The Woman Behind the Wallpaper: The Diagnosis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Taken at face value, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about a woman who drives herself mad over ornamental trivialities. Upon close examination, though, it is truly a multi-layered, multi-functional narrative that chisels away at sensibility, taps mercilessly at the subconscious, and exposes the human condition as one of vulnerability and solitude. The sense of desperation and imprisonment expressed in the writings of the unnamed narrator are so acutely drawn that they could only have come from the mind of an equally tormented author; Gilman is such an author. The experiences, inner-thoughts, and perceptions of the narrator so closely match those of the author that Gilman is without a doubt the true narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

Gilman experienced isolation early in life, when her father left his wife and children shortly after her birth (Miskolcze 149). In response to this abandonment, Gilman’s mother, Mary, “denied [her] all expression of affection… so that she should not be used to it or long for it” (Miskolcze 149). This was meant to harden her children against the inescapable disappointment of desertion, but was—in its own right—a sort of emotional desertion in itself, as Gilman never went on to form an especially close relationship with her mother (Miskolcze 149). Another factor which lent itself to this mother-daughter disconnect was Mary’s insistence that Gilman refrain from succumbing to her frequent creative fantasies (Berman 36). This command marked the beginning of Gilman’s lifelong struggle with the artistic suppression imparted upon her by outside sources. Much like the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper, it seemed that no one wanted Gilman to express herself at all, let alone creatively.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator expresses a subtle apprehension about the choices she has made in her life that have consequently landed her in the drafty nursery where she spends her summer. She offhandedly mentions that women should expect to be laughed at by their husbands (647) as she is by her own, John. John has a habit of diminishing her by insisting that she isn’t sick (647), and infantilizing her both literally and in his speech; he coops her up in a nursery for three months, looks after her as if she cannot look after herself, and calls her precious names like “little girl” (652). She also comments often on how much John loves her, but never expresses any reciprocal feelings of love. Additionally, the narrator fails to reveal that she has a son until well into the story when she meditates on how fortunate it is that “Mary is so good with the baby,” as she personally “cannot be with him” because he makes her too nervous (649).

Gilman herself gave in to the societal pressures to marry and have children despite her own misgivings (Berman 37). She married artist Walter Stetson at the age of twenty-three and was pregnant with their first child almost immediately after (Berman 38; Miskolcze 149). Upon giving birth to her daughter, Gilman fell into a deep depression. She eventually had to ask her mother to come live with her family, so that someone of sounder mind could look after the baby (Miskolcze 149). The wish of both Gilman and the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, to be separated from their young children, could be an indication of post-partum depression. After all, the narrator spends a remarkable amount of time letting the reader in on her intimate thoughts, few of which are concerned with her child. It is as if he doesn’t exist, and the narrator seems to be more comfortable in a world where this is the case. At the same time Gilman is quoted as calling motherhood the “ultimate sacrifice,” (40) and a choice that represents “weakness and passivity” (39).

It is in these ways that the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” serves as a vehicle for Gilman to express her taboo distaste for domestic life. The story, published in 1890 at the formation of the American Women’s Rights Movement, proved years later to be an important asset to the continuing advancement of women’s rights. The narrator speaks in several instances about the woman down in the garden, “creeping by daylight.” This woman has escaped from behind the yellow wallpaper and is now moving freely outside, but is careful to not get caught. This is perhaps a metaphor for female expression in a patriarchal society. It was at this time that women began to gather and express formerly unpopular opinions about the societal expectations thrust upon them, but they could still not anticipate being granted the ability to move freely about society as they pleased. When considered in this way, Gilman herself was “creeping by daylight” when writing “The Yellow Wallpaper”; she was making an important statement, but veiling it in a metaphor. The narrator also creeps by daylight, redirecting her domestic frustrations on the yellow wallpaper.

The most obvious hint to the reader that the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is, in fact, Gilman herself, is the narrator’s mental diagnosis and subsequent treatment. This however, is only obvious to those who are familiar with Gilman’s history of mental illness. The narrator’s husband refers to her condition as a “temporary nervous depression” and “a slight hysterical tendency” (648). When the reader is exposed by the end of the story to the true extent of the narrator’s mental state—she is quite clearly affected by something more than just slight hysteria—her husband’s diagnosis is proven to be obnoxiously condescending. So was the case with Gilman, whose severe depression was diagnosed as something called “nerve exhaustion” (Miskolcze 150). Her doctor advised she be treated with “bed rest in an isolated environment,” and that she refrain from writing, reading, and all other intellectual pursuits (Miskolcze 150). She gave up on this after three months; the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper mimics this by going against her husband’s wishes by writing in secret (Miskolcze 150).

Additionally, Gilman admits freely that the story is a fictionalization of her personal struggle with depression and inadequate treatment (Berman 51). Perhaps “The Yellow Wallpaper”is her imagining of how things would have played out if she had stuck to her advised regiment of bed rest and domesticity. The end of the story is a powerful comment on the ineffectiveness of the patronizing treatment of women at the time, especially in the medical field. The experiences of both women accurately reflect how, in reality, women suffering from mental illness were approached as fragile, childlike beings that needed their hands held while being spoon fed soft foods and androcentric notions of how they could return to wellness. Further, they were barred from scholarly pursuits that were perhaps deemed to require too much mental capacity for a woman in such a delicate condition. Gilman’s unfortunate record of medical mistreatment, and the narrator’s ultimate ascent into insanity represent gaslighting at its most despicable.

That being said, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is not a story about female oppression; it is a story about female liberation. After rejecting the incompetent treatment administered to her, and divorcing her husband, Gilman achieved her own personal liberation through writing and activism. Some may consider the narrator’s submission to a crazed mental state at the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper”to be an unhappy ending, however, her newfound freedom to creep about as she wishes—especially over and around the unconscious body of her husband—signifies her own strange brand of liberation. If “The Yellow Wallpaper”is truly Gilman’s repurposing of her traumatic experience with male condescension, then the take away is that even if she had been driven mad, she would still have found a way to escape.

Works Cited

Berman, Jeffrey. "The Unrestful Cure: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 'The Yellow Wallpaper,'." The Captive Imagination: A Casebook on “The Yellow Wallpaper (1985): 211-41.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The New England Magazine Jan. 1892: 647-657. Cornell University Library. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.

Miskolcze, Robin. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." Dictionary of Literary Biography. Ed. Sharon M. Harris 221 (2000): 148-158.