There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will” (Stetson, 652).
For this week’s blog post, I wanted to discuss Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” The above excerpt is what I believe to be the focal point of Ms. Stetson’s psychological horror tale. The story itself not only acts as a critique of the role of women in marriage but also suggests a rigid distinction between an active working male and a ignored, patronized and misjudged female.
I do not believe it is a coincidence that the woman who the narrator believes is trapped within the wallpaper is also trapped behind a pattern; this is because the narrator is trapped as well. Before the merge between the woman behind the sickly-looking paper and the narrator, both characters are trapped within their own type of prison – whether it be the yellow-patterned wallpaper or the prison-like cycle that women were trapped within in the 19th Century. The lives of women during this time were tailored to a rigid lifestyle such as being domestic wives to a family. The gender division shown between the husband John and his wife keeps the narrator contained within a child-like state of ignorance that withholds her from developing herself beyond the strict trajectory she is forced to follow day in and day out.
The wallpaper itself is an object that drives the narrator to analyze it as something which needs to be interpreted. At the start of the story, it is apparent that the narrator simply finds it “dull” and “revolting.” The pattern itself is what provokes study and constantly irritates her. Further within the story, the narrator discovers a second, underlying pattern within the wallpaper which is interpreted as a woman who is desperately trying to escape from her own prison. The wallpaper itself seems to be portraying many qualities of the structure of 19th Century lifestyle such as tradition and a cycle of patterns that were meant to be followed. The domestic and vicious cycle that women were to follow during this time is cleverly portrayed by a grotesque, psychological horror tale that creates an affinity between the narrator and the “unclean yellow” wallpaper.
Works Cited:
Stetson, Charlotte Perkins. “The Literature of Prescription.” The Yellow Wall-Paper, www.nlm.nih.gov/theliteratureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf.
In Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, the “unclean yellow” wallpaper becomes something of ambiguity to the narrator as she is retrained. Both the narrator and the women behind such yellow wallpaper both share an imprisonment that is beyond their control. During the 19th Century, men created and held a sense of dominance as they could live out an active role in life. This left women to be entitled to a less active role or tending to the household/family, while also having less of a voice. The narrator’s writing is something that soothes her, something that she can actively control, and something that comes from her very self that no one can take away from her. As shown when her husband faints, she can finally be free and allow herself to have control as well as be liberated from this inferior gender role set in place by her husband.