The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

The main character and narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane, conveyed her troubles with the stifled freedom of expression for women during the 1890’s in her marriage through her thoughts, actions, and environment. The story projected Jane’s perspective, from her journal, as she wrote about the couple’s and caretaker’s summer stay in ancestral halls, due to home improvement work. Jane, an upper-middle class woman, married her husband, John, a physician, who diagnosed her with “temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency (Gilman 363).” Since John fulfilled the position of her physician, he prescribed absolute rest to detain her hysterical tendencies. Jane’s caretaker and sister-in-law, Jennie,

Consequently, Jane’s restricted activities caused her to become infatuated with the tarnished, yellow wallpaper tattered around the room, specifically the woman, who Jane believed was suffocating behind the paper covering, till she released her by ripping the horrid paper. This scene of hysteria caused John to faint at the sight. Accordingly, written in the 18th century, the knowledge of mental-illness was limited and displayed Jane as an animal in a cage, segregated from others and viewed as insane, also the patriarchal expectation, the belief that women are to be servants to men, worsened her condition as John controlled all aspects of Jane’s life, including her care

As the couple arrived at their summer estate, the reader gained a glimpse of the unequal relationship as Jane states “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that (Gilman 364),” after voicing her opinion on the peculiar estate. Since Jane claimed that one should expect John’s actions, the reader can experience the dynamic between the couple as it displays the power he possesses over his wife, and the way he views her. Jane has become acquainted with her husband’s ripostes, such as laughing at her, but displays her fatigue at John’s retorts. Although John acted as her physician, Jane expressed her doubts and fears about him controlling every aspect in her life, including her treatment, as she could not inform John of her newly found turmoil as she feared “he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away (Gilman 369).” The wallpaper and women behind the paper become metaphoric for their marriage as the women “get through and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down and make their eyes white (Gilman 370)!” Jane drowned in her marriage as John directed her in all aspects in life, that cut off her air supply to forever become a floating figure in her ocean of life. She struggled with the stifled freedom of expression by not being able to express her troubles due to her marriage, therefore her actions