The Yellow Wallpaper reaction

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Recommended: Feminist perspective of the yellow wallpaper

Women in the Victorian era faced many challenges. However, these challenges were subtle. To the outside it appeared as if many middle and upper class white women lived the ideal life: the hardworking husband, respectable children, and a wonderful house; the perfect life and the perfect family. What people didn’t realize in that period was that women faced many hardships dealing with things such as mental health and gender roles. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, successfully demonstrates how madness and gender play an integral role in the lives of women during this period.
“The front pattern does move - and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very ' bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.”(8, Gilman) This quote from the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” stuck out to me because it embodies the true meaning of madness and gender in women during the Victorian era. The way that the narrator describes this situation gives key to two of the major themes in the short story, and these themes help create a dynamic story.
The most obvious theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is madness. Through the narrator’s actions and thoughts, we see how she descends into a path of insanity. In the quote above, the narrator describes the movement of a supposed woman behind the yellow wallpaper. She claims that the pattern on the wall is moving because of a woman. I appreciate the imagery that Gilman places in this passage making it very descriptive. It permits me to actually experience what the ...

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... her condition get worse. It almost seems as if they want the narrator to be a “true woman”. According to “The Cult of True Womanhood” by Barbara Welter, a woman had to have certain virtues and was discouraged from working outside of the home. Although the narrator was trapped in the home, she was not happy and it caused her to go mad making her the opposite of the true woman.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It allowed me to look at the different aspects that a simple short story could offer. I appreciate the fact that the ending can be interpreted many ways presenting various arguments you could discuss. It makes it a diverse book that I can talk about in different settings. For example, I can discuss it in either a class about madness, gender, or health. It is an interesting book, and I would recommend it to others because of the dynamic themes and diversity.

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