Video Transcript:
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published in January 1892. The story follows the journal writings of the narrator Jane as she struggles with her mental health and her relationship with her husband John. Jane’s mental health quickly declines after the birth of her baby; however, her symptoms and complaints are dismissed by John, an arrogant physician and a controlling husband. He insists that they move into a new house far away where she can properly rest and escape her stressors. Here, Jane and her husband stay in a room with a “repellant, almost revolting” yellow wallpaper (Gilman 3). As John continues undermining Jane’s illness, she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in order to escape her reality. The ignorance towards mental illness and the misogynistic societal hierarchy combined to eventually drive the narrator insane as she obsessed over her room’s yellow wallpaper to express her suppressed feelings. Gilman critiques this system through the narrator’s eventual decline into insanity, proving the need for self-expression and interpersonal communication in everyday life.
During the period of publication and the story’s setting, mental illness was not commonly recognized in medicine or by society. According to the National Library of Medicine, “technical references to mental health as a field or discipline are not found before 1946” (Bertolote para. 3). This lack of knowledge partly explains why John dismisses her cries for help and focused on her physical symptoms rather than her mental state. He recognizes that she is “gaining flesh and color” and that her “appetite is better” (Gilman 8). Due to this lack of knowledge surrounding mental health, John is embarrassed by his wife’s behavior, explaining why he isolates her and takes away all forms of communication. He restricts her from writing in her journal, working, or socializing by justifying it as treatment. Although Jane knows that this isolation is making her condition worse, she does not have the mental or social power to fight against John’s word. When she tries to explain how she is not recovering, John dismisses her words and strives to convince her that she is already much healthier.
Gilman illustrates the misogynistic societal hierarchy by displaying the traditional gender roles through Jane and John’s marriage. Their imbalanced power dynamic forces Jane into an oppressed position in which she struggles to express her beliefs and escape her entrapment. John refers to Jane as his “little girl” (Gilman 8) and “a blessed little goose” (Gilman 4). These belittling terms demonstrate his dominant role in the relationship. The room with the yellow wallpaper, in which Jane is confined to, used to be a nursery. Rather than their baby boy staying there, John believes it is more necessary for his wife to be secluded and nurtured there, which makes her seem more incapable of caring for herself than a newborn baby. This misogyny presents itself both inside and outside the household; it stops Jane from having a say in her treatment. She explains that she takes “phosphates or phosphites – whichever it is, and tonics” (Gilman 2) and whatever else her husband prescribes without understanding what it is. This mirrors the relationship between a doctor and a child patient that lacks intelligence and personal awareness of their well-being. Adults are supposed to be aware of the medications they consume and the treatment they undergo in order to properly recover. However, because Jane is a woman, it is assumed that she does not understand what is best for her. This reflects the gender bias in the medical field during the time period as well.
John’s role as both Jane’s physician and husband heightens the effects of misogyny and ignorance toward mental illness in her life. She has to constantly fight the oppression as a wife and a female patient. Jane recognizes this in her journal: “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman 2). She is unable to reach out to any friends or relatives for help because John asserts his authority over them as well. An example of this is John’s sister Jennie, who cares for the baby as Jane recovers. Jane explains, “She is a perfect, and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!” (Gilman 5 ). Jennie represents someone who is oppressed in the same way as Jane but she does not realize or fight against it. Instead, she is content with her status and is a bystander to the oppressors. This makes her “perfect” in men’s eyes because she does not question the way things are nor fight against her role in society. Without any form of support or communication, Jane is stuck in her head, causing her mental state to quickly down spiral.
At the beginning of the story, Jane mentions how she journals as both a form of self-expression and rebellion against John. However, she explains that it exhausts her to have to hide her writing (Gilman 2). Over time, her writing becomes very sporadic with constant dashes and unfinished sentences, demonstrating her lack of energy and her erratic thoughts. Due to her growing exhaustion and her declining mental state, she uses the yellow wallpaper in her room to express herself and escape her pain. The woman she claims to see “creeping” inside the walls symbolizes herself because she feels trapped and oppressed as a mentally-ill female. The woman in the walls does not creep by daylight, symbolizing how women conform to societal expectations of them when they are being watched in the light. However, at night, Jane sees many women creeping in the garden outside, which means they are not hiding their true selves. When John goes to town overnight for a business trip, Jane finally feels free to creep as she pleases and rips the paper off of the walls to free the woman stuck inside. Jane and the woman become one, indicating that Jane is freeing herself from the constraints society places on women. Nonetheless, this merge also signifies Jane’s awaited mental breakdown. When John arrives, she is unafraid to creep in his sight, which causes him to faint when he sees her crawling around the room.
