The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a very interesting writer. She has used many aspects and experiences in her own life in her writings. I know this is typical of many writers, and this can give enchanting details to their stories. With The Yellow Wallpaper, we see a woman who has been brought to an old house by her husband who tells his wife that he doesn’t believe she is sick, but he still brings her to this house so she can have perfect rest for what she refers to as a nervous condition. Oddly, with her husband thinking she isn’t sick, he sure does have her on a lot of medications and remedies and plans to cure her with rest.
During their stay in this house, they stay in a room that was once a nursery at the top of the house. The bed is bolted to the floor and the windows have bars on them. To the woman telling the story says it is an ugly room that irritates her. Her husband ends up completely isolating her to this room and only letting her go outside or be with their baby only when she is being watched by someone and only for brief periods of time. As she is forced to stay in this room constantly, she secretly writes in a journal. Her husband doesn’t want her writing because he feels it will tire her out. At times, it seems he is just a loving and caring husband who is truly trying to help his wife get better, but other times, it seems he is just secluding her to keep her hidden for some reason. Strangely, he has her convinced he is doing all of this out of love and it is what’s best for her.
During these times during the later 1800’s, women were expected to adhere to certain lifestyles and responsibilities. A woman basically had her duties and was rudely looked down upon if she failed at them. If she was weak, or out of the ordinary, it made the husbands look bad and with hers being a physician as well as her brother, I would say she was gazed at by many. To keep her contained and hidden from society, John was mainly protecting his own image.
While his wife stayed in this room with this hideous wallpaper, she began to see someone creeping in the wallpaper. It is apparent that she is hallucinating and who wouldn’t be caged up in such lengthy solitude. She becomes obsessed with this woman she sees in the wallpaper. Even though this is a contrast as to who she really is herself, it is intriguing to read to see if she really does reach someone from behind the wallpaper. At the end as it appears that she may be feeling better, but you learn that she has managed to remove most of the wallpaper in the room. She has worked diligently and meticulously to help remove the “yellow smell.” As her husband comes in the last time, he finds her crawling on the floor talking crazy about being not being able to be put back behind the wallpaper again. He faints and for some crazy reason, she doesn’t understand why!