The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Essay Example

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman made its appearance for the first time in the year of 1892 in a magazine named, “The New England”. Narrated in the first-person perspective and presented in the epistolary style, precisely as a collection of a journal entry, it was written from the end of a woman who is suffering from mental disorder and psychosis. The letters have also been produced of the time when she was confined into the bed chamber by her physician husband. Myriad criticisms and contentions prevail regarding the actual thought and theme of the story captivated throughout the short length of its tight-lipped plot. The story of the protagonist of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” also suffers the dominance of wisdom and misjudgement from her husband’s end who is a physician and it leads to a disastrous result in her life (Cornell University, “Making of America). This essay intends to explore the subtle feministic discourses that evolved into the literature since early nineteenth century and tried to discuss the pre-occupied thought of men regarding the body and mind of women in the society. John, who misjudged his wife and was driven by the pre-occupied thought regarding the mental disorder of his wife, pushes her to a realm of depression ultimately throwing her into a pursuit of madness is actually a symbol. At the greater plane, it stands for the dominance and depression subjugated to the humane feeling, love and compassion for women that became quite natural towards the second sex of the society since ages. The misjudgement of John towards his wife and her gradual dissent from depression to madness are the results of John’s pride blended with pre-occupation, superiority complex regarding his intelligence and wisdom, disdained John from supporting his wife with love, care and compassion. The essay tries to evolve myriad social taboos that prevailed regarding the physicality and mentality of women in the society through the misjudged and heightened perspective of a man. Gilman, through the saga of John and his wife, tried to present the contemporary society and the relationships between the sexes within it. The story of Gilman is a microcosm of the society and the essay a macrocosmic platform to explore and express the subtleties concerned with relationship between man and wife in the story. The women in the story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” shows the indication of postpartum psychosis, a mental disorder and depression common among women in the period after child birth. But John is seen serving his wife as a physician treating the patient almost to be powerless and believes only in his observation and scientific derivations. He finds himself posited at a superior plane in terms of his scientific credibility but very unfortunately he lacks the power to delve deep into the dark avenues of his wife’s mind which is devoid of any light of compassion, love and understanding. The situation gets very ironic when we see that John’s wife has been confined to a room of a colonial mansion rented for summer. Completely unoccupied and without any stimulation, she gets obsessed with the yellow wall paper on the wall of the room and start writing the journal entries which she hides from her husband. She is obsessed with the colours and patterns of the portrait in the wall paper and hides her feelings and journal entries which are actually her documented feeling and expression of the mind during such situation. True understanding and compassionate nature of John would have evolved out into a better result and could have saved his wife from finally descending into madness from the situation of depression. But ignorant and proud John finds “something queer about it” since the outset of the story. The excess obsession regarding the wall paper makes the confined lady record her obsessed feeling about the wall paper, “It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw — not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper—the smell! … The only thing I can think of that it is like, is the color of the paper! A yellow smell” (Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, Pg 11) The final predicament of the confined lady is worst. John finds her locked up in the room and instead of her husband’s strong arms and embrace, she finds the room more safe for herself and thinks herself among those women who are captivated inside that yellow wall paper on the wall and are awaiting freedom desperately. In a mission to accomplish her desire of mind, she tears the wall paper confined into the room and refuses to come out of it when the summer rent is over. John finds her patient creeping on the wall of the room, with contention that is most miserable, “For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But 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, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” Pg 15). The superior complex of John as a serving physician to his wife leads to the undesirable consequence of his wife’s mental breakdown. It is quite pertinent that had John been able to become a loving, compassionate husband and would have behaved humane with his wife rather than treating her as a powerless patient with mental illness, she would have been able to overcome her neurosis easily. Her loneliness and lack of stimulation led her to the misery which could have been easily saved through love and care more than cure. At this area John fails severely with the preoccupation of his superiority of judgement, wisdom and maturity that leads to a catastrophic result. Also, this particular attitude of John towards his wife clears the perception of male section of the society towards the women section and launches the text into a feminist discourse (Lavender, “Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper" (1913)”). Bibliography Cornell University, “Making of America”. April 05, 2011. The New England Magazine. 2011. Gillman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Forgotten Books. 1973. Lavender, Catherine. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper" (1913)”. April 05, 2011. The City University of New York. June 08, 1999. Read More