An Exploration of Feminism and Psychoanalysis in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Throughout the years, women have been suppressed and controlled by an image created for them by society. Society has created this image of inability, frailty, and the belief that they lack poor judgment and men should be the ones to guide them to good decision-making. This belief was so strong and is still present in some that women's mental health was even considered a joke. Even postpartum depression, to this day, suffers from the misinformation that has been carried from years of women being oppressed. To evaluate this and have a close look at how women with mental health problems in an era where the man was the sole intellectual, we can evaluate the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman. We can use feminism and psychoanalysis to explore further and interpret the short story.

Gilman's short story was written around the 1890s when women could not voice any opinions or even decide about their health. The story is about a woman who is slowly driven to insanity due to her husband isolating her. It is written in the first person. Its narrator gives the reader a glimpse of how postpartum depression was viewed by society and how men controlled a women's well-being without considering what the woman needed. The story's main character and her husband move into a house for a lapse of three months because the husband considers that the wife should be resting while she recovers from a nervous condition or what we later in the story learned was postpartum depression. There is an attic covered in a yellow wallpaper in said house, and the woman starts to fixate on it. The woman's obsession is due to the lack of social interaction and being trapped inside for so long. In that instance, we can see how the main character goes with what the husband tells her to do, because it is what is expected of her, even though she was not in accordance with that belief, "Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good." (Gilman 10) The woman knew in her heart that isolation was not a good idea, but she believed her husband and brother because that is what she was supposed to do. As a woman, she was supposed to abide by the man's words and accept them without any refusal.

Furthermore, in Gilman's story, we can see some signs of how women were repressed since the first few lines. Society saw their thoughts at times as jokes, "…John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage…" (Gilman 9). This way of thinking by the narrator can be seen as a way of repression. According to Freud, "When we feel threatened by our drives, we often defend against them by repressing them. That generates the unconscious, which consists of repressed drives. Freud argued that excess repression of psychological drives leads to neurosis." (Parker, 117) The main character has certain beliefs that do not abide by society's rules and starts to repress those ideas to be in accordance with what she should believe. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the woman slowly loses her mind as the days of isolation keep passing, and the yellow wallpaper becomes the main point of fixation for the main character. She decides to focus on deciphering the pattern of the wallpaper and ends up having hallucinations, "…the front pattern does move – and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!" (Gilman 30) The main character, little by little, keeps giving in more into her depression even though for moments she wonders what would happen "if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus." (Gilman 10)

As expressed, we can use Freud's psychoanalysis to conclude that the main character's ideas are being repressed by the condition of her being a woman. Throughout the story, the main character "repressed drives" (Parker 117) and, because of it, redirected those ideas into other activities that led her to insanity. Nevertheless, as the character was getting closer to complete insanity, she could also drop the chains that were holding her and showing a more feminist view. Also, we can analyze the story from a feminist spectrum. From the beginning of the story, the reader can perceive how the main character lives in a patriarchal society. We can observe "a pattern and history of not taking women seriously, a pattern so deeply ingrained that it can seem natural, like mere truth." (Parker 151) We can apply the term misogyny "…for that habit of not taking women seriously, not respecting women…" (Parker 151) since the main character, in various instances, let the reader know that her thoughts or beliefs were never taken seriously and even laughed at, "He laughs at me so…" (Gilman 14). According to Parker, this can be seen as part of a broader spectrum centered around our cultural history and the practice of men being the center and underestimating women, which is known as patriarchy.

Moreover, as the story starts to progress, the main character starts to move away from a patriarchal perspective to one that is more feminist and defiant. Gilman's character begins to steer away from the idea of being the perfect wife or mother and now is more focused on what peeks her interests, the yellow wallpaper. We see how the character starts to focus on deciphering the pattern in the wall and believes it comes to life at night, and also how she starts to defy her husband's beliefs, "I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way- it is such a relief!" (Gilman 21) The protagonist, starts showing growth and self-confidence and even starts seeing John in a different light, "I wish he would take another room!" (Gilman 31) The main character starts to ponder around the idea of privacy and needing time for herself and her thoughts. Gilman's character even starts acting different towards her husband and begins to second guess his love and worry towards her, "He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind. As if I didn't see through him!" (Gilman 32) The feminist interpretation, in this aspect, can be seen as one of defiance, or with the "urgent need to point out the powerful misogynist traditions of cultural history..." (Parker 158). At the end of the story, the character has created a detachment from what is expected of her and is now focused on trying to catch the woman she believes exists within the wallpaper. In the story's last instances, the woman decides to lock herself in the room with the yellow wallpaper. She is confronted with her biggest challenge and tries to catch the woman she has been fixated on finally, "…no person touches this paper but me, - not alive!" (Gilman 33) At this point, the woman that was submissive and quiet at the beginning of the story has fully taken control of her narrative and is vocal about it, "I've got out at last[…]in spite of you…" (Gilman 36) Ultimately, the last lines of the story show us how gender roles are switched at the end when the character says, "…why should that man have fainted?" (Gilman 36) and with it closes the story ending with what would be seen as a woman that finally takes charge of her life.

Lastly, we can see how Charlotte Gilman, in her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," explores ideas of feminism and uses psychoanalytical foundations to create a complex main character. While reading the short story, we can observe some of Freud's theories. The main one was repression and how her main character was driven to a decayed mental state that led to her life's possible end. Moreover, Gilman takes us on different aspects of feminism. It first presents us with a character living in a patriarchal society, but slowly moves us to a more feminist stance. She creates a character that even though is consumed by insanity, begins to move away from perfection and becomes aware of how patriarchal her life was. The character slowly steps away from a submissive role and starts to take charge of its own life. Finally, this story is a complete representation of what it was like to have lived in an era where women and mental health were considered a joke and how a repressing nature led to a fragile mental state in a woman, but could also be seen as part of the rise of early feminism.

Works Cited:

How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies, by Robert Dale Parker, Oxford University Press, 2020, Chapter 5: Psychoanalysis.

How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies, by Robert Dale Parker, Oxford University Press, 2020, Chapter 6: Feminism.

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 1973. PDF file.