An Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

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The story of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins is one of the most famous accounts of madness in 19th century literature; taking the form of a woman’s journal who is receiving treatment for mental illness. Through the journal, she records her experiences and her mental life as she descends into what appears to be complete madness. Perkins is keen to stress both the singular experience of mental illness and ways in which this condition is manipulated and exacerbated by those around her. I will make the argument that it is possible to see the story as possessing a critical attitude towards contemporary social and gender relations in regards to Perkins view of androcentrism.
Perkins stated that she wrote the story after a period of being interred for mental illness, and that she was only able to recover from this illness after having ignored her doctor's advice: “Using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again…ultimately recovering some measure of power.” (Perkins, 2009. 300) From the start of the story, Perkins describes an uneven relationship between her narrator and her husband. The latter is a person of standing and has a respectable social position. He is therefore put in a position of authority. This is made clear in the lines: “ You see he does not believe I am sick!...If a physician of high standing...assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?” (Perkins, 2013. 76) From the start of the story, Perkins puts her narrator in a position in which she is surrounded by male authority figures who deny...

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... for her treatment will seek to assert their own opinions with greater and more direct force.
In conclusion, 'Yellow Wallpaper' presents a situation in which its narrator is subject to rationalist logic which is not her own and is incapable of responding to her needs. The result of this is the exacerbation of her madness as she projects the life which is absent from her social relations onto inanimate objects around her. Throughout this, her husband and friends stand as both reactions to and causes of this behaviour.

Works Cited

Perkins, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Eds. Janet E. Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl and Peter Schakel. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2013. 76-89. Print.

- “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper.” The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 2009. 331-332. Print.

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