Story Review: The Yellow Wallpaper

Initially, I read this short story because I was bored. I heard about it online, and when I saw it was only 10 pages, I was like, “bet.” I read it in about 20–30 minutes, and once I finished, I had to process what I just read. The story follows a woman who is pleading to those closest to her that she is simply sick, yet they continue to disregard her words, exaggerate her poor health, and isolate her in a room with an ugly yellow wallpaper. Through a simple plot, this is a popular piece of feminist literature of the past.

Spoiler Alert!

Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1890, The Yellow Wallpaper explores misogyny, specifically in the late 18th century, by showing how it drove a woman mad. At a rented summer home, the narrator is implied to be suffering from postpartum depression. Her husband, John, constantly commands the narrator to stay in her room and rest. She listens to his words, since he is a physician, so he has to know best, right? She has no free means of expression and writes letters to entertain herself, hiding them as soon as she hears footsteps coming from outside. Her depression only worsens with none of her needs being met. The yellow wallpaper eventually becomes some source of entertainment in itself; the narrator sees patterns in the wallpaper, watching her. She becomes more lively every day as she becomes fully entranced in the oh-so-ugly yellow wallpaper which confines her. The narrator ends up going insane, and by the end of the story, she is described as crawling and ripping the wallpaper off to release a woman she sees trapped inside it, making her husband faint at the sight.

It was certainly an interesting read. Since we follow the perspective of the woman confined in the room, it’s interesting to see her mental decline from depression and loneliness to insanity. The main character knows she doesn’t need bed rest in order to get better, but she does so because her husband’s authority means more than her knowledge of her own well-being. This book explores the misogynistic mentality of men during times when gender roles in marriages were the norm. John excuses our narrator’s pleas to do as she pleases, treats her as if she has no self-autonomy, and even calls her a “little girl” once.

There is another woman represented in this book, where we see her experience within this social power dynamic: the housekeeper, Jennie. Jennie seems content about her job being a maid in this house and willingly accepts a role in this patriarchal society. This is where we see a contrast; as the narrator feels suffocated, the housekeeper functions just fine. It is important to keep in mind that the housekeeper does get to wander freely, but she still follows the commands of the man. That man, nonetheless, is her brother whom she works for. Jennie subjecting herself to these patriarchal values does come to our narrator’s disadvantage. She does urge the same things that John urges at the end of the day. But, Jennie being a woman herself and paying more respect to the narrator’s words and wishes, she isn’t as much of a villain in the main character’s story. She pays attention to the wallpaper as well, which suggests that, though at different degrees, the women are still in similar positions of being trapped in a time when men had all the power.

The wallpaper starts as some disfigured patterns. The figure in the wallpaper becomes a woman behind bars, begging to be released, which the narrator can empathize with. The hallucinations she sees reflect her, which would explain why she is so desperate to free the woman in the wallpaper. She sees the figure crawling around the estate, and by the end of the story, she is too (in the room). The woman in the wallpaper, which was originally a muddled figure, becomes one with the narrator.

This short story does a good job of showing how oppression against women doesn’t just make them tolerate it but feel controlled. Marriages at the time had men as the “powerful” one in the relationship, making their partner their accessory. Nowadays, relationships have evolved, and gender expectations aren’t enforced anymore. However, this book is a good reference to see how not only toxic relationships where there is unbalanced power can hurt your partner, but it is also a story relevant to the reality of the past. This was The Yellow Wallpaper.