“The Yellow Wallpaper”

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

THE LITERARY WORK

A short story set in New England in the 1880s; published in 1892.

SYNOPSIS

A woman suffering from depression is subjected to a “Rest Cure.” Relegated to an isolated country house and forbidden to work or exercise, she goes insane.

Events in History at the Time of the Short Story

The Short Story in Focus

For More Information

An autobiographical tale, “The Yellow Wallpaper” details Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s personal battle with depression and the disastrous “Rest Cure” treatment she received. Living during the restrictive Victorian Age and the “golden age of hysteria,” Gilman experienced firsthand the frustrating limitations placed on women in her era, many of whom were victimized by society’s complete misunderstanding of postpartum depression and other psychological maladies. Gilman, however, was born into a family of outspoken women. Her great-aunts Catherine Beecher and the novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe both championed social causes of their era. Two generations later Gilman proved equally outspoken. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is Gilman’s attempt to show the ill effects of cultural restrictions and forced inactivity on women’s lives during the late Victorian age.

Events in History at the Time of the Short Story

Women’s roles and rights

The Victorian Age, which began in Great Britain with Queen Victoria (who ruled from 1837 to 1901), had a profound impact on social values in the United States—particularly on the values associated with women. The Victorian ideal stressed female chastity and innocence and held that a woman’s ultimate roles were those of wife and mother. She was thus discouraged from aspiring to other occupations. Women were to behave demurely and remain within the domestic sphere, learning only what was necessary to become competent mothers and charming wives.

Despite this ideal, education for women did gain ground. State-funded schooling for both boys and girls began to spread in the East at the primary level in the 1830s and at the secondary level in the 1850s. Gilman’s own schooling consisted of four years of education, part of them spent in the Young Ladies School of Providence, where she earned above-average grades in spelling (88) and composition (83) but below-average marks in arithmetic (69) and grammar (57).

Far more appealing to Gilman than any of these subjects were the physical fitness classes run by Dr. John P. Brooks, who advocated the healthful effects of physical movement for women. Gilman’s great-aunt, Catherine Beecher, echoed this advice. But it was a minority viewpoint. Generally, the underlying idea of how to educate a woman remained the same as it had been earlier in the century. It was, as the majority saw it, necessary to educate women not for their own benefit but for the sake of increasing their value to men. To be attractive to men, to win the respect of men, to care for, advise, and comfort husbands, to raise children—these were considered the womanly duties that dictated the nature of a girl’s education.

As adults, American women did not have the right to vote, and they held only limited property rights. As they became increasingly active in the temperance and abolition movements, they began to realize that their citizenship was of an inferior quality. They subsequently began to lobby for their own rights. In 1848 the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Activists called for voting and property rights for women as well as greater educational and professional opportunities. Women emerged as public speakers and writers as the women’s rights movement grew, and they slowly began to challenge Victorian ideals and social conventions.

The struggle to gain the vote formed only one part of the women’s movement, though. Wives and mothers also stepped out of their homes to reform society in various ways, by joining the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, establishing social settlement houses aimed at alleviating poverty, and joining women’s trade unions that sought better factory and working conditions. In 1890 an assortment of women’s clubs formed the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, gaining national strength. Meanwhile, many women cast off their tight-laced dresses and adopted a new fashion, the looser shirtwaist blouse and ankle-length skirt.

The members of the social purity movement also sought to improve society. Feeling that sex could be a source of joy but too often became a major source of evil, Gilman took an active part in this movement. Its members advocated sex education, hygiene, and the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies rather than simply submit to the whims of men. In 1890, the year she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman joined the lecture circuit in California, partly to champion the social purity movement.

Evolution, industrialism, and the “Woman Question.”

Women began to play a more public role in society with the growth of industrialization. Along with an abundance of factory jobs in the post-Civil War era, positions opened up in the east as men left to join the great westward expansion. The situation created a demand for a sharp increase in the labor force. Women consequently went to work in greater numbers than in the past, and the need arose for them to gain more educational skills than they had customarily obtained. Great Britain opened its first women’s college in 1848, following the opening of Mount Holyoke Seminary, an American college for women in 1837. But while numbers of women in public roles increased, the vast majority remained confined to the domestic sphere, and an earnest debate ensued over the wisdom of allowing women to enter professions and receive higher education.

LOOKING BACKWARD

In 1888 Edward Bellamy wrote a runaway bestseller called Looking Backward. The hero in Bellamy’s novel wakes up in the year 2000 in a utopia where citizens coexist comfortably and happily. Everyone works for one gigantic trust operated by the national government Women, though they work fewer hours than men, fill positions along with them in the industrial labor force. Captivated by the book, Gilman embraced its ideas. She not only promoted a woman’s right to control her own body but also encouraged women to gain economic independence from men in their private lives.

