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= The_Yellow_Wallpaper =
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Introduction
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"The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A
Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
first published in January 1892 in 'The New England Magazine'. It is
regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature
for its illustration of the attitudes towards the mental and physical
health of women in the 19th century. It is also lauded as an
excellent work of horror fiction.
The story is written as a collection of journal entries narrated in
the first person. The journal was written by a woman whose physician
husband has rented an old mansion for the summer. Forgoing other rooms
in the house, the husband confines the woman to an upstairs nursery.
As a form of treatment, the husband forbids the journal writer from
working or writing, and encourages her to eat well and get plenty of
air so that she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous
depression - a slight hysterical tendency", a common diagnosis in
women at the time. As the reader continues through the journal
entries, they experience the writer's gradual descent into madness
with nothing better to do than observe the peeling yellow wallpaper in
her room.
The story has been the subject of extensive feminist and
psychoanalytic criticism and is often compared to Sylvia Plath’s 'The
Bell Jar' for its depiction of mental illness, gendered expectations,
and the search for agency. More recent interpretations have also
explored the story through an ecogothic
lens, emphasizing the unsettling role of the natural and domestic
environment in shaping the protagonist's psychological breakdown.
Plot summary
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The story describes a young woman and her husband. He imposes a rest
cure on her when she suffers "temporary nervous depression" after the
birth of their baby. They spend the summer at a colonial mansion,
where the narrator is largely confined to an upstairs nursery. The
story makes striking use of an unreliable narrator in order to
gradually reveal the degree to which her husband has "imprisoned" her
due to her physical and mental condition. She describes torn
wallpaper, barred windows, metal rings in the walls, a floor
"scratched and gouged and splintered", a bed bolted to the floor, and
a gate at the top of the stairs, but blames all these on children who
must have resided there.
The narrator devotes many journal entries to describing the wallpaper
in the room - its "sickly" color, its "yellow" smell, its bizarre and
disturbing pattern like "an interminable string of toadstools, budding
and sprouting in endless convolutions," its missing patches, and the
way it leaves yellow smears on the skin and clothing of anyone who
touches it. She describes how the longer one stays in the bedroom, the
more the wallpaper appears to mutate, especially in the moonlight.
With no stimulus other than the wallpaper, the pattern and designs
become increasingly intriguing to the narrator. She soon begins to see
a figure in the design. Eventually, she comes to believe that a woman
is creeping on all fours behind the pattern. Believing she must free
the woman in the wallpaper, she begins to strip the remaining paper
off the wall.
When her husband arrives home, the narrator refuses to unlock her
door. When he returns with the key, he finds her creeping around the
room, rubbing against the wallpaper, and exclaiming, "I've got out at
last... in spite of you." He faints, but she continues to circle the
room, creeping over his inert body each time she passes it, believing
herself to have become the woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper.
Gilman
======================================================================
Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her writing to explore the role of women
in America around 1900. She expounded upon many issues, such as the
lack of a life outside the home and the oppressive forces of a
patriarchal society. Through her work, Gilman paved the way for
writers such as Alice Walker and Sylvia Plath.[[Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, c. 1900]]In "The Yellow Wallpaper," she portrays the
narrator's insanity as a way to protest the professional and societal
oppression against women. While under the impression that husbands and
male doctors were acting with their best interests in mind, women were
depicted as mentally fragile. Women’s rights advocates of the era
believed that the "outbreak" of this mental instability was the
manifestation of their setbacks regarding the roles they were allowed
to play in a male-dominated society. Women were even discouraged from
writing because it would ultimately create an identity and become a
form of defiance. Gilman realized that writing became one of the only
forms of expression for women at a time when they had very few rights.
