Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s 1892 short story The Yellow Wallpaper lends itself to both feminist and psychoanalytic literary criticism it tells the story of a woman who has recently given birth and is prescribed the rest cure for her depression and nervousness. The short story exemplifies the power struggle between men and women in Victorian America. The story begins with the nameless narrator and her husband, John, moving into a colonial mansion with their newborn son for the summer, Since the narrator has been struggling with depression, she is forced into isolation and told to not work anymore This includes writing, which she does in secret to prevent John from finding out. The room she’s kept in has previously been used as a gymnasium and nursery. It has bars on the windows and ugly yellow wallpaper, which the narrator describes in detail. From a feminist lens, the yellow wallpaper in the narrator’s room can be viewed as a symbol of patriarchy.
The narrator fixates on the wallpaper, studying its pattern. The wallpaper’s pattern (which the narrator finds hideous) might represent gender norms in society that have become a pattern. Thus, the pattern in the wallpaper symbolizes what Robert Dale Parker would call “a pattern and history of not taking women seriously” that is “so deeply ingrained that it can seem natural,” The narrator’s husband John is also guilty of not taking women seriously, just like the patriarchy represented by the wallpaper. He laughs at his wife when she voices concerns, but the narrator says “one expects that in marriage.” This shows that a husband being dismissive of his wife was the societal norm of the time, Since the narrator tears down the wallpaper at the end of the story, this suggests she is trying to rebel against those norms.
The narrator notices other features, such as the “woman in the wallpaper” who appears trapped, due to the bars that appear on the wallpaper from of the bars on the window. This suggests that the narrator literally feels imprisoned in the room, but also her marriage to John and her place in a patriarchal society If the wallpaper is a symbol of patriarchy, then the “woman in the wallpaper” can represent the narrator, women as a whole, or both The wallpaper and the woman trapped within it aren’t the only symbols of patriarchy in the story. John, with his authority as a physician is able to suppress the narrator by infantilizing hert John doesn’t allow the narrator to make her own decisions and has her locked in a room that was used in the past as a nursery.
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There’s even a gate at the top of the stairs, so it’s as if the room is childproofed not for the baby, but for the narratort The narrator‘s sister-in-law Jennie can be seen as the ideal woman in a patriarchal society. She takes on typical gender roles of the time as a housekeeper who supervises the narrator for John. She’s essentially the narrator‘s baby-sitter, not unlike Mary, who’s hired as a literal baby-sitter while the narrator is on the rest cure. The narrator has no occupation or responsibilities while Jennie does and these responsibilities comply with the Victorian gender roles that the narrator is unable to fulfill, By being told to not even write, it’s no wonder that the narrator is brought to insanity. The narrator has been stripped of any individuality-she doesn’t even have a name within the story. From a psychoanalytic perspective, the reader of the story and the “dead paper” the narrator writes on can be seen as the analyst and the narrator can be seen as the analysandr In psychoanalysis, the analyst (in this case, the reader) listens to the analysand (the narrator) but “says little or nothing” while analyzing what is being said.
The narrator puts down on paper information she would never say “to a living soult” During psychoanalysis, the analysand is free to tell the analyst about their emotions and concerns that they may not voice outside of therapy. Since the analysand in psychoanalysis faces away from the analyst while sitting on the couch, it is therefore similar to the narrator using writing in a therapeutic way. The paper and reader can’t offer feedback as the narrator shares all her innermost feelings and concerns, thus allowing the narrator a way to vent out these thoughts and keep them secret from John and Jennie, who wouldn’t take her seriously If the narrator were undergoing psychoanalysis, a similar process would occur since the analyst wouldn’t be looking at her or offering much feedback while keeping her words confidential, because the setting would be clinical.
The narrator might even be “sublimating” her repressed drive to be free by writing the story, because she is redirecting those feelings into something constructive. This especially makes sense when one considers the author‘s magazine article, “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper,” In that piece, she explains how being told “never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again” for the rest of her life didn’t help cure her from “continuing nervous breakdown” and “melancholia,” She followed those instructions for about three months, but this ended up bringing her “near the borderline of utter mental ruin.” According to psychoanalytic theory, sublimation allows people to “thrive on repression,” by leading one to activities that “build culture and civilization.” In this case, that activity is writing. This applies to both the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper as well as its author.
The psychoanalytic perspective can also be used to understand the woman in the wallpaper. She might represent the narrator’s repressed drive to be free. The woman in the wallpaper can also be seen as the narrator’s alter-egot She is “subdued” and “quiet” during the day, which is similar to how the narrator must hide her writing during the day. Because of this, both the narrator and the woman in the wallpaper move around the house silently in secret Neither of them can be seen being active in the presence of John and Jennie. Eventually, the woman in the wallpaper starts making efforts to be free.
The narrator observes her attempting to shake the wallpaper and trying to “climb through.” Since the narrator is using the woman in the wallpaper as an alter-ego, psychoanalysts might consider the narrator to be using “transference.” This is typically what happens in psychoanalysis when the analysand transfers emotions onto the analyst “that apply to someone else,” especially those which apply to “another authority figure.” Although the woman in the wallpaper isn’t much of an analyst, the narrator seems to transfer her emotions of being trapped onto this alter-ego found in the wallpaper. These emotions apply to the authority of John and Jennie, and the patriarchy when read from a feminist perspective.
