Yellow Wallpapers

The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1892. It is quite a strange, creeping story. Written in the first person, it is the story of a woman who is mentally sick and whose physician husband has confined her to the upstairs bedroom in a mansion rented over the summer. She is forbidden from working and is only rarely allowed to have visits. She is also forbidden from writing, though she continues to write down her journal entries -- these entries are what tells us the story. Her doctor husband says she has a "temporary nervous depression--a slight hysterical tendency."

Over time, with nothing else to do, the woman becomes obsessed with the pattern and color of the yellow wallpaper in the room. In the end, she comes to believe that there is a woman held captive behind the patterns of the wallpaper--and eventually finds out that she is that woman. She has a total mental break-down and ends up creeping around in her own room, locked so that she cannot leave. "For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way." The story ends with her husband finding the key, coming in, then fainting at the weird sight of his creepy wife before him!

Quite an interesting story. Reading more about it on the trusted site Wikipedia, one finds that Charlotte Gilman actually wrote this story from her own experience. She had a mental breakdown and her doctor, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, put her on a similar rest cure, forbidding her from painting or writing and allowing her only two hours of stimulation a day. Almost giving up after three months with this rest cure, Gilman decided to work again and eventually overcame her condition. She then wrote this story as a response to her situation and sent it in to Dr. Mitchell - but never received a response. Dr. Mitchell, apparently, never did change his methods...

I personally like this story a lot because of the mental insanity presented. It makes one stop to think about the mental capabilities of humans - and the possibilities of mental disease. Most of us think we live a "normal" life in a "normal" world but among us are those who suffer from some kind of mental illness or another - and we may not always know about it. Perhaps we're even partially to blame for giving these people a similar kind of "rest treatment." After all, mental illnesses are rarely openly talked about, the subject is taboo and if you've been clinically diagnosed as having some kind of mental disease, you're probably not likely to go around and tell everyone about it. Just as the woman in the Yellow Wallpaper was given this rest cure by her husband, so we may be giving each other the rest cure culturally by avoiding talking about certain subjects. And mental illness is just one of them.

But, what subjects, really, should we even openly talk about? America and the world, in general, has moved towards greater openness for many decades now - the progressive movement, the 20's, the 60's, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, feminism - have resurrected many topics from the tombs of taboos to public discussion. Feminism is another interpretation of The Yellow Wallpaper - while it is a story of mental disease, it is also a story of the repression of women by men inasmuch as the woman's husband is the one prescribing the rest cure and keeping her confined. Society has gotten better as we have become more open about such subjects. But are there limits?

Openness is good but --

Not if it leaves you out on the cold...

America has successfully rid itself of many yellow wallpapers - but are we going to far? Pushing our limits? Instead of just letting the old yellow wallpaper go, are we breaking down the wall itself? Pushing all limits until we find ourselves in the cold because we have too much freedom and no more shelter? Is it really a good thing to let the whole world know, via facebook, messenger or whatever, our most private thoughts and the intimate details of our relationships? Have we gone too far?
Or are there more yellow wallpapers to tear down still?