Over the past month I've heard mention of The Yellow Wallpaper short story in several different contexts - enough to make me read all of it. First someone on a radio programme, I heard in passing, mentioned it as being a notable example of 19th century feminist literature and a book to rediscover. Then I started teaching a new Performance syllabus containing a choice of set text for literary evaluation, analysis and expressive reading which contained a passage from The Yellow Wallpaper. A few days later I saw a review of the story online in a newsfeed. Serendipity? A zeitgeist? Sheer coincidence?
Again, coincidentally, few days later a student of mine chose a passage from The Yellow Wallpaper without prompting from me. Prior to that, I had been trying to steer him towards to a more familiar passage from the Mill on the Floss. However, I accepted his choice and his reasons for it and thought deeply about the best ways to approach the idea of postnatal depression and the gradual descent into insanity with him! I would have expected it to be outside the understanding of a 14 year old boy, no matter how bright. He was very keen to buy a physical copy of the story, and we have yet to discuss his analysis of it.
His reason for settling on The Yellow Wallpaper was that it appeared to be modern, and he assumed it to have been written in the past 40 years. He was surprised to discover that American, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, had in fact written it in 1892 for The New England Magazine. Language aside though, it is worth noting how modern most people do find the subject matter. The story is in the public domain, so it is easy to find on the internet, I found it on the digital library pages of Wikisource. My response to the story is that it is a very compelling read. It's written as a series of journal entries from a married woman who is gradually losing her connection with reality.
In the context of the 19th century, the author uses the trope of imprisonment. The narrator and her baby have been taken to an isolated house by her doctor husband and his sister, in order for her to recuperate and recover from nerves and mental instability. Much in the same way the playwright, Ibsen exposed the constraining treatment of wives and mothers in his famous play, The Doll's House. The narrator describes her feeling of isolation and detachment in relation to her room's yellow wallpaper with which she is fixated to the point that she observes a woman living within it. The author uses this idea to express her awareness of the entrapment in the marriage contract; that women became the property of men, and their freedom is curtailed by the patriarchy. John, the husband, is depicted as being patronising and dominating, and his assessment of her condition and treatment arises from his arrogance and feelings of superiority. The wife takes on the role of child and is unable to protest or defend herself or escape. Her illusions are the only things left within her control.
Reading this remarkable story led me to contemplate the changes in the role of women within marriage as well as society as a whole? Do read it yourself and see what you think. Is it still relevant?
Review by Lynne Collinson: Vice Chair of The Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama
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