Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Yellow Wallpaper- Emily Armstrong
Charlotte Perkins
Gillman explores what it is to discover one’s self in her short story the “The
Yellow Wallpaper”. Upon reading the story it is evident that this journey of
self-discovery can lead to a consuming madness if suppressed for too long. The
evolution of the New Women is described throughout the piece as the protagonist
fights to better understand what it is behind that captivating yellow wallpaper
and gradually she succumbs to the madness of not being free to be her own self.
She can be a considered a New Women because of her clear strive to be
independent from her husband. There is the constant underlying sense that she
feels trapped within her marriage and often doubts her husband without outwardly
saying so. She is convinced that she is sick, yet her husband refuses to
believe her so rather than stand up to him she
instead repeats the phrase “what is one to do?” throughout the piece. Since
the main character is so confined she devotes her time to writing as a sense of
escape and expression of individualism. It is through her journal entries that
the reader becomes aware of her obsession with the yellow wallpaper and her
eventual freedom from her marriage by stating to her husband “I’ve gotten out
at last in spite of you and Jane”. With her final act of ripping the wallpaper
off of the wall she felt as if she had freed herself.
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I like how you brought up the idea that Jane is on a journey of self-discovery in the story. She seems to go through several stages which eventually lead to her transformation into the “new woman.” I also found it interesting that you mentioned how Jane’s sickness related to her feeling of being trapped in her marriage. I did not make that connection while reading the story, but it makes sense that Jane’s constant submission to her husband may have been causing her illness in some way. It makes me wonder if her husband was intentionally keeping her sick in order to conserve his power over her. He might have done this by telling her to stay in bed all day and depriving her of writing.
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