The Gothic tradition The Yellow Wallpaper
Being a utopian feminist Charlotte Gillman, was aware of the uprising global female issues at the time of her writing , one being females considered more prone to mental ilnesses and the paradagime of post natal depression. To explicitly highlight and convey her ideologies and views Gillman wrote ”The Yellow Walpaper” which particularly explores attitudes in the nineteenth century towards women’s physical and mental health. Elements of this can also be recognised and depicted in Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre”.
At the very start of the story, Gillman identifies the place where her character is being held “ancestral halls”. Her husband being a “physician” indicates his wealth state thus juxtaposing with the estate being let so “cheaply”. Continuing, the story does not provide any evidence that the woman is suffering from any mental disease, however she does admit to “get unreasonably angry” with her husband from time to time. Her husband John who can be viewed as the voice of reason, sharply opposes his wife, the voice of emotion, who enigmatically remains unnamed throughout the story. Such a sharp antithesis occurs also between Bertha Mason and Jane Eyre in Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”. Bertha embodies an excess of sexual emotions and desire, on the contrary Jane signifies the conventional and conservative symbol of Britishness. However though many critiques do consider Bertha, not only a symbol of female insanity, but an alter ego of Jane, just as Gillman portrays her character that she is imagining a woman trying to escape from the yellow wallpaper “and it is like a woman creeping about behind the pattern”.