After the birth of her first daughter, Gilman suffered postnatal
depression and was treated by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, the leading
expert on women's mental health at the time. He suggested a strict
'rest cure' regimen involving much of bed rest and a blanket ban on
working, including reading, writing, and painting. After three months
and almost desperate, Gilman decided to contravene her diagnosis,
along with the treatment methods, and started to work again. Aware of
how close she had come to a complete mental breakdown, the author
wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" with additions and exaggerations to
illustrate her criticism of the medical field. Gilman sent a copy to
Mitchell but never received a response. (Gilman was ultimately proven
right in her disdain for the "rest cure" when she sought a second
opinion from Mary Putnam Jacobi, one of the first female doctors and a
strong opponent of this theory, who prescribed a regimen of physical
and mental activity that proved a much more successful treatment.)
She added that "The Yellow Wallpaper" was "not intended to drive
people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it
worked". Gilman claimed that many years later, she learned that
Mitchell had changed his treatment methods. However, literary
historian Julie Bates Dock has discredited this. Mitchell continued
his methods, and as late as 1908 - 16 years after "The Yellow
Wallpaper" was published - was interested in creating entire hospitals
devoted to the "rest cure" so that his treatments would be more widely
accessible.
Feminist interpretations
==========================
This story has been interpreted by feminist critics as a condemnation
of the male control of the 19th-century medical profession. Throughout
the short story, the narrator offers many suggestions to help her get
better, such as exercising, working, or socializing with the outside
world. Her ideas are dismissed immediately while using language that
stereotypes her as irrational and, therefore, unqualified to offer
ideas about her condition. This interpretation draws on the concept of
the "domestic sphere" that women were held in during this period.
Many feminist critics focus on the degree of triumph at the end of the
story. Although some claim the narrator slipped into insanity, others
see the ending as a woman's assertion of agency in a marriage in which
she felt trapped. The emphasis on reading and writing as gendered
practices also illustrated the importance of the wallpaper. If the
narrator were allowed neither to write in her journal nor to read, she
would begin to "read" the wallpaper until she found the escape she was
looking for. Through seeing the women in the wallpaper, the narrator
realizes that she could not live her life locked up behind bars. At
the end of the story, as her husband lies on the floor unconscious,
she crawls over him, symbolically rising over him. This is interpreted
as a victory over her husband at the expense of her sanity.
Susan S. Lanser, a professor at Brandeis University, praises
contemporary feminism and its role in changing the study and the
interpretation of literature. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was one of many
stories that lost authority in the literary world because of an
ideology that determined the works' content to be disturbing or
offensive. Critics such as the editor of the 'Atlantic Monthly'
rejected the short story because "[he] could not forgive [himself] if
[he] made others as miserable as [he] made [himself]". Lanser argues
that the same argument of devastation and misery can be said about the
work of Edgar Allan Poe. "The Yellow Wallpaper" provided feminists
the tools to interpret literature in different ways. Lanser argues
that the short story was a "particularly congenial medium for such a
re-vision... because the narrator herself engages in a form of
feminist interpretation when she tries to read the paper on her wall".
The narrator in the story is trying to find a single meaning in the
wallpaper. At first, she focuses on the contradictory style of the
wallpaper: it is "flamboyant" while also "dull", "pronounced," yet
"lame," and "uncertain" (p. 13). She takes into account the patterns
and tries to organize them geometrically, but she is further confused.
The wallpaper changes colors when it reflects light and emits a
distinct odor that the protagonist cannot recognize (p. 25). At night
the narrator can see a woman behind bars within the complex design of
the wallpaper. Lanser argues that the unnamed woman was able to find
"a space of text on which she can locate whatever self-projection".
Just like the narrator as a reader, when one comes into contact with a
confusing and complicated text, one tries to find a single meaning.
"How we were taught to read," as Lanser puts it, is why a reader
cannot fully comprehend the text. The patriarchal ideology had kept
many scholars from being able to interpret and appreciate stories such
as "The Yellow Wallpaper". With the growth of feminist criticism,
"The Yellow Wallpaper" has become a standard text in many curricula.
