Interestingly, as I have moved out of my childhood home and into a new place the media I found myself desiring was the psychological.
I examined Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper through the relationship dynamic of the patient and the doctor, the wife and husband.
Driven by perception, The Yellow Wallpaper gives a vivid account of the narrator’s descent into delusion – entirely aided by the “careful and loving” John. It’s this observable, sly, manipulation by John that draws you into the narrative. John is not the ‘bad guy’ here but in his role as physician and husband, he is a fool in his own unsuspecting actions that damage his wife.
“My darling… Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?”
His smattering of affectionate phrases patronises his wife, who perhaps would have a slightly better chance at recovery if treated solely as a patient (but then again, likely not), act as nails in her coffin. They are red flags to follow through the story.
The triumph of the narrator in the final part is greatly enjoyable; the “admirable exercise” of her tearing the wallpaper down is visceral and intense. The theme of claustrophobia is woven well through The Yellow Wallpaper and in this final scene, Gilman does justice to the feeling of freedom.
Gilman’s article ‘Why I Wrote the Yellow Wall-Paper’ states the ‘wise man’ treating her with rest resulted in her approaching ‘the border line of utter mental ruin’. The insanity of the narrator acts to protect her in the final section of the story as a social observation by Gilman: that a woman in that position should rely greater on herself for peace of mind.
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