Underneath the Yellow Wallpaper: How
A yellow light encourages a pause – not a full blown stop, as red lights demand – but a short period of consideration. Within this moment, one determined whether they want to proceed or to stop. Similarly, Charlotte Gilman uses her short-story “The Yellow Wallpaper” as an example for her readers to judge whether they should proceed in confining women or if they should cease harboring the misconception that women as weak and incapable. Gilman purposefully aligns the narrator’s final plunge into insanity along-side the narrator’s newfound positive interpretation of her confinement, demonstrating that women must be unhealthy to be complacent in the borders society has put around their autonomy.
Similar to how society robs women of their freedom and claims that it is for their sake, the wall-paper is a flimsy, false veil. The sole purpose of wall-paper is making dull things look more appealing, to mask the true nature of walls: making sure those inside stay inside. One could claim that walls are meant to protect those inside from what is outside but the narrator is the only one who cannot move past the walls – it is a prison, complete with barred windows. Although the narrator is able to tear off the wall-paper, crossing one of the borders that traps her, there is still a wall behind it. Her small victory here is ultimately still a loss for she is still bound by the sexist opinions of society. Although one might argue that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is too extreme to represent all society and that it is merely the story of one woman, Gilman includes mentions of other women to represent more than just an individual’s fall. The narrator refers to them as “they” in its plural form, asking if they creeped out of the wall-paper like she did (Gilman 793). Through this, Gilman makes the metaphor of the yellow paper applicable to other women, showing that the confines of the yellow wallpaper, representing society’s pressure on women, is an issue that plagues women as a whole. The term “creep” is used on many levels to lower women, figuratively and physically, throughout the passage. Foremost, it infantilizes women – depicting them as crawling akin to a child. This shows that society wants to push women into a position of weakness and views them as immature. The narrator claims that she creeps because she desires to but in actuality she only creeps because she has been imprisoned by society’s idea that she must be ostracized. Women do not naturally assume a fragile position, creeping, until they are consistently belittled and feel as if they should. In addition, the narrator states that she does not want to go outside because she would have to “creep on the ground” (Gilman 793). Through this phrase, Gilmore demonstrates that women must lower themselves to the lowest level, the ground, in order to function in society. Furthermore, the narrator creeps around the room in secret, mirroring the secretive way women must function in order to keep their place in society. …show more content…
She states that she “shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night” and that it “is hard” (Gilman 793), reflecting her situation in the beginning of the story. Whereas in the start of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator writes in secret, she now must crawl in secret. From whom must she keep her activities hidden? John. A man who holds a respectable position in society and who thinks that he is more knowledgeable than her. John is a representation of all those who want to subdue women. In the same fashion as the narrator, women must hide their actions from men and those who approve of the standards that men have set for their behavior. When others are around, women must behave according to society’s constraints and it is like the “night” (Gilman 793), a time where movement is rare and there is no light of hope – only darkness. Gilman ties the narrator’s fall into insanity with her rise in perceived power in order to depict how broken one must be to be satisfied with society’s treatment of women. Although one can interpret the narrator’s mental state as defeat, the narrator believes herself victorious. In her
A yellow light encourages a pause – not a full blown stop, as red lights demand – but a short period of consideration. Within this moment, one determined whether they want to proceed or to stop. Similarly, Charlotte Gilman uses her short-story “The Yellow Wallpaper” as an example for her readers to judge whether they should proceed in confining women or if they should cease harboring the misconception that women as weak and incapable. Gilman purposefully aligns the narrator’s final plunge into insanity along-side the narrator’s newfound positive interpretation of her confinement, demonstrating that women must be unhealthy to be complacent in the borders society has put around their autonomy.
Similar to how society robs women of their freedom and claims that it is for their sake, the wall-paper is a flimsy, false veil. The sole purpose of wall-paper is making dull things look more appealing, to mask the true nature of walls: making sure those inside stay inside. One could claim that walls are meant to protect those inside from what is outside but the narrator is the only one who cannot move past the walls – it is a prison, complete with barred windows. Although the narrator is able to tear off the wall-paper, crossing one of the borders that traps her, there is still a wall behind it. Her small victory here is ultimately still a loss for she is still bound by the sexist opinions of society. Although one might argue that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is too extreme to represent all society and that it is merely the story of one woman, Gilman includes mentions of other women to represent more than just an individual’s fall. The narrator refers to them as “they” in its plural form, asking if they creeped out of the wall-paper like she did (Gilman 793). Through this, Gilman makes the metaphor of the yellow paper applicable to other women, showing that the confines of the yellow wallpaper, representing society’s pressure on women, is an issue that plagues women as a whole. The term “creep” is used on many levels to lower women, figuratively and physically, throughout the passage. Foremost, it infantilizes women – depicting them as crawling akin to a child. This shows that society wants to push women into a position of weakness and views them as immature. The narrator claims that she creeps because she desires to but in actuality she only creeps because she has been imprisoned by society’s idea that she must be ostracized. Women do not naturally assume a fragile position, creeping, until they are consistently belittled and feel as if they should. In addition, the narrator states that she does not want to go outside because she would have to “creep on the ground” (Gilman 793). Through this phrase, Gilmore demonstrates that women must lower themselves to the lowest level, the ground, in order to function in society. Furthermore, the narrator creeps around the room in secret, mirroring the secretive way women must function in order to keep their place in society. …show more content…
She states that she “shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night” and that it “is hard” (Gilman 793), reflecting her situation in the beginning of the story. Whereas in the start of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator writes in secret, she now must crawl in secret. From whom must she keep her activities hidden? John. A man who holds a respectable position in society and who thinks that he is more knowledgeable than her. John is a representation of all those who want to subdue women. In the same fashion as the narrator, women must hide their actions from men and those who approve of the standards that men have set for their behavior. When others are around, women must behave according to society’s constraints and it is like the “night” (Gilman 793), a time where movement is rare and there is no light of hope – only darkness. Gilman ties the narrator’s fall into insanity with her rise in perceived power in order to depict how broken one must be to be satisfied with society’s treatment of women. Although one can interpret the narrator’s mental state as defeat, the narrator believes herself victorious. In her