Feminists have made a significant contribution to the study of
literature, according to Lanser, but she also remarks that if "we
acknowledge the participation of women writers and readers in dominant
patterns of thought and social practice then perhaps our own patterns
must also be deconstructed if we are to recover meanings still hidden
or overlooked."
Martha J. Cutter points out that many of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's
works address a "struggle in which a male-dominated medical
establishment attempts to silence women". Gilman's works challenge the
social construction of women by a patriarchal medical discourse that
forced them to be "silent, powerless, and passive". In the period in
which Gilman wrote, women were frequently considered (and treated) as
inferiors, prone to be sickly and weak. In this time period, it was
thought that women who received formal education (amongst other
causes) could develop hysteria, a now-discredited catchall term
referring to most mental health diseases identified in women and
erroneously believed to stem from a malfunctioning uterus (from the
Greek 'hystera', "uterus"). At the time, the medical understanding was
that women who spent time in serious intellectual pursuits (such as
university education) over-stimulated their brains, which in turn led
to states of hysteria. Many of the diseases diagnosed in women were
considered to be a matter of a lack of self-control or self-rule.
Medical practitioners argued that a physician must "assume a tone of
authority" and that a "cured" woman is defined by being "subdued,
docile, silent, and above all subject to the will and voice of the
physician". A hysterical woman craves power. To be treated for her
hysteria, she must submit to her physician, whose role is to undermine
her desires. Often women were prescribed bed rest as a form of
treatment, which was meant to "tame" them and keep them imprisoned.
Treatments such as this were a way of ridding women of rebelliousness
and forcing them to conform to expected social roles. In her works,
Gilman highlights that the harm caused by these types of treatments
for women, i.e., "the rest cure", has to do with how her voice is
silenced. Paula Treichler explains: "In this story diagnosis 'is
powerful and public.... It is a male voice that... imposes controls on
the female narrator and dictates how she is to perceive and talk about
the world.' Diagnosis covertly functions to empower the male
physician's voice and disempower the female patient's." The narrator
in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is not allowed to participate in her
treatment or diagnosis and is completely forced to succumb to
everything in which her doctor and in this particular story, her
husband, says. The male voice is the one which forces control on the
female and decides how she is allowed to perceive and speak about the
world around her.
Other
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"The Yellow Wallpaper" is sometimes cited as an example of Gothic
literature for its themes of madness and powerlessness. Alan Ryan
introduced the story by writing: "quite apart from its origins [it] is
one of the finest, and strongest, tales of horror ever written. It may
be a ghost story. Worse yet, it may not." Pioneering horror author H.
P. Lovecraft writes in his essay 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'
(1927) that "'The Yellow Wall Paper' rises to a classic level in
subtly delineating the madness which crawls over a woman dwelling in
the hideously papered room where a madwoman was once confined".
Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz wrote that "the story was a 'cri de coeur'
against Gilman's first husband, artist Charles Walter Stetson and the
traditional marriage he had demanded." Gilman attempted to deflect
blame to protect her daughter Katharine and Stetson's second wife
Grace Ellery Channing, who was also Gilman's close friend and cousin.
Horowitz consults the sources of Charlotte's private life, including
her daily journals, drafts of poems and essays, and intimate letters,
and compares them to the diary accounts of her first husband. She also
mines Charlotte's diaries for notes on her reading. She shows how
specific poetry, fiction, and popular science shaped her consciousness
and understanding of sex and gender, health and illness, emotion and
intellect. Horowitz makes a case that "The Yellow Wallpaper", in its
original form, did not represent a literal protest against Mitchell (a
neurologist who treated Gilman in 1887) and his treatment. Rather, it
emerged from Charlotte's troubled relationship with her husband
Walter, personified in the story's physician. In demanding a
traditional wife, Walter denied Charlotte personal freedom, squelched
her intellectual energy, and characterized her illness.
