The fantastic and psychological horror in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" represents a very real horror present for women of her time period, particularly one of confinement until mental decay.
Essentially the story deals in terms of dichotomies: man and woman, outside and inside space, health of the mind and health of the body. The main conflict of the story happens when one tries to treat the other as a non-entity or not as important as the other. For example, the main character's husband John is a physician who does not believe her mental anxieties warrants as much concern as the physical diseases he deals with daily. Instead he just believes not allowing her mind stimulation will somehow calm it down and she will be well. He also does not put much thought into her concerns like the hideous yellow wallpaper that covers her room and this actually prompts him to make her deal with it my refusing to remove it and make her lay there for hours a day.
Because of her physical confinement, this actually allows her mental anxieties to worsen as she has nothing to stimulate herself with other than the yellow wallpaper. She has nowhere to sublimate her energies into other than writing, which she must hide, and following the patterns on the wall. As she descends farther into instability to the point where she identifies more with the wallpaper and the perceived women trapped in there than her loved ones, we are left wondering how much of her story is fantastical or the product of a collapsed mind.
By showing how harmful a male-centric view of the female mind and body can be on a woman's health, "The Yellow Wallpaper" excellent feminist critique showing how women should be listened to when regarding their health.
Post arguments, interpretive questions, or engaging responses concerning the week's texts.
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