How Does Gilman Use Irony In The Yellow Wallpaper

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is written in a journal- entry like format that follows a woman and her descent into madness. The narrator, a woman whose name is not given, is staying with her husband and some more family in an older estate on the countryside in the hopes that it will help her illness, which is describe as “temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 473). In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman uses irony—with emphasis on the protagonist’s sarcasm—in order to convey the psychological isolation the woman in the story is facing through mental illness as well as her attitude towards the oppression of women during this time period. Irony is a common literary technique in which the meaning of a statement

Despite her husband, John, being a physician, he does not seem to be completely certain of what is making her ill. Instead, he diagnoses her with “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” for which the treatment includes no social interaction or working (Gilman 473). Furthermore, upon telling the reader this, the narrator asks the rhetorical question multiple times of “what can one do?”; this is one of the first instances of the sarcasm she uses (Gilman 473-74). From her personal point of view, she thinks she could contribute to her treatment by being allowed to work, actually leave the house, and interacting with people. Even though the way she is posing the question initially conveys hopelessness, it is sarcasm. Her husband is the character who is helpless. He “does not believe [she] is sick,” but yet he is attempting to cure her (Gilman 473). Knowing this, the narrator is asking the question as if she were he; she knows what to do, but John remains uncertain and unsure of what approach he can have towards his wife. The narrator conveys that there is a simple solution to the problem John is trying to solve, but he is merely too proud of his status to acknowledge that perhaps his form of treatment will not

As stated by Haney-Peritz, “it is precisely because the narrator is patient enough to follow some of the doctor’s orders that she finds it necessary to deal with the yellow wallpaper” (116). Therefore, essentially, because she entrusted her mental state and health within the hands of the unqualified husband, despite his being a physician, it is the main reason she is consumed by the madness. What should have been a story of healing is now the “detailed and chilling account of a woman’s entrapment, defeat, and movement towards madness—one caused by the patriarchy” (Hume 477). The entire progression of her illness is littered with irony. The moment the wallpaper becomes the center of her attention the narrator has been ironic. She begins to become obsessed with the décor as it is “an acceptable feminine topic” and it influences her perception of reality (Treichler 62). Once again, trying to follow right path as a woman ended up contributing to her madness and is not healing it. Despite all the ironic occurrences the narrator experiences, perhaps the most dramatic one is portrayed by her husband. John is described as “mechanistic, rigid, predictable, and sexist” (Hume 478). Yet, when John faints he embodies the most ironic incident throughout the story. This man trying to control his wife and her emotions ends up fainting, an action whose connotation is almost exclusively feminine and weak.