2.

What does this story suggest is the role of women during the story’s time period (latte
19th or early 20th century)? Explain using textual examples.

In the story “The Yellow Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman about a woman suffering from
what her husband believes is a “temporary nervous depression”. They rented a beautiful,
secluded estate for the summer for her to recover. She feels vaguely uncomfortable with the
house but obeys her husband’s decision for the two to stay them. She also obeys him when he
chooses a large, airy room on the top floor instead of the smaller, prettier room on the ground
floor that she prefers. The narrator undergoes so many hysterical incidents where her husband
turns deaf to her explanation and orders her to give no way to her fancies and stop writing. The
flamboyant pattern of the wallpaper curses her with horrified experiences with a faint figure
appearing through the pattern which furthermore make her to fancy the unseen world. At the end
the narrator is creeping around the room peeling paper off the walls, john faints. John and the
family were partially responsible for teetering her to insanity. Gilman focuses on feminist and
anti-feminist perspectives, psychological perspectives, and even perspectives of those times
where men domination is prominent.

In the beginning of the story, the narrator is having temporary nervous depression who is shifted
to a colonial mansion which make her to address it as “haunted house” with persuasion of her
husband. She try to convinced her husband that she isn’t sick but he turns deaf to her
explanations and look upon her in scientific care as he is a physician supported by her relatives
calling her sickness as ‘hysterical tendency’ . Thus the only way to her to express her emotions
was writing “I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief
to my mind”. Writing was the only way to relief herself from thoughts but her husband prohibits
her to write further stating that her infancies are the main reasons for her sickness which she
partially gets persuaded. Gilman states the women of 18 and 19th century where women who
were prescribed the rest cure could not participate in any stimulating activities, such as reading,
writing, learning, socializing, or anything else considered too strenuous by their male doctors us
like John and the narrator’s brother in the story.
Gilman illustrates the feminist paradox through the use of various symbols, the most obvious and
ironic being the yellow wallpaper itself. At first, the narrator abhors the wall paper, and describes
it as such: “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded
by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in
others”. Ironically, the wallpaper is yellow, an eye-catching color that normally signifies
happiness and energy. The narrator does not react positively to the wallpaper, but the pattern
grabs her attention and holds her thoughts hostage. As the narrator’s illness progresses, her
reactions to the wallpaper become passionate, even possessive. “But I am here, and no person
touches this wallpaper but me—not alive!”. The yellow wallpaper is symbolic of the narrator’s
illness and mirrored herself inside the wallpaper trapped urging for liberty but as the story
progresses, the narrator becomes more concerned with tearing the wallpaper down, symbolizing
her defiance and rebellion against such oppressive norms. Thus it clearly shows the women urge
for freedom in those times and their effort to break the walls of stereotypical thoughts.

Even the garden serves as a symbol of domestic life. The narrator first begins to describe the
garden after reproaching herself for dwelling too long on her illness. At first, Gilman describes
the garden in a positive light: “There is a delicious garden! I never saw such a garden—large and
shady, full of box-bordered paths and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under
them”. Though the garden appeared to be welcoming but the narrator describes it underwhelming
which shows her reaction towards domestic life. In those time many women was initially
enthusiastic about her role of wife and mother, until realizing that this role was the only one she
would ever be able to fill. Upon realizing domesticity will strip her of her individuality, she
begins to view the garden as an ominous space. So as the story precedes she address the garden
as “…mysterious deep shaded arbors, the riotous old fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly
trees” which represents her thoughts thinking beyond the restricted walls and started abhorring
which was offered to her. Women were fixated in domestic life which soon turn out to be a
rebellion which is portrayed in the story.

At the end of the story, the narrator reaps of the yellow wallpaper symbolizing liberty and ability
to free herself from the prison-like norms of domestic life by succumbing to the very nervous
illness brought on by patriarchal oppression. By succumbing to her nervous illness, she breaks
from the Victorian norm and regains her autonomy by becoming a madwoman. The
consequences faints John which also exhibits that how man tends to be shocked to such change
in women furthermore showing the oppression of man getting defeated by women’s liberty.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is not only a critique on such harsh and unnecessary medical practices,
but also a feminist outcry against a patriarchy that would rather subdue women than address the
true nature of their problems. Gilman emphasizes the realistic plight of women in Victorian era
that the consequences are symbolically exhibited by the dramatic ending of the story which
leaves much for interpretation about women’s place in a male-oriented world.