THE INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

LL.B PART- 1 ENGLISH

Rodina Faisal

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

BY : Charlotte Perkins Gilman

About Author :
Charlotte Perkins Gilman Perkins; born on July 3, 1860 and died on–
August 17, 1935. She is also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson,
was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reforms. She was a
utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her
unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.
During Charlotte's infancy, her father moved out and abandoned his wife and children, and
the remainder of her childhood was spent in poverty. In her famous treatise, Women and
Economics (1898), Gilman theorized that women could never be truly independent until they
first had economic freedom.

THEMES :

• Mental Illness and its Treatment. ...

• Gender Roles and Domestic Life. ....
• Self-Expression, Miscommunication, and Misunderstanding.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is an illustration of the way a mind that is already plagued with
anxiety can deteriorate and begin to prey on itself when it is forced into inactivity and kept
from healthy work. The story displays how a male rule over a female. The Theme of the story
is the oppressive nature of gender roles and is it shown throughout the entire story. The
female gender is characterized by limited opportunity compared to male.
The Yellow Wallpaper” epitomizes the ways that forced change can lead to ruin and
destroy a person's identity. Throughout the story, the narrator becomes increasingly cautious
of the outside world. In the beginning, she craves for company because she is alone.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” gives an account of a woman driven to madness as a result of the
Victorian “rest-cure,” a once frequently prescribed period of inactivity thought to cure
hysteria and nervous conditions in women.
 es
The Subordination of Women in Marriage
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses the conventions of the psychological horror tale to
critique the position of women within the institution of marriage, especially as practiced by
the “respectable” classes of her time. When the story was first published, most readers took it
as a scary tale about a woman in an extreme state of consciousness—a gripping, disturbing
entertainment, but little more. After its rediscovery in the twentieth century, however,
readings of the story have become more complex. For Gilman, the conventional nineteenth-
century middle-class marriage, with its rigid distinction between the “domestic” functions of
the female and the “active” work of the male, ensured that women remained second-class
citizens. The story reveals that this gender division had the effect of keeping women in a
childish state of ignorance and preventing their full development. John’s assumption of his
own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his wife,
all in the name of “helping” her.

Themes
The Subordination of Women in Marriage
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses the conventions of the psychological horror tale to
critique the position of women within the institution of marriage, especially as practiced by
the “respectable” classes of her time. When the story was first published, most readers took it
as a scary tale about a woman in an extreme state of consciousness—a gripping, disturbing
entertainment, but little more. After its rediscovery in the twentieth century, however,
readings of the story have become more complex. For Gilman, the conventional nineteenth-
century middle-class marriage, with its rigid distinction between the “domestic” functions of
the female and the “active” work of the male, ensured that women remained second-class
citizens. The story reveals that this gender division had the effect of keeping women in a
childish state of ignorance and preventing their full development. John’s assumption of his
own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his wife,
all in the name of “helping” her. The narrator is reduced to acting like a cross, petulant child,
unable to stand up for herself without seeming unreasonable or disloyal. The narrator has no
say in even the smallest details of her life, and she retreats into her obsessive fantasy, the only
place she can retain some control and exercise the power of her mind.

SUMMARY :

Gilman’s classic short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a young
woman’s gradual descent into psychosis. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is often cited as an early
feminist work that predates a woman’s right to vote in the United States. The author was
involved in first-wave feminism, and her other works questioned the origins of the
subjugation of women, particularly in marriage. "

The Yellow Wallpaper" is a widely read work that asks difficult questions about the role of
women, particularly regarding their mental health and right to autonomy and self-identity.
We’ll go over The Yellow Wallpaper summary, themes and symbols, The Yellow Wallpaper
analysis, and some important information about the author.
 “ The Yellow Wallpaper “ details the deterioration of a woman's mental health while she is
on a "rest cure" on a rented summer country estate with her family. Her obsession with the
yellow wallpaper in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression
throughout the story.

The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" begins the story by discussing her move to a
beautiful estate for the summer. Her husband, John, is also her doctor, and the move is meant
in part to help the narrator overcome her “illness,” which she explains as nervous depression,
or nervousness, following the birth of their baby. John’s sister, Jennie, also lives with them
and works as their housekeeper.

Though her husband believes she will get better with rest and by not worrying about
anything, the narrator has an active imagination and likes to write. He discourages her
wonder about the house, and dismisses her interests. She mentions her baby more than once,
though there is a nurse that cares for the baby, and the narrator herself is too nervous to
provide care.

The narrator and her husband move into a large room that has ugly, yellow wallpaper that the
narrator criticizes. She asks her husband if they can change rooms and move downstairs, and
he rejects her. The more she stays in the room, the more the narrator’s fascination with the
hideous wallpaper grows.

The narrator expresses feeling even worse and more exhausted. She struggles to do daily
activities, and her mental state is deteriorating. John encourages her to rest more, and the
narrator hides her writing from him because he disapproves.

In the time between July 4th and their departure, the narrator is seemingly driven insane by
the yellow wallpaper; she sleeps all day and stays up all night to stare at it, believing that it
comes alive, and the patterns change and move. Then, she begins to believe that there is a
woman in the wallpaper who alters the patterns and is watching her.

A few weeks before their departure, John stays overnight in town and the narrator wants to
sleep in the room by herself so she can stare at the wallpaper uninterrupted. She locks out
Jennie and believes that she can see the woman in the wallpaper. John returns and frantically
tries to be let in, and the narrator refuses; John is able to enter the room and finds the narrator
crawling on the floor. She claims that the woman in the wallpaper has finally exited, and John
faints, much to her surprise.

SYMBOLISM :

The yellow wallpaper in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a symbol of society and

patriarchy. It is ugly, faded, and torn in some spots, and a figure of a woman is trapped in the
paper. It symbolizes women, or the woman in the story, being trapped within the constraints
of a patriarchal society.
The windows in "The Yellow Wallpaper" represent the duality of freedom and confinement.
Through the windows of her room, the narrator can look out onto a world of open spaces and
freedom from the confines of her room.

Yellow is the colour of sunshine, yellow brings about positive feelings. Joy, happiness, and
hope are all within yellow's domain. It can boost confidence, curiosity, and even improve
learning. In the story , the Yellow colour symbolizes the narrator's illness as well as the
sickness of the oppression she endures as well as her growing awareness of the oppression.

The baby in "The Yellow Wallpaper" symbolizes what society expected of women in the late
19th-century, to be women and mothers.

The mansion in "The Yellow Wallpaper" symbolizes the isolation of the narrator. The
mansion is a country estate located at least three miles from the nearest village, making it as
isolated as the narrator is during her rest cure treatment.

IRONY :
Dramatic irony is used extensively in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” For example, when
the narrator first describes the bedroom John has chosen for them, she attributes the room's
bizarre features—the “rings and things” in the walls, the nailed-down furniture, the bars on
the windows, and the torn wallpaper