In another interpretation, Sari Edelstein has argued that "The Yellow
Wallpaper" is an allegory for Gilman's hatred of the emerging yellow
journalism. Having created 'The Forerunner' in November 1909, Gilman
made it clear she wished the press to be more insightful and not rely
upon exaggerated stories and flashy headlines. Gilman was often
scandalized in the media and resented the sensationalism of the media.
The relationship between the narrator and the wallpaper within the
story parallels Gilman's relationship with the press. The protagonist
describes the wallpaper as having "sprawling flamboyant patterns
committing every artistic sin". Edelstein argues that given Gilman’s
distaste for the Yellow Press, this can also be seen as a description
of tabloid newspapers of the day.
Paula A. Treichler focuses on the relationship portrayed in the short
story between women and writing. Rather than write about the feminist
themes which view the wallpaper as something along the lines of
"...the 'pattern' which underlies sexual inequality, the external
manifestation of neurasthenia, the narrator's unconscious, the
narrator's situation within patriarchy", Treichler instead explains
that the wallpaper can be a symbol to represent discourse and the fact
that the narrator is alienated from the world in which she previously
could somewhat express herself. Treichler illustrates that through
this discussion of language and writing, in the story, Charlotte
Perkins Gilman is defying the "...sentence that the structure of
patriarchal language imposes". While Treichler accepts the legitimacy
of strictly feminist claims, she writes that a closer look at the text
suggests that the wallpaper could be interpreted as women's language
and discourse. The woman found in the wallpaper could be the
"...representation of women that becomes possible only after women
obtain the right to speak". In making this claim, it suggests that the
new struggle found within the text is between two forms of writing;
one rather old and traditional, and the other new and exciting. This
is supported by the fact that John, the narrator's husband, does not
like his wife to write anything, which is why her journal containing
the story is kept a secret and thus is known only by the narrator and
reader. A look at the text shows that as the relationship between the
narrator and the wallpaper grows stronger, so too does her language in
her journal as she begins to increasingly write of her frustration and
desperation.
Audio
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*Agnes Moorehead performed a version twice, in 1948 and 1957, on the
radio program 'Suspense'.
*An adaptation of the story was broadcast as an episode of the CBC
Radio drama 'Theatre 10:30' (1968-71). CBC Radio also presented an
audio version of Mary Vingoe's adaptation for the stage at Toronto's
Nightwood Theatre on 'Vanishing Point' (1985).
*A reading of "The Yellow Wallpaper" was performed by Winifred
Phillips as an episode of 'Tales by American Masters' on National
Public Radio in 1996. It was later released as an audiobook in 1998
by Durkin Hayes Audio (). This version can also be heard on Sonic
Theater on XM Radio.
*BBC Radio modified and dramatized the story for the series 'Fear on
Four', starring Anna Massey.
*'Stuff You Should Know' read "The Yellow Wallpaper" as part of their
October 31, 2017 episode "2017 Super Spooktacular".
*Chatterbox Audio Theater adapted "The Yellow Wallpaper" for audio
drama. The play was featured on its September 14, 2007 episode.
*The Gray Area's Edward Champion adapted "The Yellow Wallpaper" for a
modern day setting. The adaptation, which was dedicated to the #metoo
movement, aired on The Sonic Society during its August 11, 2019
episode.
* YouTuber CGP Grey read "The Yellow Wallpaper" and released it on his
channel on October 31, 2020.
* Actress, director Beata Pozniak performed and published "The Yellow
Wallpaper" as an audiobook for the Mental Awareness Month (2021)
* Hardy Fox created an adaptation and music for his album,
"Wallpaper," in which the roles of Charlotte and her husband were
reversed. It was first released on his web site and later as an album
by KlangGallerie in 2023.
* Pete Burns read "The Yellow Wallpaper" on the podcast It's Always
Halloween on the episode titled "Boo!/The Yellow Wallpaper by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman" on May 30, 2024.
