mentioned something about myth
criticisms that use symbolisms to represent and to distinguish the male and the female
(p. 231). Following this thought, the text can now be seen as a clash between the male
and the female through the subconscious partialities of the characters. For example,
when viewing the house, the wife often prefers to stay near the gardens (earth- a
symbolism for female) while the husband likes to go at the upper rooms that open more
to the sky (sky- a male symbol). That, and their reactions to particular sky signs such as
the moon and the sun, can be used as basis that they are not only moving in their
personal accord, but they are actually representing two forces: the matriarchy and the
patriarchy.

In effect, the difference of expectations between the wife and the husband can
also be applied to the matriarch and to the patriarch in general. When John says that
the wife should only rest in the house and trust in his sense as a doctor, he is reflecting
a cultural expectation of the patriarch to be providers for the family. Similarly, when the
wife says that she means to be a help and comfort to John, she is also reflecting a
cultural expectation of a matriarch to be nurturers of their families.

Dominance of the Patriarchal Perspective

What can be seen as problematic in the text is the domination of one gender
perspective over the other, particularly- the patriarchal over the matriarchal. This
probably stems out from the cultural expectations set on both the husband and the wife
by the society: Since the husband is expected to look over his family, he exerts power

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and control over his wife’s decisions- thinking that it would do her good. And because,
the wife is expected “not to be a burden” to her husband, she lets herself to be
subjugated to the decisions of her husband- to the point of being silent. In fact, the
silencing of the wife is just one of the many instances where the patriarch exerts
dominance over the matriarch.

For an instance, the identity of the wife is deeply rooted to the identity of the
husband. What is troubling is that the wife is identified through the language of the
husband. John plays a big role in the labeling of the wife, preferring not to call her by
her real name but by using endearments like, “little girl,” “blessed little goose,” “darling,”
etc.- words that promote the stratification of the husband over the wife. In fact, the name
of the wife is not even mentioned throughout the text.

Another form of subjugation is when the husband dictates the condition of the
wife. Given his social position as a doctor and a husband, he automatically asserts his
authority over his wife. The wife on the other hand, finds herself helpless and is forced
to accept her condition that is dictated by her husband (and also, by her brother).

This acceptance of forced identity forces the wife to be silent. In fact, this brings
not only an external silence to the wife but also an internal silence as well. Of course, a
lot of external silences are shown through the dialogues between the husband and the
wife. However, the internal silences can be seen when the wife, instead of writing and
expounding on things that she wants to talk about, changes the topic and/or shrugs it off
because that is what her husband tells/wants her to do. Even in her personal journal,
there are instances where the wife filters herself as seen in the following passages:

“…John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I
confess it always, makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the
house.”

“I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that.”

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 On a larger scale, the dominance of the patriarch and the shushing of the
matriarch can also be seen in the text. Consider the following passages,

“I even said so to John one moonlight evening but he said what I felt was a
draught, and shut the window.”

“I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza
and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz
hangings! But John would not hear of it.”

By rejecting the symbols that pertain to the archetypal Great Mother, the
husband is clearly asserting his dominance as a patriarch. Moreover, by preventing his
wife to interact with these symbols, he is also in a way, silencing the force and the
influence of the matriarch over the wife. He is suppressing the freedom and the woman-
ness of the wife by boxing her in a world under his control.

Struggle to break away

Because of the dominance and the silencing done to the matriarch, a struggle for
freedom and equality ensues now in the text. This struggle is viewed as a process and
is seen through the progress of the condition of the protagonist- the wife. Moreover, this
struggle can also be seen in two prongs: first, the struggle of the woman to break away
from the dominance of the husband; second, the struggle of the woman to break away
from the dominance that is conditioned in her by the expectations of the patriarchal
society;

The struggle of the wife is a process because the text presents an evolution- a
series of progress on the woman’s condition, based on her diary entries. On the first
part of her entries, she is portrayed as a submissive wife though she has her own
opinion on things. Like, when her husband and her brother tell her to quit “working,” she
tells in her journal that personally, she doesn’t really agree to the idea. However, being

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in a social structure dominated by the men, she had no option but to be subjugated. Her
journal then, serves as her tool of rebellion- her deviance from the routine imposed on
her by her husband. This is proven by particular passages in her diary wherein she
admits that she is not supposed to write but she writes anyway because it makes her
feel better but only behind the watchful eyes of her husband and her sister-in-law. It can
be said that the struggle of the wife starts as a resistance to the power exerted by the
husband. Only though, she keeps it under the surface- there are no accounts in her
diary where her husband or her sister-in-law had caught her writing.

