The short story The Yellow Wall-Paper was extremely unsettling and eerie to read, especially as you got closer to the end. It progressed slowly but surely throughout the whole story, and almost left the impression that you ( the reader) is losing your mind as well. It is a really captivating piece and I vaguely remember reading it when I was in high school. However, I think it is striking me more now and making a bit more sense as I have learned more context about women in this time period and how their lives were. It was a really sad story to read, however at the same time it made me feel like the narrator kind of won in a sick, dark way in the end. Obviously, her deterioration of mental illness is tragic, however, the narrator herself perceives it as some sort of self-discovery and an almost victory over her abusive husband. At the beginning of the story, she vocalizes her doubts and her unhappiness regarding John and his dismissive treatment of her mental illness, however she can’t do anything about it. She is afraid of her husband and is quite skeptical about his logical reasoning, but her inferior position in society and in the domestic sphere limits her from acting on these thoughts. The narrator is ahead of her time period and she is aware of the mistreatment against her, not only from her husband but society at large; this results in her rebelling against the gender roles of her time period in many ways and an unfortunate escalation of her mental illness.
First, I thought it was interesting how she had to hide her writing from John and Jennie because it reminded me of the female writers in colonial times and how the Puritan women weren’t supposed to disclose information in the public sphere about their personal lives. The narrator doesn’t even seem to want to write as much as she is, however it is one of the only ways she can rebel against the domestic constraints against her and help ease her mind, especially because she can’t leave the property. She made it clear that she wants to experience “society and stimulus” and go out into the public sphere (p. 648). I also found it relevant when she mentioned going back to work that she put the word in quotation marks, so I am assuming that she is referring to the domestic work in the household and taking care of her baby. The narrator doesn’t want to live the life that she is being forced to live and dreads doing the domestic work because it makes her feel “nervous” (p.652); she feels detached from her baby, which was probably both a result and cause of her depression. She explains the wallpaper as bars on the walls, which signifies that she believes she is being imprisoned in this life of submission and neglect. She feels trapped by her husband and society and this leads to a complete downward spiral of depression. It was devastating to read because it made me think of the women throughout history who felt imprisoned and trapped by men and society due to the negligence of women as smart, capable, and independent members of society. The number of women whose mental illnesses were probably exacerbated by this lifestyle of inferiority and indifference is heartbreaking, and it is sad to think that society isn’t even that advanced today to reach total equality for women.
I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I was to reread the Yellow Wallpaper. It is such an amazing work of art. I found it interesting that you related this work to the female writers of the Puritan times. Women were often dismissed or ignored and never had a voice, and that is why this short story is so important; it gives women a voice.