* Mirchi Bangla adapted "The Yellow Wallpaper" for its Friday Classic
series, premiering the episode on YouTube on April 11, 2025.
Stage plays
=============
*Nightwood Theatre in Toronto, Canada collectively adapted the story
for performance in 1981.
*Then This Theatre of Dublin, Ireland adapted Gilman's text for a
widely acclaimed production at the 2011 Absolut Dublin Fringe
Festival, featuring actress Maeve Fitzgerald and directed by Aoife
Spillane-Hinks. The production was reprised in 2012 at Dublin's
Project Arts Centre Cube.
* Heather Newman scripted and directed an adaptation of the original
short story, as part of the 2003 season at Theater Schmeater, in
Seattle, Washington. This adaptation won the 2003 'Seattle Times'
"Best of the Fringe" award, and was also produced in 2005 at Tarrant
County College by Dr. Judith Gallagher, and directed by Melinda
Benton-Muller. In May 2010, Benton-Muller and Dr. Gallagher spoke on a
panel about this adaptation at the American Literature Association,
with members of the ALA and the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Society.
* Rummage Theatre researched, wrote and directed an hour long play
called 'Behind the Wallpaper' (first performed at The Bay Theatre in
2014). The play was inspired by "The Yellow Wallpaper", but focuses on
exploring postnatal depression and postpartum psychosis in the present
day and uses shadow work cast behind wallpaper to represent the
"Shadow Woman" which new mother Julie sees as part of her psychosis.
The play toured Dorset in 2014/2015.
*A Company of Players presented a stage adaptation of the original
short story, written and directed by Kristi Boulton, at the 2014
Hamilton Fringe Festival in Ontario, Canada. This production was well
received by critics and won a "Best of Fringe" award.
*Central Works of Berkeley presented a one-woman show consisting of
the text of the play recited and performed by Elena Wright and with a
TBA-nominated score written and performed by violinist Cybele
D'Ambrosio in 2015.
* Portland, Oregon-based Coho Productions staged an adaptation written
by Sue Mach in early 2016, which integrated "expressionistic audio,
visual and movement interludes with the haunting literary text". The
stage adaptation was co-produced and conceived by Grace Carter, who
also portrays the primary character, Charlotte. The play was directed
by Philip Cuomo.
* An opera by British composer Dani Howard, with libretto by Joseph
Spence, was premiered in August 2023 at the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
Film
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* In 1977, the story was adapted as a short film (14 min) as 'The
Yellow Wallpaper' by director Marie Ashton and screenwriter Julie
Ashton; it starred Sigrid Wurschmidt.
* In 1989, the story was adapted as 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), later shown in the U.S. on
'Masterpiece Theatre'. It was adapted by Maggie Wadey, directed by
John Clive, and starred Julia Watson and Stephen Dillane.
* In 2009, the story was adapted by director John McCarty as a short
(30 minute) film called 'Confinement' starring Colleen Lovett.
(McCarty had initially written a treatment of the story in the late
1960s on spec for a television anthology. The idea was shelved, but
the treatment was eventually revised for 'Confinement'.)
* In 2011, the story was loosely adapted into the feature-length film
'The Yellow Wallpaper', directed by Logan Thomas, starring Aric
Cushing. (DVD release, 2015)
* A short experimental film by British filmmaker Julia Dogra-Brazell,
'The Rules of the Game' (2015), found inspiration in this text,
contextualising Gilman's story in relation to the imminent arrival of
the first moving images made for projection. Dogra-Brazell's film
premiered at the 59th BFI London Film Festival in
2015.[
https://mubi.com/en/gb/films/the-rules-of-the-game-2015]
*American filmmakers Alexandra Loreth and Kevin Pontuti produced and
directed a feature-length film adaptation titled 'The Yellow
Wallpaper' (2021). The film premiered at Cinequest Film Festival in
2021.