Catherine Beecher, Gilman’s great-aunt, felt that women and men should retain separate roles (she argued that women held more power this way); in her view, women should care for home and family, while men should tend to politics and business. Gilman, on the other hand, advocated that women needed mental and physical challenges and the opportunity to work and create outside the home. She demonstrated through her work and life that women need a wide range of choices and opportunities in order to live a full life; some of those denied such opportunities were at risk of falling into severe depression. The debate, which became known as the “Woman Question,” persisted into the next century.

The publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859) further incited controversy over women’s roles and issues. His theory of evolution flouted conventional wisdom, contending that women were actually the hardier and more necessary sex, the one able to preserve the species; because women were mothers, they were vital to survival. Darwin’s theory was used to promote both sides of the “Woman Question.”

Proponents of expanded roles for women could argue that because women were hardier, they were fully capable of being mothers and professionals in the work world. On the other hand, advocates of women’s domesticity could say that Darwin’s theory called attention to the necessity of motherhood and its supreme priority in a woman’s life. Gilman believed Darwin’s theories validated both arguments. In her view, women could be both mothers and professionals but needed economic independence and freedom from domestic chores in order to successfully manage these dual roles. Through her books, Women and Economics, Concerning Children, The Home, and Herland, as well as “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman became known as “the first comprehensive feminist philosopher” in the United States (Sochen, pp. 34-5).

Women’s rights movement

By 1892 the women’s rights movement had scored some mild successes. In 1860 New York State granted property rights to married women, and in 1861 Kansas allowed its women limited voting rights on school issues. Eighteen more states extended such limited voting rights to women by 1890. But women were still greatly restricted: they could not vote for public officials or hold public office themselves; they were vastly underpaid compared to men; occupations other than teaching, nursing, low-level factory labor, or domestic service were closed to them; and most colleges and professional training institutions continued to admit men only. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the protagonist, who is suffering from depression, observes: “I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 152). Society’s restrictions, however, minimize her opportunities and limit her options, with devastating consequences.

Gilman used the story to illustrate her belief in the great need for social reform in the Victorian Age and the potentially crippling effects that lack of opportunity has on women. Gilman saw herself as a member of the larger women’s rights movement and spoke of the costs involved in being a female rebel—the loneliness, the loss of loving relationships with men, and the scorn of the larger society.

Covert writing

Though the Victorian Age is known as a time of tremendous creative energy, women were by and large excluded from participation in most literary activities. There were some successful women writers, but in general, writing was not seen as a proper profession for a lady. British poet laureate Robert Southey summed up the common viewpoint:

Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure she will have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation.

(Southey in Cahill, p. xii)

A few women in America, such as Louisa May Alcott and Edith Wharton, wrote novels that earned favorable reviews, though male critics of the time often dismissed the works of female writers as inconsequential. In England women resorted to taking on male pen names to secure publication and recognition as serious writers, such as Mary Ann Evans (who wrote under the name George Eliot) and Emily Brontë (as Ellis Bell). For subject matter, most published women authors stuck to traditional “female” genres, such as romance or Gothic novels, in order to gain publication and a steady readership.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the protagonist is forbidden to write upon the advice of her doctor husband, John. Writing is seen as detrimental to her health, when actually it is the only activity that keeps her from going mad. Indeed, the woman realizes that her writing is a necessary release: “But I must say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!” (“Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 156). Like the modern-day writer Elizabeth Bowen, who said, “I only feel half-alive when I’m not writing,” Gilman and her character demonstrate that there are psychological—in addition to economic—reasons for women to work and create (Cahill, p. xii).

The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” cries out for a man who will encourage her in her literary efforts instead of maligning them. In the course of the story, Gilman shows that the real “Rest Cure” is activity, and suggests that writing, for her protagonist as well as herself, produces rest. “I think sometimes,” says the woman, “that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (“The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 154).

The golden age of hysteria

Rooted largely in women’s thwarted ambitions and limited opportunities, a rash of so-called “hysteria” cases occurred during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Because of the rise in this type of mental illness, the period became known as the “golden age of hysteria.” Authorities of the time defined the malady in terms of femininity and female sexuality. Rooted in the Greek term hysteron, meaning “womb,” hysteria was known as a strictly female illness that was caused by women’s “delicate constitutions” and “emotionality.” Many doctors, in fact, believed it to be caused by the uterus, which was why they concluded that men could not become hysterical (Showalter, p. 129).

