Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and was a response to a "rest cure" that was assigned to her by her doctor. The story suggests that women were treated unequal to men and it's clear that Gilman believed she had been given an incorrect diagnosis. In the story, the narrator's insanity reaches its climax when she identifies completely with the woman in the wallpaper. She believes that not only has the other woman come out of the wallpaper, but so has she. The symbolic meaning is that both she and the woman have liberated themselves from masculine opression. They have torn themselves from the domesticated prison that is the wallpaper and they are now free. The women are free at midnight under the moonlight which can be seen as a motif for freedom from the masculine sunshine. The narrator obviously goes insane in this story. In A Rose for Emily, the main character does some borderline insane things but they could be viewed more as grotesque. When she finds out that he is a homosexual, Emily poisons her love interest and keeps his dead body locked upstairs. She permits no one to enter her house and never leaves. We later find out that she constantly layed next to his body. This inspires disgust and revulsion but I believe that Emily knew what she was doing all along. Therefore she wasn't technically insane unlike the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper who slowly slipped into psychosis as she remained locked in her room.
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I really like your comments on "The Yellow Wallpaper". I thought it was a very interesting story and I think that Gilman did a wonderful job at showing the decent of the woman in the story into insanity, eventually becoming one with the wallpaper that she thought was appalling in the beginning of the story.
ReplyDeleteWhile i do agree about the overall tone of masculine oppression, i have to disagree on on e of the points you made. When you indicated they women were free in the moonlight (masculine sunshine), i more read it as the women were trapped an d being oppressed more at night (in the moonlight). It was when John was gone during the day and the moon was gone (ie: the masculine was gone from the house) were the women free to do as they please vs. being controlled at night.
ReplyDeleteI found your comments on The Yellow Wallpaper to be very interesting. I mostly like how you found symbolism in the woman and the wallpaper. I thought she was just plain crazy but after reading you blog I can see symbolism of her being fre at night when she is alone with the wallpaper.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the wallpaper could've symbolized the narrator? Stuck in this one room? Being imprisoned when all she wants to do is socialize and get out every once in awhile? Anyways, I thought both of these stories were very interesting and gave a different take on gothic literature. No more fancy talk and walking suits of armour, these stories try to incorporate daily lives and stories of "normal" people and what happens to them. Why is it that the men always have to weigh the women down? Don't they have a voice too? It seems like the males are the strong models in the stories and instead of the women fainting, they are now going insane. Spectacular.
ReplyDeleteI love the way that you percieve this as an escape from masculine opression. I viewed it as more of an escape from her pain and her believed "insanity." I agree also that the woman behind the walpaper is her and that once she is liberated, so is the narrator.
ReplyDeleteI agree the narrator definitely went insane, I kept thinking what is she talking about. I didn't get the part about women being liberated from the story but it makes sense. I thought the story was more about how doctors weren't very good. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her and actually made her worse by the "rest cure" so she didn't like them.
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