An analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper is a story that was written during a time of great change by Charlotte Perkin’s Gilman. In the early to mid-19th century, the society positioned American middle class women as the spiritual and moral leaders of their homes. Based on this domestic ideology, a woman’s place in the society was only in the private domain of the home, where she was expected to fulfill her duties as a wife and mother. Men on the other hand took up public positions at work, in economics and politics. However, by the middle of the 19th century, this belief started changing as activists began advocating for the rights of women. By the end of the 1800s, the concept of “The New Woman”
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John’s (her husband) and the narrator’s sarcastic response portrays the strained nature of their marriage. Its suprising to see that their marriage exists during a period when there are such strains and power disparities. John represents a pragmatic and stoic typical male view of the world, incontrast to his wife, and doesn’t care much about his wife’s emotions. He prescribes rest cure for her by leaving her alone in a room with a yellow Wallpaper. Her thoughts later on succumb to the torment of being alone and she left with no choice but to stare at the Wallpaper continuously until she begins to see things in a pattern. She believes in the notion that there’s a woman behind the paper, and she is all the time trying to climb through, but unfortunately no one can climb through that pattern-it strangles so” (Gilman p.667). This symbolizes how women’s power is strangled by men and there are many women out there who are trying to escape and break free from suppression. She’s one of those women behind the wallpaper climbing to get out. The wallpaper represents imprisonment since the narrator tries to remove it from the wall but she’s not allowed to do so, yet she stays confined in the