Hysteria was assumed to be a largely self-created or imagined illness. People did not generally take it (or mental illness) seriously, though hysteria became a focal point of study by physicians throughout the world (leading, in fact, to Sigmund Freud’s development of psychoanalysis). Symptoms included fainting, vomiting, choking, sobbing, laughing, paralysis, and temperamental fits. Reflecting the belief that women were prone to hysteria because they were less rational and stable than men, Dr. Edward Tilt, in a typical Victorian textbook definition, wrote: “mutability [changeability] is characteristic of hysteria, because it is characteristic of women” (Showalter, p. 129). As more studies were conducted, however, some doctors began to link hysteria with restricted activity and sexual repression. One doctor wrote in 1879:

The range of activity of women is so limited, and their available paths of work in life so few, compared with those which men have in the present social arrangements, that they have not, like men, vicarious outlets for feelings in a variety of healthy aims and pursuits.

(Showalter, p. 130)

Strong women who exhibited more than the usual amount of forceful, confident, and fearless behavior were particularly prone to hysteria, according to F. C. Skey, a Victorian Age physician. In fact, as shown in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” strong and creative women, forbidden from exercising their minds and bodies, often struck out with fits of hysteria or became exceedingly depressed because they could not find constructive outlets for their energy.

In addition, postpartum depression—depression that follows childbirth—was not diagnosed as a legitimate condition during Gilman’s time. Motherhood brings significant hormonal and other changes that require psychological adjustment. After giving birth, some women become extremely depressed. Postpartum depression, coupled with the stifling social constraints of the Victorian Era, drove some women mad, causing serious mental illness and even suicide.

The Rest Cure

Cures and remedies for mental illness abounded during the golden age of hysteria. The most accepted “cure” was Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell’s “Rest Cure,” which required complete isolation from family and friends, forbade any type of mental or physical exertion, and required a milk-fed diet and total bedrest. In effect, the cure was as much a punishment for hysterical women as an attempt at a cure. “When they are bidden to stay in bed a month,” Mitchell wrote, “and neither to read, write, nor sew... then rest becomes for some women a rather bitter medicine, and they are glad enough to accept the order to rise and go about when the doctor issues a mandate which has become pleasantly welcome and eagerly looked for” (Showalter, p. 139). His attitude illustrated the general belief that women feigned hysteria and that they could stop their outbursts at will.

The Rest Cure had devastating effects on many women. Treated by Mitchell, Gilman herself came precariously close to losing her mind after three weeks under his care. Fellow writers Jane Addams and Edith Wharton experienced similar results from Mitchell’s treatment. Only when they resumed writing and active participation in their lives did they emerge from their depressed states. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was Gilman’s attempt to show the detrimental effects of the Rest Cure (she specifically wrote it to convince Mitchell that his treatment was flawed) and the vital importance of mental and physical stimulation for all human beings, including women. Her story vividly illustrated the emotional torture that women suffered when denied the right to fully express themselves through meaningful work.

The Short Story in Focus

The plot

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman literally trapped on a country estate as she undergoes the Rest Cure. In its opening lines, the story reveals the author’s personal distrust of the medical profession after her experience with Dr. Mitchell. It also touches on the prevailing attitude that mental illness— particularly in the case of women—was not real. In the story John, the protagonist’s husband and a doctor, reflects this attitude. He is a physician, says the protagonist, who scoffs at the intangible in life and does not believe that his wife is sick.

The woman being treated has recently had a baby. She is not allowed to work, exercise, or have any outside contact, and she is expressly forbidden to write—her only creative outlet. She is placed in the children’s nursery upstairs, which resembles an insane asylum. There are bars on the windows and rings in the walls. The bed is chained to the floor, and the walls are adorned with a dreadful peeling yellow wallpaper. She realizes that she might recover more quickly if she had more interaction with others and a more stimulating environment, but her husband forbids it. She is even prevented from caring for her infant son while in this “hysterical” state.

Slowly, as the story progresses, the woman begins to go mad. The story describes the protagonist as a creative person who “could get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy-store” (“The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 155). Without any other outlet for her imagination, her creativity is applied to her surroundings. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room. She sees a woman trapped in its complex pattern and becomes determined to help her find a way out of the maze. She rips and tears at the paper when no one is around, keenly aware that she will be perceived as crazy if anyone sees her doing so. But she cannot stop. The pattern of the paper—like her restricted life—is torturing her, and she “must follow that pointless pattern to some sort of conclusion” (“The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 44).

Meanwhile, her husband pressures her to get well. She begs for some diversion or outside stimulation, but he tells her that such stimulation is not in her best interest and insists that if she follows his prescription, she will recover. When it becomes apparent that her condition is in fact worsening, he threatens to send her to Dr. Mitchell. Petrified by that threat, she pretends that she is recovering when her husband is around.

