In the Bible, St Paul advised women to be domestic and it thus became a virtue that was highly praised by women’s magazines. For women their greatest mission was performed at home and that was to bring their oppressive husbands back to God.
Obeying these virtues and living as the ideal women was considered to be worshipping to “The Cult of True Womanhood”, but this was the proper practice, approved and highly thought of by God but those woman who rejected this way and pursued intellectual enlightenment were alienated and threatened that God would damn them.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman decided to pursue her dream of being a writer after she had tried hard (but failed) to adapt to being a wife and mother. It was through this failure that she experienced the “rest-cure” formula created by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. After a month of the treatment she was sent home and told to “live as domestic a life as possible…and never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you [she] live.” Gilman followed these instructions for a month, rigidly and she openly admitted that she “came perilously near to losing my [her] mind”. It is for this reason that many people believe that The Yellow Wallpaper is an autobiography of her own emotions and fears. Within the text the two most pre-dominant themes are those of insanity and isolation, (isolation being one of Dr. Mitchell’s treatments for nervous exhaustion).
Gilman uses the setting first to communicate the theme of isolation. When introducing the house to us the protagonist describes it as “…quite alone standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village…there are hedges and walls and gates that lock...” Also the nursery room that she has been confined to, although it is a “big, airy room… with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore”, the windows have bars on them adding heavily to the idea of isolation and loneliness. In the 19th century many women found themselves alone and shut-off from the world as they were expected to stay at home and be “domestic” i.e. The Cult of True Womanhood. It was also important in the 19th century as women were isolated from male dominated society as they were not allowed to vote or study freely, it was these constraints that many women were starting to disagree with at the time Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.
Throughout the text Gilman gives reference to many of the repressive ways in which women were treated, this mainly demonstrated in the language used by her characters. Gilman also implies the feeling that men thought women could not do anything for themselves thus resulting in female submissiveness.
At the beginning of the text the protagonists informs her audience that her husband John “is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me [her] stir without special direction”, which almost immediately tells us that John is going to be a husband that conforms to a typical male of the time; protective and oppressive. The use of the word “special” by Gilman enforces this idea even more.
Several times during the text John talks to his wife like she is a child, he calls her “a blessed little goose” and speaks to her in third person when he says “Bless her little heart”. Once during the narrative John actually says to her “What is it little girl?” which was then followed by an order of not to go walking around the room. From the views and opinions of the protagonist we get impression that she is an intelligent women, like Gilman, and to be spoken constantly to in an undermining manner would make life unbearable.
Submissiveness, as I have already mentioned was one of the virtues all women were expected to have, but it could be one of the most damaging because the submissiveness of many women lead eventually to insanity.
In The Yellow Wallpaper it is identified on countless occasions. At the start of the narrative we see the woman disagreeing with her husband’s and society’s ideas of curing “nervous exhaustion” as she believes that mental stimulation would do her good but she tells us then that she cannot do anything about it as when she tries to talk to her husband he tells her to forget about her condition, she also tells us how John laughs at her, she then resigns herself to saying “one expects that in a marriage” this phrase also demonstrates the blatant sexism in society at the time. John also treats her like a child when he gathers her up in his arms and simply carries her upstairs, it sounds highly romantic until we find out that he read to her until she fell asleep which is normally what a parent does to a child. Later in the text Jane tells that she doesn’t do anything as Jennie does everything now. Jennie is of course the ideal 19th century woman, she is pious, submissive, pure and domestic, although we get the impression that Jane, the protagonist, is grateful for Jennie’s assistance, Gilman’s use of words to describe her is hyperbolic – “She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession.” Here it is obvious that Gilman herself is attacking these virtuous women, as many feminists at the time believed that their female counter-parts had become brainwashed by male society and so felt pity for them and their “pathetic views”.
Later in the text the protagonist writes how she catches Jennie touching and studying the wallpaper, Jennie looks like she had just been caught stealing and she is also angry at Jane for “creeping” up on her, which suggests the curiosity of “perfect” women in 19th century society, when feminism was beginning to break through.
The wallpaper itself in the story is thought to represent many things i.e. Jane’s descent from sanity to madness and the emerging feminism at the time.
The theme of insanity juxtaposed with the wallpaper makes the story very intense. As Jane, the protagonist becomes more and more repressed she begins to obsess upon the wallpaper to a greater extent in her writing. Even from the first time she enters the nursery she is gripped by the fact it’s “sprawling flamboyant patterns” are “committing every artistic sin”, as she becomes further reticent as she is not allowed to do anything for herself or have her own opinions her sub-conscious mind is “not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else…” A pivotal moment in the story is when Jane is in the lieu of her obsession and she recognizes the shape “is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern.” As the story progress, the unknown woman “is all the time trying to climb through [the wallpaper]”, and it is suggested to us that the woman behind the wallpaper is the repressed side of Jane or in more general terms, women who wish to break-away from being told what to do, say and think by dominant males and virtuous women.
Gilman’s incessant use of the word “creeping” is mainly describing how many female writers/feminists conducted their writing and their plans at the end of the 19th century, beginning of 20th century. Gilman gives an extremely autobiographical phrase right at the start of the wallpaper when she says, “I did write for a while in spite of them; it does exhaust me a good deal – having to be so sly about it, or else met with heavy opposition.”
At the end of the story when Jane decides to rescue the woman (herself) from behind the wallpaper, even though she has definitely gone mad from being shut-off, she still remains rational in some senses as she is highly organised, “I have locked the door and thrown the key down to the front path.”
The conclusion of Gilman’s writing also touches on some of the cardinal virtues of women:
Piety – Jane tells the audience she is so angry she could jump out of a window but she corrects herself and says that this is “improper and might be misconstrued.” This is because suicide was considered to be a sin in the eyes of God.
Domesticity – When John calls for an axe to break down the front door, she doesn’t panic but instead states to us that “It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door.”
Once the door has been opened and John enters the room and gives his shocked opinion, it is finally revealed to us what the protagonist has done when she exclaims, “I’ve got out at last…in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back.” The use of the word “me” shows us she knows she is a person in her own right and she knows she did not deserve to be treated like she had been. It also refers to all the women who wished to go against the grain of society and because the wallpaper can’t be put back again symbolises that when feminism was set loose upon society it had such a strong following it couldn’t be undone or repressed.
Also there is a role reversal at the end when John, her husband faints and suggests the idea that patriarchal society had lost a substantial amount of it’s power and strength.
The Yellow Wallpaper is considered to be one of the greatest works of feminism ever, and it is a pity that it wasn’t fully appreciated until this century. It is a detailed account of what women had to go through to achieve their ultimate dream – of being taken seriously. I think the main reason it is so good is because it vastly autobiographical, and she tries to communicate the sacrifices that she made in order to gain independence and the impact these had on her emotionally and physically. For example like Jane in the story Gilman had her baby taken away from her when she went through the “rest-cure” treatment and afterwards when she decided to pursue her writing career she had to hand her baby over to her ex-husband which must have been wholly distressing for her. Although she never admitted it, The Yellow Wallpaper was a testimony to her own life and suffrage. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was undeniably ahead of her time as far as her thoughts, actions and expressions of emotions.
