Yellow Wallpaper

Some men tell us we must be patient and persuasive; that we must be womanly. My friends, what is a man’s idea of womanliness? It is to have a manner which pleases him, quiet, deferential, submissive, approaching him as a subject does a master. He wants no self-assertion on our part, no defiance, no vehement arraignment of him as a robber and a criminal. (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Womanliness 1890)

A fictional narrative is a powerful literary tool. It allows an author to tell a story which otherwise might be too horrific or unbelievable to tell. It makes it possible for the unspeakable to be spoken. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the story The Yellow Wall-Paper to give a voice to the oppressed masses of women during the 1890’s. The Yellow Wall-Paper is an indictment of misogynists America circa 1890. In her story she allows the reader to see America through three different lenses: The paternal chauvinist John, the empathetic and submissive Jennie, and the unnamed protagonist, who becomes increasingly disillusioned as she becomes more aware of her surroundings. By deconstructing the three “lenses” Gilman’s vision of women’s role in a misogynist America becomes clear.

The protagonist’s husband, John, is the symbolic representation of the paternal hegemony that existed during Gilman’s lifetime. Gilman’s choice to use the ubiquitous name “John” can be emblematic of the wide spread problem of the oppression of women. The way that John acts towards his wife is microcosm of gender inequality in society. John treats her as if she is his child and in no way his equal. He is a physician and unable to believe anything that he cannot see. The protagonist says of John’s disbelief, “These nervous conditions are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.”(Gilman p.14) He has no knowledge of the inner-workings of the feminine psyche. So he treats his wife’s disobedience and depression the same way one would deal with a petulant child; he locks her in her room.

John believes that if wife is indeed it is the result of feminine hypochondria and the negative influence of creativity. He stops his wife from writing. Writing had been something that his wife had found happiness in. John subscribes to the “Pedestal” philosophy. In that women are the moral guardian of society and that a women is corrupted by things like creativity or competition. He tries to limit stimuli in order to control his wife and cure her of the nervous condition. The narrator writes, “When I get really well, John says we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now.” John believes that women are too frail a creature to deal with the stimuli of the outside world. Especially, given his wife’s weakened condition. It is a man’s duty to travail the outside world. Women are not able to survive in that environment, and are best suited to stay at home and obey their husbands.

The notion of John’s paternal domination of the narrator is a theme central to the story. John controls, or at least attempts to control, every element of his wife’s existence. He controls what she does, who she can visit with, even what she is allowed to think about. He dismisses any suggestions or ideas his wife presents to him, even when the thoughts are well thought out. John dismisses them as feminine “fancies.” The narrator says, “At first he mean to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies.” (Gilman p. 14) There is a pattern to this patronizing denial of the protagonist’s requests. When the narrator expresses the desire to move into the bigger nicer rooms downstairs and away from the dreadful wallpapered room John patronizes his wife. Gilman writes, “Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down cellar; if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain.”(Gilmanp.15) John use of the phase “blessed little goose” is indicative of the paternal relationship between John and his wife. He treats her like a child. Referring to her as “his darling,” (p.20) “little girl,” (p.23) and “blessed little goose” (p. 15). He repeatedly belittles his wife in order to perpetuate his dominance. It is clear that although he control over his wife is waning, the control over his sister, the second lens, remains firmly intact.

In Gilman’s story the character Jennie represents the ignorant masses of women either oblivious to or acceptant of male dominance. Jennie’s role of housekeeper directly coincides with John’s beliefs of the capabilities of women. Jennie is John’s surrogate wife while the narrator