The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman Perkins
A Review of Gilman's Classic Tale of Psychological Terror
Sep 30, 2009
Published in 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", was interpreted as "a supernatural tale of horror and insanity in the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe.”
Gilman's narrator is taken to a isolated house as part of her "rest cure". It is a sprawling "colonial mansion, a hereditary estate." And stands "quite alone ... well back from the road." It is in this lonely house that she is expected to recover from her nervous condition.
There is reason for Gilman's narrator to mistrust her surroundings. She thinks there is "something queer about [the house]," and quite rightly she observes, "Else why should it be let so cheaply." The empty, abandoned or cheaply rented house is a standard motif in many ghost stories and other tales of the supernatural. It increases a character's isolation and helplessness in the face of the dangers that lurk within.
Life in Isolation
The woman in Gilman's story is doubly isolated by the prison-like bedroom that her husband insists they take. The room is "at the top of the house." Its windows are barred, and it is cut off by a gate at the head of the stairs.
Gilman's narrator is also cut off psychologically. John, her husband, is convinced that he knows best. He forbids her to write or engage in any activity that could induce excitement. She becomes secretive and withdrawn, making her a perfect target for the supernatural forces that exist in the house.
A Malevolent Force
The malevolent force is slow to show itself. From the beginning, Gilman's narrator is disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom. She finds the color "repellant" and "unclean". The pattern disturbs her with its "uncertain curves" and "outrageous angles." She even bestows it with an element of animation when she claims it confuses the eye. We begin to wonder if the force behind the wallpaper is more than just imaginary.
Unpleasant smells are often associated with hauntings. The narrator describes a "peculiar odor" that "creeps all over the house." It is a "yellow" smell. Add to this the shifting images of creeping women, broken necks and "bulbous eyes", and by the last week of her stay, the narrator is convinced that a woman is trapped behind.
The final horror occurs when John breaks in to find his wife creeping along the wall and apparently possessed by the previously trapped spirit. "I've got out at last," she declares and continues to creep around the room's perimeter. As often is the case in ghost stories, we are left to wonder if the ghost really exists.
More Than Just Scary
On its surface “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a classic ghost story with elements of psychological horror. However, Gilman wrote it for far more serious reasons. Gilman suffered from "nervous prostration" for many years. Finally she was treated by noted specialist, S. Weir Mitchell. It was a cure that nearly drove her insane.
Seeing that she was "near the borderline of utter mental ruin," she disobeyed Mitchell's orders and chose to throw herself back into her work. Eventually she recovered. It was after this experience that she wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in which her own experiences are reflected.
The narrator of the story descends into madness as a direct result of her husband's treatment and the environment she is forced to live in.
Isolation in an unhealthy atmosphere, lack of human interaction and forced inactivity result in withdrawal, obsessive and often paranoid thoughts, hallucinations and our narrator's ultimate psychotic break. In the context of her feelings of guilt, loneliness, fear and isolation her reaction to the situation is not unreasonable.
Gilman was successful in telling her story. It became a handbook for many alienists and Mitchell privately admitted that he "altered his treatment of neurasthenia after reading "The Yellow Wallpaper". Gilman says, "It was ... intended to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked."
Attaining Catharsis Through the Supernatural
Supernatural tales serve as an outlet for our imagination, a way of confronting the unexplained and attaining catharsis for our darkest fears and anxieties. It acts as an escapist outlet and often as a framework for deeper commentary, and in that respect “The Yellow Wallpaper” is still relevant today.
Work Cited:
Perkins Gillman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper" University of Virginia
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