Cameron Jones Final Essay

Cameron Jones
ENGL 208
Final Essay
Fall 2014

The Gothic literature movement began in the late 18th century with Horace Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto” and was a derivative of the Romantic Movement. Writers of the Gothic Genre were focused on drawing on the emotions of the reader and creating an atmosphere of suspense, mystery, terror and dread. The writers also emphasized the supernatural, and how horror can be present in many everyday situations. Gothic texts also place emphasis on emotions such as agitation, hysteria, mystery, venerability, suspense and panic. Many Gothic texts are based in places that are decaying, deserted, abandoned, isolated or that have a have a history of death, war and family feuds. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman relates to and explores these characteristics of the Gothic Genre but not only that, is used as a way to critique the male dominated society she lived in. While not the only gothic text with feminist symbolism, I would argue that it’s certainly one of the most influential, at least when compared to the other stories we’ve read this semester. Carol Davidson wrote a wonderful analysis on what she refers to as the “female gothic” in “The Yellow Wallpaper” which she defines as text that “centers its lens on a young woman’s rite of passage into womanhood and her ambivalent relationship to contemporary domestic ideology.” (Davidson 48) I interpreted that as her referencing the hardships women had to deal with at the time Gilman wrote this story. Gilman lived in a time where men still called the shots. This is a time when feminism was in its infancy and nowhere near as mainstream as it is today. In fact when this story was written, some publishers (who were men) refused to publish it due to the feminist message it held. (Peritz 113). Men at that time weren’t too keen on the idea of women breaking free from the chains that were holding them.
Aiding the expression of the author’s feminist views are the thoughts and dialogue of the narrator. Her desire to express her thoughts and ideas breaks through even society’s toughest barriers: “I did write for a while in spite of them” (Gilman 3). As an individual woman, she feels depressed and ill until she is able to express herself through writing, at which point she feels exhausted due to the need to hide her thoughts from society and her husband. On the other hand, she feels pressured by society and obligated to stay in her husband, John’s, care: “he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman 4). Though her husband has removed all control and responsibility from her hands much like what a parent would do to a child, making her feel imprisoned and useless, she still feels pressured by society to worship and thank her husband for eliminating the need to think from her life.
John is a textbook example of a Victorian era husband who holds absolute control over his wife. He treats her as an inferior, as seen here: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 3). John sees his wife’s ideas and thoughts as laughable, never taking them seriously until it is too late to save her from madness. It is also clear from this statement that John laughs at his wife because it is what is expected by society. When her husband John says: “bless her little heart; she shall be as sick as she pleases” (Gilman 10) we catch glimpses of his almost childlike treatment of her. The use of the word “little” to describe her heart gives the image of a small body and mind to go along with it, like that of an infant. Once the narrator finally takes control of her own thoughts at the end of the story, the roles between husband and wife make some big changes. John’s role as a strong, protective husband and leader is reversed, and he becomes much like a woman himself: “Now why should that man have fainted?” (Gilman 17). Having seen his wife in a state of delirium (symbolically, breaking the hold he has over her), he faints, much like the stereotypical shocked woman. In accepting her delirium, the narrator has reversed the traditional roles of husband and wife; John’s shock at this reversal further shows his need to control his wife, lest he be seen as a “woman” by society.
Setting clearly plays an important role in any piece of gothic literature, almost becoming a character in and of itself and that’s no different than the bedroom where the narrator spends all her time. It is clear that feminist views are further accentuated through the narrator’s surroundings. Her environment is almost prison-like; when the narrator wishes for the walls to be repapered, her husband refuses, stating “that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on” (Gilman 5). Though the narrator may feel repressed by these bars and gates, her husband refuses to change her environment; he wishes to keep her imprisoned. But perhaps the most obvious use of setting to emphasize feminist views comes in the wallpaper itself: “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!” (Gilman 11). The paper itself, though not physically restraining her like the gates and bars, represents a psychological prison. As she begins to feel imprisoned she starts to project her thoughts and feelings onto the yellow wallpaper, idea of the room being her prison goes from figurative to literal. All of her thoughts are devoted entirely to the paper. She’s entranced by it, unable to pull her mind from the strange allure of its pattern. This all connects to the image of the woman trapped behind the paper; the protagonist’s mind is not freed until the end of the story, when she has removed most of the paper. With “barred windows for little children and rings and things in the walls” (Gilman 4) the room is more like a prison to her than comforting place to relax. The text is sprinkled with metaphors and allegories concerning the paper; the references are complex and numerous. There is the paper’s stench, which subtly pervades the whole house. “It creeps all over the house. I find it hovering in the dining room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.” (Gilman 13) This perhaps to give a sense of pervasive and inescapable injustice, much like the unspoken social rules which governed Gilman’s world. Gilman describes the foul odor magnificently, and you can’t help but feel a little grossed out by it. She even mentions that the scent is in her hair (Gilman 13) giving a sense that the wallpaper is ever-present and lurking, like the subtle rejections she faced as a female writer. The paper stains people and things, much like society passing its sense of protocol from person to person, father to son. “…the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John’s, and she wished we’d be more careful.” (Gilman 12) A constantly changing light, which shows new and mutating forms in the paper—symbols of the many ways sexism has changed and mutated over time. “This wall-paper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then.” (Gilman 7) This first person narrative reads like a diary, and the reader follows the narrator as she chronicles her deteriorating mental condition. Her mental breakdown is brought about by a fascination with the wallpaper in her bedroom. This fascination with the wallpaper is the result of her isolation in an upstairs bedroom of the summer home she and her husband rented. It is this isolation that draws comparisons with Gothic literature.
Another telltale descriptor is the creeping woman, figuratively hiding and lurking, perhaps Gilman’s feelings about her own writing, lurking and hiding among men and not being openly original. Strangled heads in the paper may symbolize women whose careers and goals have been choked, and the main character’s tearing down of the paper and creeping over her husband is clearly a symbol of victory over men. In the end, the main character must creep over her husband even after tearing down the paper, indeed, bits of the paper remain on the wall. (Gilman 17) This reads strongly that there is still work to be done in the advancement towards in terms of true social and economic equality, and ‘husbands’ lie down as obstacles to be dealt with.
As a whole, this story is used as a tool to express the author’s personal views on society and how she interprets the way women are treated, illustrating the physical and mental hardships faced by women in this time period. It promotes new ideas from Gilman and challenges old ideas about women’s position in society. These ideas are expressed through the actions of John, the thoughts of the narrator, and the setting of the story. Through the text, Gilman speaks of the imprisonment and psychological struggles placed on women by a society run by males. In her mind, in order for women to be free we must remove all gender roles from society. The text inspires its reader at many levels, but most importantly, it exposes ugly and unnoticed social conventions that are pretty much second nature to its male characters. Like many other texts we’ve read this semester, Gilman promotes an idea for change, and it illustrates a woman’s struggle to find equal opportunity in society. The Yellow Wallpaper is hauntingly beautiful in the sense that the content is revolving around something so simple and yet so sinister while also making the writing and plot so intriguing. It has a lot to say about the treatment of women in late 1800’s, and just how far the mind can be pushed before it breaks. So... what is Gothic literature? Gothic is a genre that is at once cohesive and divisive, a unification of elements and a paradox. It incorporates themes of eternal conflict and importance to the human condition - relationships, gender, patriarchy, nostalgia, and the sublime. In my opinion, to be truly loyal to the origins of gothic though, a novel needs a traditional or similar setting, dark aesthetic, and themes involving mankind’s deepest, darkest fears. Dealing with those fears using the supernatural is a major bonus. With that definition a novel like The Yellow Wallpaper would fit. Most importantly, it looks away from the present to the past and from what is obvious and scientific towards an inner world that is at once liberating and imprisoning, and forces the reader to engage it on its own terms, and not those of social and cultural conditioning. It defies categorization and explanation!

Works Cited
Davison, Carol Margaret. "Haunted House/Haunted Heroine: Female Gothic Closets in “The Yellow Wallpaper”." Women 's Studies 33.1 (2004): 47-75. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism And Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, 199. Print.

Cited: Davison, Carol Margaret. "Haunted House/Haunted Heroine: Female Gothic Closets in “The Yellow Wallpaper”." Women 's Studies 33.1 (2004): 47-75. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism And Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Dec. 2014. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, 199. Print.