Violence in the Yellow Wallpaper

Rachel Trudel

WMS 351

2/01/06

Violence in Gilman’s,

”The Yellow Wallpaper”

The word “violence” has a very strong connotation in our language, and it is most often defined in terms of one individual deliberately causing harm to another. It is expected that if a person is labeled as “violent”, he/she is physically abusing someone else. However, violence can also take on a more subtle and covert form that does not always involve physical abuse. In addition, it does not necessarily imply multiple people. These less obvious types of violence can be demonstrated in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The narrator, restricted to her bedroom by her insisting physician husband, is subject to violence in the form of insanity because of his authoritative actions. The violence manifests in her mind because of the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, and gets progressively worse throughout the story.

The narrator’s physician husband, John, believes he is helping his wife’s depressed condition by confining her to a third floor bedroom with barred windows. In actuality, he creates a domestic prison where his wife has nothing but her own thoughts and a journal to pass away the time. John does not even want his wife to journal, as the narrator states, “…but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad” (p. 93). John is completely oblivious to the fact that his medical-opinioned “treatment” was in fact driving his wife insane. The relationship seen between John and his wife is undoubtedly unbalanced, with John as the prototypical patriarch, having all of the control and power over his wife’s life. He infantilizes his wife, which is symbolized by her captivity in a room that was once a nursery. In the story, he refers to his wife as “a blessed little goose” and “little girl” and subsequently ignores her wishes to move to a different room. He treats her exactly like a father would treat his young daughter. It seems that the narrator recognizes the state of her marriage with the language she uses when writing about it. For example, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband…” (p.92) and “I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good…but what is one to do?” (p.93). Notice that the narrator uses “one” when referring to her opinion of her husband and his treatment, rather than “I” as she does when referring to herself in the rest of the story . It is almost as if she knows she is not an “I” in the marriage, and she has no opinion regarding her own thoughts and feelings. She knows John is neglecting her, while trying to convince herself he is looking out for her best interest.

The narrator’s violent insanity can be seen through the progressive mental anguish she experiences as a result of her confinement. She has nothing to do to pass time except study her surroundings, and consequently becomes fixated on the yellow wallpaper in the room. She uses quite violent terms to describe it, thus revealing her internalized anger regarding her predetermined situation. She discusses the pattern by saying, “…pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions” (p. 94). At another point, she says, “The pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at your upside down” (p. 96). The narrator clearly has a strong contempt for the wallpaper, but as the story progresses, she begins to study it in order to “make sense” of its patterns and shapes. It is interesting to note that she understands the pattern the most at night, by moonlight, which is the traditional symbol of femininity. She prefers to sleep during the day, when the “yellow” sun is shining. The narrator discovers a desperate woman trapped in the pattern, constantly “creeping” in order to find an escape through the wallpaper’s main pattern, which looks like the bars of a cage. This is clearly reflective