However, a shift happens when the wife begins to write about the yellow
wallpaper in her room. The wife is quite irritated to the wallpaper for various reasons:
First, because of its “ugliness”; and second, because the husband would not let her
repaper the room. These reasons make the yellow wallpaper a mirror that reflects the
internal and the external subjugation of the woman.

The wallpaper reflects the external subjugation of the woman because it serves
as a reminder of the husband’s dominance to his wife. This is because her husband
would not let her repaper the room. In a way, the yellow wallpaper becomes the
concrete form of the husband’s power over his wife.

The wallpaper also reflects the internal subjugation of the woman because it
defies her construct of beauty,

“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.

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely

faded by the slow-turning sunlight.”

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 In a nutshell, the woman is irked at the wallpaper’s inconsistency of patterns both
in color and in design, drawing and forcing her to focus much attention and thought to
the wallpaper. It can be said that her irkness at the wallpaper reflects her internal
preference that wallpapers should only remain as wallpapers- pretty but not being
provocative nor posing questions/confusion to the mind of the viewer. In a way, this also
reflects her conditioned mindset that women, like her, should also remain as
wallpapers- quiet and not posing a burden to the men around her.

“I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a
comparative burden already!”

It is also interesting that in the woman’s perseverance to study the patterns, she
sees a caged woman wanting to break free. It can be said that the woman is a
projection of a wife’s internal desires. This is because she associates herself with the
woman, imitating the actions of the woman she sees in the wallpaper,

“It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do
not creep by daylight.”

“It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!”

“I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder."I've got
out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper,
so you can't put me back!"”

Thus, if the woman in the wallpaper is a projection of the wife’s desires, then it
can also be said that the wallpaper is a mirror that reflects the woman’s image which
she is repressing to acknowledge because of (1) her conditioned mindset that she
should not be a burden to her husband, (2) her consideration that her husband loves
her and only wants what is best for her, and, (3) the expectations dictated by the
patriarchal society that a woman like her should be pretty and entertaining:

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 “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, -- to dress
and entertain…”

It is also interesting that in the latter entries of the wife’s diary, one can see the
change in the way the woman treats the wallpaper as she interacts with its image more.
From rejecting the wallpaper, she develops empathy for the woman inside the cage- to
the point that it has driven her to destroy the wallpaper that the woman is caged into.
And as she sees herself and becomes one with the woman inside the wallpaper,
following resistances are now exhibited by the wife both to the external dominance of
her husband and to the internal patriarchal dominance that is conditioned inside her:

She resists to the husband’s dominance not only by writing to her diary even
more but by using silence- the very method that the husband uses to show his
dominance towards her- to counter him. She shows it by (1) sleeping during the day and
by being more proactive during night time- by doing so, she disrupts the routine that is
dictated by her husband and chooses to close herself during the time of the day that is
identified with the patriarchy; (2) filtering the things that she tells to her husband- by not
telling everything to her husband, she is breaking away from the dependence that her
husband provides for her. She is developing the independence to keep and solve her
thoughts/issues by herself; (3) taking/using her husband’s words- she uses the
endearments that her husband has used to show the stratification in their relationship-
NOT to promote her dominance over her husband but to show that she is also in equal
footing in their relationship.

She also shows resistance to the internal patriarchal dominance by the following:
(1) By breaking away from the expectations dictated to her by the society. In the latter
entries in her diary, she abandons the expectation to be “entertaining” by choosing to
remain in her room and by embracing and adopting the actions of the woman in the
wallpaper; and (2) by stopping the self filters in her diary entries- in the latter part of her
entries, she has stopped filtering and has grown comfortably into talking about the

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woman that she sees in the wallpaper. As she continues writing, the wife, in the
process, also frees herself from the self-guilt that has been constructed inside her.

Though it can be said that the wife’s struggle against the oppressive dominance
of her husband results to her freedom when she has finally stripped off the wallpaper,
the reader cannot fully conclude that the wife has obtained her absolute freedom.
Because even though the wife has finished stripping off the rest of the wallpaper, she
still says that she still has to creep over his husband every time.

The yellow wallpaper then is just a shard of the overall struggle of the wife (and
of the women) and that the struggle for freedom and equality is a continuous process.

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