With nothing else to occupy her mind and time, the wallpaper begins to consume her life. She sees the woman creeping through its pattern night and day, and she starts to creep along with her. Even when John is present, she creeps and peels at the paper, an indication that she is nearing the edge of sanity. Finally, when John is gone for the night, she determines to rip all the wallpaper down, ending once and for all its torturous effects. She locks herself in the nursery and throws the key out the window. She contemplates suicide—jumping from the window or hanging herself with a piece of rope—but reasons: “I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued” (“The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 52). Instead of committing suicide, she begins circling the room, following the pattern in the wallpaper. In essence, she becomes the woman in the wallpaper, trapped in its endless maze. John comes home to find her locked in the room and becomes frantic. He threatens to beat the door down, but she refuses to open it, taunting him: “I’ve got out at last... in spite of you…. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!” (“The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 53). When John finally breaks through the door and finds her compulsively, perpetually circling the room, he faints. She only laughs, noting that since his slumped body is blocking her path by the wall, she will have to creep over him every time she circles the room.

Sources

The inspiration for “The Yellow Wallpaper” was Gilman’s own bout with depression and the complete misunderstanding of her condition by Victorian doctors. Gilman suffered from depression for much of her adult life. Her illness seems to have surfaced during her engagement to the painter Walter Stetson. It intensified in 1885 after she gave birth to a daughter. Gilman “found herself unable to perform routine household duties and spent much of her time in bed, weeping” (James, p. 39). At her husband’s urging, she received treatment from Dr. Mitchell, who prescribed the most domestic life possible. According to Mitchell, who believed that her depression was contrived in order to get out of performing her wifely duties, she should not touch a pen or pencil for the rest of her days and should keep the baby with her always.

As a result of the Rest Cure, Gilman had a complete nervous collapse in 1885. Only after ignoring Mitchell’s advice did her condition improve. She left her husband, resumed writing, and ventured to California to recuperate. As a result of her own self-treatment, she realized that it was intellectual stimulation, physical exercise, and her devotion to meaningful work that kept her sane. In 1887 she and Walter agreed to separate; it would take seven more years to finalize their divorce. In commenting on the separation and its effects on her daughter, Gilman observed that it seemed “better for the child to have separated parents [who were sane] than a lunatic mother” (Gilman in Hill, p. 152). In 1894 Gilman sent her daughter to live with her ex-husband, though the two women were happily reunited later in Pasadena, California.

In 1900 Gilman married her first cousin, New York attorney Houghton Gilman. This marriage, apparently a happy one, was to last until his death in 1934, although Gilman continued to battle depression throughout her life, and some contemporary specialists speculate that she may have suffered from the form of mental illness known as chronic manic depression.

Gilman’s decision to ignore Mitchell’s Rest Cure in favor of writing resulted in a period of great output. By the end of 1890, Gilman had written or delivered an impressive collection of plays, articles, and lectures, along with short stories such as “The Yellow Wallpaper.” These writings attacked and unmasked myths of the day about so-called happy marriages, and promoted the idea that women were entitled to a separate existence from men in body, mind, and spirit. “The Yellow Wallpaper” warns of the possible consequences if a woman is not given these rights.

GILMAN’S OWN REACTION

Gilman herself relished the short story, taking satisfaction in the horror of it. “When my awful story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ comes out,” she told a friend, “you must try and read it. Walter [Gilman’s first husband] says he has read it four times, and thinks it the most ghastly tale he ever read. Says it beats Poe” (Gilman in Hill, p. 186).

Reaction to Gilman’s ideas

“The Yellow Wallpaper” was published in 1892 in New England Magazine. The story received little notice at the time, but launched Gilman on a literary career. Her divorce, on the other hand, received a considerable amount of attention. At the end of 1892 the San Francisco Examiner blasted Gilman for her unconventional choices: “There are not many women, fortunately for humanity, who agree that ‘any’ work... is higher than that of being a good wife and mother” (Hill, p. 198). The paper suspected some hidden agenda in Gilman’s actions. It seemed unbelievable to the writer of the article that a woman would have more powerful instincts than devotion to husband and child.

Though Gilman went on to write many books and treatises on women’s issues, “The Yellow Wallpaper” became her most famous and critically acclaimed short story. More recently, her work and life have become the subject of intense study, especially among feminist scholars at major universities.

For More Information

Cahill, Susan, ed. Women and Fiction 2: Short Stories by and about Women. New York: New American Library, 1978.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Selected Stories of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Edited by Denise D. Knight. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994.

Hill, Mary A. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Making of a Radical Feminist, 1860-1896. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980.

James, Edward. Notable American Women. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap, 1971.

Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady. New York: Random House, 1985.

Sochen, June. Movers and Shakers. New York: Quadrangle, 1973.