LITERATURE
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
“I’ve got out at last…” said the woman who thought she has long been imprinted and spellbound on wallpaper. The essay of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) captures the seemingly long awakening of a woman from self-isolation and cumbersome fear within her confines. However, the story not only revolves around the inner struggles of a woman but also reflects the life of the author herself. In this regard, this paper will discuss the relevance of the essay and how it made a capstone of the writer.
Why choose Gilman’s story?
One of the interesting points that were considered in choosing the essay is its social relevance that depicts Gilman’s life story. Second, several reviews and critiques on the essay, which has been understood as a self-portrait of Gilman, will be discussed in this paper.
Literature Review
The review of literature is structurally presented to briefly discuss the highlights of Gilman’s biography and the subsequent scholastic response on her works.
Early life: who was Charlotte Perkins Gilman?
Based on the electronic library, ‘The Literature Network’, Charlotte Anna Westcott Perkins was born on July 3rd 1860 in the New England town of Hartford, Connecticut. At the age of 6, Charlotte’s father abandoned them in 1866. As a result, their family lived an impoverished life until Charlotte got her education at the Rhode Island School of Design where she also worked as a teacher and designer of greeting cards. At the age of 24 in 1884, Charlotte married her co-artist Charles Walter Stetson (1858-1911), whom she had a daughter with, but the two separated four years later. The separation deeply saddened Charlotte, causing her to eventually develop a “nervous breakdown.” Subsequently, she was brought to a hospital where her doctor strongly advised a confined rest without physical or mental work. But, the isolated hospital confinement enticed Charlotte to write ‘the yellow wallpaper’ essay, which she gave to her Doctor and conveyed the message of refusal to the “doctor’s advise” that took her a year of confinement.
Social involvement
According to the electronic library, ‘The Literature Network’, Charlotte transferred to California in 1888 where she married her cousin George Houghton Gilman after finally being granted a divorce with Stetson in 1894. In addition, Charlotte again used her marital name, Gilman. However, her second marriage also did not prosper and eventually the couple separated. From there, Gilman became active with the “feminists’ movement” and social issues such as women’s electoral rights and the rights at the workplaces (Merriman, 2006). The involvement of Gilman in the feminist movement gave her much breadth and in depth perception of the role of women in society. This basically inspired her to write several literary works which flourished and, as a result, she became well-known even until she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and on August 17th 1935, Gilman committed suicide by drug overdose (Merriman, 2006).
Perception on “The Yellow Wallpaper”
The comparative reviews of Judith Fetterly and Robin Freed (1993) perceives the strong defiance of Gilman towards “chauvinist literary genre” or what it described as male interpretation of the literary world. In Fetterly’s interpretation, “The Yellow Wallpaper” as admonishes the male literary establishment and urges the preservation of female writing (Fetterly, 1993; in Freed 1993). Moreover, to cite, the yellow wallpaper symbolizes the faction of proper womanhood, which unite women to their home and family. In the case of Charlotte Gilman, women were tapered to the set strictures that men normally determine (Thomas, 1998).
Based on the comparative reviews, the early years of Gilman’s life may indicate that she went through a “trails of trials” [as also traced from her childhood of a broken family] which symbolized her “own self perseverance,” but was suddenly denied the security from her first husband, who separated from her. The effect of separation that led to extreme depression has revived the “trails of trials”. In short, the paranoia of being separated from someone has rekindled Gilman’s thought, which she described being “imprinted or spell bound” in the yellow wallpaper (decorative) of the hospital room where she was confined. The doctor’s advice or medical recommendation to Gilman [to “rest cure”] which strongly urged her to avoid physical and mental stress, could be perceived of Gilman’s perverse refusal as she then wrote her self-story in “the yellow wallpaper” essay.
From the perceptions of Fetterly and Freed (1993), the attitude of Gilman exhibits the psychological fear which, according to a report by the New England magazine (1891), is called “melancholia.” Based on the excerpt of the report: “many and many a reader of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has asked about. In addition, according to the report, when the story first came out, in the New England Magazine about 1891, a Boston physician made a protest in “The Transcript”. The physician said: “Such a story ought not to be written. It was enough to drive anyone mad to read it” (The Forerunner Magazine, 1913; in Lavender, 1999). To cite, in support of this disclosure, we can quote Gilman herself who recognized and admitted in her revelation (from the magazine report), as she said: “being naturally moved rejoicing narrow escape, I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, with its embellishments and additions, to carry out the ideal and sent a copy to the physician who so nearly drove me mad; he never acknowledged it” (The Forerunner Magazine, 1913; in Lavender, 1999). In which case, this revelation of Gilman referred to the “woman” (story character) who uttered: “I’ve got out at last…” which symbolizes the “escaping notion” of Gilman towards defiance.
Furthermore, according to an article published in the Books and Writers electronic journal, “Gilman saw that the domestic environment has become an institution which oppresses women, which her famous story (the Yellow Wallpaper) depicted a depressed woman who slowly tumble down into madness in her room, while her well-meaning husband is often away due to his work at a hospital” (Gascoigne, B., 2003). This point of view of Gascoigne (2003) clearly describes the “paranoia” of Gilman, and could even define her “isolationist” attitude from the world of men to co-exist, specifically in the literary world where Gilman seeks to be an individualist, which is consistently depicts her real life quest for feminism.
Conclusion
The social relevance of Gilman’s essay, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, induces the matriarchal (maternal) characteristic of a woman as gauging or challenging the patriarchal (paternal) symbol of men in societal perspectives. Although, this may also be considered a generalized norm wherein women competes with men as based on Gilman’s point of view in that 19th and 20th century setting.
Generally, Gilman’s perception of the society [from the patriarchal symbolism] exhibits her defiance and denial that not only attempts have a co-equal representation with men but also to somehow dominate the natural meaning of “man,” which comprises the society as the smallest unit of mankind. The trails of trials in Gilman [as she suffers from melancholia] is an interesting case in the field of psychological and sociological sciences, wherein the 21st century women subsist in the world of men and the units of society are represented by women so that they could also say “I’ve got out at last…”.
References
Merriman, C.D. (2006). ‘The Literature Network’. Retrieved 28 April 2008 from
http://www.online-literature.com/charlotte-perkins-gilman/.
Lavender, C. (1999). ‘Charlotte Perkins Gilman; “Why I Wrote The Yellow
Wallpaper” (1913)’. The Department of History, College of Staten Island, City University of New York. Retrieved 28 April 2008 from
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/whyyw.html.
Fetterly, J. and Freed, R. (1993). ‘Reading About Reading: The Yellow Wallpaper’. Rutgers
University Press, New Jersey (p.181-189). Retrieved 28 April 2008 from
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/enam712/freed.html.
Thomas, D. (1998). ‘The Changing Role of Womanhood: From True Woman to New Woman
in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, The Yellow Wallpaper’. American Literature
Research and Analysis (ARLA). Retrieved 28 April 2008 from
http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/gilman.htm.
About.Com: Classic Literature (2000). ‘The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
(1860-1935)’. Retrieved 28 April from
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl- etexts/cpgilman/bl-cpgilman-yellowwall.htm.