See also
======================================================================
* 'Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman' - an unfinished novel about a woman
imprisoned in an asylum
* 'Changeling' - a film about a woman imprisoned in a mental hospital
Bibliography
======================================================================
* Carnley, Peter (2001). 'The Yellow Wallpaper and other sermons'
HarperCollins, Sydney
*
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Further reading
======================================================================
* Bak, John S. (1994). "Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian
Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'",
'Studies in Short Fiction' 31.1 (Winter 1994), pp. 39-46.
* Barkat, Sara N. (2020).
[
https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2020/02/27/literary-analysis-the-yellow-wall-paper-gilman-affects-us-all/
"Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wall-Paper Affects Us All"], at
'Tweetspeak Poetry' (Spring 2020)
* Crewe, Jonathan (1995). "Queering 'The Yellow Wallpaper'? Charlotte
Perkins Gilman and the Politics of Form", 'Tulsa Studies in Women's
Literature' 14 (Fall 1995), pp. 273-293.
* Cutter, Martha J. "The Writer as Doctor: New Models of Medical
Discourse in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Later Fictions". 'Literature
and Medicine' 20. 2 (Fall 2001): pp. 151-182.
* Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan (1980). 'The Madwoman in the
Attic'. Yale University Press.
* Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.
[
https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/whyyw.html "Why I
wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'"], 'The Forerunner', October 1913,
accessed November 15, 2009.
* Golden, Catherine (1989). "The Writing of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ A
Double Palimpsest", 'Studies in American Fiction', 17 (Autumn 1989),
pp. 193-201.
* Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature’s
Ancestral House: Another Look at ‘The Yellow Wallpaper", 'Women’s
Studies' 12 (1986): 113-128.
* Hume, Beverly A. "Gilman’s ‘Interminable Grotesque’: The Narrator of
‘The Yellow Wallpaper", 'Studies in Short Fiction' 28 (Fall 1991):
477-484.
* Johnson, Greg. "Gilman’s Gothic Allegory: Rage and Redemption in
‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’" 'Studies in Short Fiction' 26 (Fall 1989):
521-530.
* King, Jeannette, and Pam Morris. "On Not Reading Between the Lines:
Models of Reading in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’" 'Studies in Short
Fiction' 26.1 (Winter 1989): 23-32.
* Klotz, Michael. "Two Dickens Rooms in 'The Yellow Wall-Paper'",
'Notes and Queries' (December 2005): 490-1.
* Knight, Denise D. "The Reincarnation of Jane: 'Through This' -
Gilman’s Companion to ‘The Yellow Wall-paper.’" 'Women’s Studies' 20
(1992): 287-302.
* Lanser, Susan S. "Feminist Criticism, 'The Yellow Wallpaper', and
the Politics of Color in America". 'Feminist Studies' 15 (Fall 1989):
415-437.
External links
======================================================================
*
*
* [
http://www.scaryforkids.com/yellow-wallpaper/ Full Text of 'The
Yellow Wallpaper']. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20130704052511/http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/yellowwallpaper.pdf
Full text of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' at the CUNY Library]
* [
https://archive.org/download/SUSPENSE4/480729YellowWallpaper.mp3
The Yellow Wallpaper], audio, CBS radio, 1948.
*
* [
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790788/'The Yellow Wallpaper'] A 2006
film inspired by the short story that relies on the gothic/horror
interpretation.
*
[
https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/book/the-yellow-wall-paper-a-graphic-novel-sara-barkat-charlotte-perkins-gilman/'The
Yellow Wall-Paper: A Graphic Novel (Unabridged)'] A 2020 experimental
graphic novel containing the unabridged text of the original story.
*
[
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans/charlotte-perkins-gilmans-yellow-wall-paper-writing-women
EDSITEment's lesson plan Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'Yellow
Wall-Paper']
*
*
* [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsdYFoYibr0 youtube.com audiobook
of 'The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman']
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper
