The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the protagonist narrator and her physician husband John move to a secluded, Gothic-style English estate for the summer after the narrator has a baby and develops a “temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency” (165). John has put her on a strict bed rest treatment in a particular room without any social, physical, or mental stimulation. She and her husband are staying in the upstairs nursery which the narrator describes it “a big, airy room...with windows that look all ways” (166). She also notices the repellant yellow wallpaper in the room that looks like “one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artisitc sin” (166). Reduced to no activity as a part of her treatment, she begins to analyze the wallpaper over and over until she begins to see women crawling and creeping inside the wallpaper. The narrators environment and setting in the 19th century at an asylum-like house in a prison cell bedroom helps develops the theme of an oppressed, patriarchal ideology in the
19th century society which ultimately leads to the downfall of her sanity. The story’s setting takes place in the 19th century Victorian era where society has a patriarchal ideology imposed on women.
Women are considered second class citizens compared to men on a hierarchic scale. Gilman portrays this in “The Yellow Wallpaper” when the narrator states that she opposes the treatment she is given and admits, “Personally, I disagree with their [John and her brother’s] ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (165). The fact that the narrator questions what to do suggests that she’s helpless and has no power or control of her life. She wants to socialize and participate in activities instead of being cut off from the outside world for the treatment of her illness, but she is powerless against her husband. The societal norms of the 19th century are for women to be submissive to men, which are
dominant.
The colonial mansion that the narrator and her husband are staying in is also influential towards the theme of the story. The narrator describes it as “quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (166). This symbolizes the remoteness and how separated she is from others. The house has many gates and locks, acting as more of a prison than what a house should be: warm, secure, and intimate. The house is a microcosm of the larger, male dominated society that she lives in and is a symbol of repression. She is trapped and cannot escape the societal norms of what is expected of a woman in the 19th century. The location of the bedroom in the interior of the house suggests the internalization of the women’s inferior status. The narrator would rather have the room downstairs “that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window...but John would not hear of it” (166).
Lastly, the bedroom in which the narrator and her husband are living in develops the theme of oppression of all women. It was previously a children’s nursery, but now has a bolted down bed with barred windows and the plaster on the walls broken off. The room acted more like an asylum that imprisons her. A place that is under the control of her husband or others that he has given authority to that keeps the narrator powerless against him. Furthermore, the “repellant, almost revolting...smoldering unclean” (167) yellow wallpaper reflects the narrator and all other women in society that are trapped in an oppressed world. Throughout the story, her insanity deepens as she analyzes the wallpaper over and over again. On the descend of her madness she begins to see a woman behind the main pattern of the wallpaper that “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” (174). This reflects on how the narrator wishes to break free, to undermine patriarchy, and destroy the structures and layers of power that represses her within a patriarchal society. Her insanity is a metaphor for the feminine resistance or rejection of social conventions.
Throughout the story, the narrator has many struggles against patriarchy in the 19th century. The author uses the setting and environment to develop the theme of repression of women in the 19th century society; the Victorian era, the secluded household, and the imprisoned room all contribute to the overall theme of the story which all 19th century women face.

Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Eds. Anne Williams, Rebecca Rea, and Julie van Veen. Scarborough. Nelson, 2003. 165-67, 174. Print.