Charlotte Perkins Gillman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a searing critique of the Victorian era's attitudes towards mental illness and women's rights. The story follows the unnamed narrator, who is suffering from postpartum depression, as she is put on a "rest cure" by her husband John. The rest cure involves complete bed rest and isolation from any stimulating activity, including reading and writing. The narrator is confined to a room with yellow wallpaper, which quickly becomes her obsession. As she descends into madness, the wallpaper comes to represent the domesticity that has been forced upon her, ultimately leading to her breakdown.
The story of "The Yellow Wallpaper" can be seen as an allegory for the struggles of women to break free from the constraints of domesticity and obtain equality. In many ways, Gillman was ahead of her time in her championing of women's rights. The story was published in 1892, at a time when very few women were working outside the home and most were still living under the thumb of their husbands. Gillman's tale of a woman driven to madness by her confinement speaks to the need for women to have outlets for their creativity and intellect, lest they go mad from the repression.
While "The Yellow Wallpaper" is clearly a work of fiction, it contains elements that are eerily prescient. In particular, the character of John seems to foreshadow the rise of gaslighting as a tactic used by abusive men to control their wives. Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse in which the abuser deliberately confuses or withholds information from the victim in order to make them question their own sanity.
“John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him.”
John does this repeatedly to his wife throughout the story, telling her that she is imagining things that are not there and subtly undermining her confidence. This type of behavior is all too common in abusive relationships and can be just as damaging as physical violence.
It is no coincidence that Gillman chose to set her story in a house with yellow wallpaper. Yellow has long been associated with cowardice and weakness, two traits that have historically been used to belittle women. In recent years, however, the color yellow has come to represent strength and defiance in the face of oppression. This shift can be seen in the way that women have begun to reclaim traditionally feminine symbols like pink and glitter as forms of resistance against patriarchy. In light of this, it seems fitting that Gillman's story about a woman driven mad by domesticity should end with the image of the protagonist tearing down the wallpaper in a fit of rebellion. This act symbolizes not only her own liberation but also the beginning of a revolution against the societal forces that seek to keep women subdued.