The story The Yellow Wallpaper proves the need for self-expression and communication to maintain a healthy, content mindset. Jane finds a form of self-expression through the yellow wallpaper and communication with the woman stuck in the walls. The ignorance towards mental illness during the time caused her mental health to quickly deteriorate, and the misogynistic societal hierarchy prevented her from getting the support and treatment she truly needed. The Yellow Wallpaper reminds readers that one must go beneath the surface to understand someone or something’s true condition. Jane broke beneath the surface by ripping off the yellow wallpaper to finally understand herself and the feelings of entrapment that were crippling her. John refused to go beneath the surface, which caused him to solely focus on Jane’s physical symptoms and not her mental state. Jane’s descent into insanity teaches the importance of mental health awareness and interpersonal communication. It is necessary to express and communicate one’s feelings in order to relieve stress and combat oppression.
Works Cited:
Bertolote, José. “The roots of the concept of mental health.” World Psychiatry, vol. 8, no. 2, 2008, pp. 113-116. National Library of Medicine, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2408392/.
Cantrell, Joshua. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Youtube, 2017 October 10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhcLaM-Ig84.
Cresta, Mirko. “Why Women Aren’t Getting the Care They Need” [Illustration]. Robb Report, 2018 October 25, https://robbreport.com/muse/beauty-wellness/when-will-the-medical-world-take-women-seriously-2824332/.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Project Gutenberg eBook, 1999. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm. Originally published in The New England Magazine, 1st ed. New York: New England Magazine Corporation, 1892. pp. 647-656.
Green, John. “The Yellow Wallpaper: Crash Course Literature 407.” Youtube, uploaded by CrashCourse, 2018 January 10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtepIKeNHPU.
Hyperphagia. “The Yellow Wallpaper II” [Jane journaling at her window]. Deviant Art, 2011 December 12, https://www.deviantart.com/hyperphagia/art/The-Yellow-Wallpaper-II-273694954.
Hyperphagia. “The Yellow Wallpaper III” [Jane in her bed]. Deviant Art, 2011 December 12, https://www.deviantart.com/hyperphagia/art/The-Yellow-Wallpaper-III-273695220.
“Insulin Coma Therapy: Rewiring the Brain” [Image]. Everyday Health, 2014 May 7, https://www.everydayhealth.com/pictures/worst-mental-health-treatments-history/.
King, Lucas. “1 Hour of Dark Piano | Dark Piano for Dark Writing.” Youtube, 2017 June 5, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQ9GURNrUg&t=95s.
Koizumi, Anne. “The Yellow Wallpaper (2015) – Stop-Motion Animation.” Youtube, 2017 February 26, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lH8HOQpPKI.
“Lobotomies—Hacking Away Troubled Brains” [Image]. History, 2017 September 5, https://www.history.com/news/7-of-the-most-outrageous-medical-treatments-in-history.
“Lobotomy: Disrupting Brain Circuits” [Image]. Everyday Health, 2014 May 7, https://www.everydayhealth.com/pictures/worst-mental-health-treatments-history/.
Marciniak, Zoey. “The Yellow Wallpaper: Thinking Outside the Box and Within the Walls” [Cover image]. Productions Magazine, https://www.productionsmag.com/article/yellow-wallpaper-thinking-outside-box-within-walls/.
Mutiny Pictures. “The Yellow Wallpaper – Official Trailer (2022) Alexandra Loreth, Joe Mullins, Clara Hart.” Youtube, uploaded by IGN, 2022 March 29, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLrk3Dm_emE.
Sealey, Chris. “The Yellow Wallpaper – Animated.” Youtube, 2012 December 9, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ewLvOAibDk.
“The Mill Theatre presents The Yellow Wallpaper” [Image]. The Mill, https://www.themilltheatre.org/whats-playing.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” [Film poster]. IMDb, 2021, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8372638/.
Featured Image:
“The Yellow Wallpaper” [Image]. Ivy Panda Literature Guides, 2022 October 3, https://ivypanda.com/lit/the-yellow-wallpaper/quotes-explained/.