Philipps-Universität Marburg FB 10: Fremdsprachliche Philologien Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Class: Academic Writing |
Instructor: Dr. Johanna Heil

The House in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Ambivalence or Brilliance?

Name: Anas Asmaeil
Module: Literary Studies: History
Semesters Studied: 1
Address: Adam-Krafft.7, 35039, Marburg
Email: Shoqarqwa@hotmail.com
Date of Submission: February 29, 2016
Student ID: 2739275

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 1
2. [Main Part I]
2.1 Gothic Element 2.2 Feminism
3. Conclusion 1 [Bibliography]

1. Introduction: “All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.” By Georg Eliot
It goes without saying that the more one ponders upon the masterpiece written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the more compelled one finds themselves to, not only reverence what she brought forth, but to also acclaim the diverse interpretations one can come up with of a text written well over a century ago. The story talks about a woman who is diagnosed with "temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency" (Gilman 1) and thus is sentenced by her physician to a rest cure. Following her husband’s and doctor’s orders, her suffering grows worse and worse and signs of depression, anxiety and dissociation manifest, quite the opposite of what was supposed to happen.
Having the ability to scare and horrify the reader, this unique story had been considered as a classic in Gothic literature. However, it has recently been perceived as an early indictment of the patriarchal social structure and therefore has become a classic in feminist literature. There are many signs of Gothic elements and feminist ideas presented via symbolism, and one of the most prominent figures presented in the story is the house. In this paper, I will provide an illustration on how the house could be simultaneously read as a dark gothic element and an illuminating feminist apparatus.

2. Argument: 3.1. Gothic Element:
The house in Gilman’s work is very present and is impossible not to recognize as a dominant gothic setting out of which the protagonist barely steps. Spooky, eerie and haunted houses are some of the prominent settings that make the Gothic genre very popular. And perhaps what almost always succeeds in terrifying us, the readers, is that creepy indoor setting in which some gothic tales take place. Novels like Richard Matheson's Hell House, stories like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are just a few fine examples of the important role these eerie houses play in such tales.
The horrific adversity of the protagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper” does not start right when she is introduced into the rented abode. Actually, at first, the house was not scary at all. This was clear when she said: “The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. [...] There is a DELICIOUS garden! I never saw such a garden—large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them” (Gilman 4). Nonetheless, the gradual change of atmosphere is what makes the story very interesting. The house from the inside was also joyful. However, there was something about the wallpaper in that large, breezy, sunny nursery in which she was forced to sleep that made it unpleasant to the eye and unrelaxing to the mind of the protagonist “I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper” (Gilman 8). The disturbing way in which the narrator describes the wall-paper draws many lines that lead us to speculate its malicious nature, especially when she said that the wall-paper commits “every artistic sin” (Gilman 6).
The uneasiness, ambiguity and mysteriousness of that wall-paper, however, seem to be the reasons behind her curious attachment to the same room she hated at first sight. The inquisitiveness to interpret the wall-paper and to discover what is behind it drives her almost to insanity “I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wall-paper. Perhaps BECAUSE of the wall-paper. It dwells in my mind so!” (Gilman 11). But, that element of suspense is what keeps us wanting to know more. She keeps us glued to our seats by narrating her gradual descriptive realization of what she sees in the wall-paper. Little by little, what seemed to her like a woman “stooping down and creeping” becomes more established in materiality to a point where she tries to help the woman out by shaking and pulling the pattern of the wallpaper (Gilman 13). Furthermore, the way Gilman describes the horrific physical and mental entrapment experience the protagonist goes through is brilliant. The house which is supposed to be her “rest cure” relaxing haven turned out to be the place that took her mind on a roller coaster. However it was not the house or the room itself that brought her to the psychological meltdown; it was the seclusion and the forced physical and intellectual stimulation inactivity by the male characters in the story that turned this beautiful place into a frightening dwelling in the eyes of the protagonist. And with this realization, we can now shit our focus to the second point this paper deals with which is the feminist theme in the story and why this story is seen as a classic in feminist literature.

3.2. Feminist Element:
It stands to reason that it was the male domestic authority in this gloomy story that put the narrator in this unenviable situation. The domiciliary authoritarian doctrine, starting with the diagnosis and finishing with implementing the “rest cure” sentence, turned that male care and love into a sort of systematic indoor oppression and domination instead of making sure that the house will be the narrator’s safe haven. A conduct Eva Figes addresses by saying “In the clear light of the courtship novel it [the house] represents security and status. But in the Gothic novel the house changes from being a symbol of male privilege and protection conferred on the fortunate female of his choice, to an image of male power in its sinister aspect, threatening and oppressive.” (52)
Due to the fact that it was a male dominated society, women’s roles were also predefined by the men. What was defined as “womanhood” was more of an imprisonment ideology assigned by men to control and silence women and to make sure they stayed away from any form of real power. According to Barbara Welter’s "The Cult of True Womanhood," the four cardinals that defined the True Womanhood were “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Put them all together and the spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife – woman.” (Welter 152) Dare anyone, male or female, not acknowledge this doctrine, they were “damned immediately as the enemy of God, of civilization, and of the Republic.” (Welter 152). This explains the male character’s domineering behavior and the female’s submissive and domestic attitude and gives us a clear understanding of what women had to go through in that period of time.
Women were described by Welter as hostages “Woman, in the cult of True Womanhood presented by the women’s magazines, gift annuals, and religious literature of the nineteenth century, was the hostage in the home.” which, in fact, reflects an accurate image of the status of our narrator in the story especially when she was put in that room despite the fact that she did not like it (Welter, 151). However, it is known that oppression, even John’s gentle type of oppression in this case, will be met by resistance at one point or another and resistance will always come from within. Her subtle and silent rebellion against the patriarchy which started by the mental hyperactivity – quite the contrary of what she was ordered to do- and later on her physically violent and disturbing acts are what take the story to a whole new level and give it a new aspect of interpretation – the feminist apparatus. That very same gloomy place paves the way for her to emancipate herself and to break away from the domestic and submissive way of living ‘“I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’” (Gilman, 23)
3. Conclusion:
There is no doubt that the house in “The Yellow Wallpaper” suggests not only a strong Gothic theme, but slyly insinuates a feminist perspective, despite the fact that feminism had not yet been born when the story was written. Supposedly the narrator’s healing destination, the house, on the contrary, plays a major role in portraying the disturbing and scary consequences of being ameliorated by the “rest cure” which causes the story to take a hairpin turn. Moreover, the house brilliantly encompasses how domesticity and submission were the narrator’s instigators to gain her freedom and liberty. Her salvation started from within by defying the male authority, at first, but then she liberated herself from being physically trapped in that ugly room and torn down the image of her imprisonment- being trapped behind the bars in the yellow wall-paper.

Bibliography Figes, Eva. Sex & Subterfuge: Women Writers to 1850. New York: Persea Books, 1982.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper and Selected Writings. Comp. Maggie O'Farrell. London: Virago, 2009. Print.
Matheson, Richard. Hell House. New York: Tor, 1999. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher: The Best of Edgar Allan Poe. London: W.H. Allen, 1986. Print.
Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”. American Quarterly 18.2 (1966): 151–174. Web...