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In the early 1890s, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a housewife in Connecticut with two children. She had what she called “a well-nigh insatiable thirst for knowledge” and her mind teemed with ideas that she could not share because of domestic responsibilities. The Yellow Wallpaper is one of her few surviving pieces written during this time in which she tried to come to terms with being unfulfilled as a writer and mother. In the following excerpt from an article published in 1898, Gilman describes how she came to write The Yellow Wallpaper:
Keywords:
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, domesticity of women authors in the 1890s.
A woman’s voice: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – ..
In the early 1890s, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a housewife in Connecticut with two children. She had what she called “a well-nigh insatiable thirst for knowledge” and her mind teemed with ideas that she could not share because of domestic responsibilities. The Yellow Wallpaper is one of her few surviving pieces written during this time in which she tried to come to terms with being unfulfilled as a writer and mother. In the following excerpt from an article published in 1898, Gilman describes how she came to
“The Yellow Wallpaper: A Woman’s Voice,” is a short story about an unnamed woman who suffers from depression and agoraphobia. She is confined to a room in her house for the duration of summer and spends most days staring at yellow wallpaper with flowers on it that she has created herself repeatedly throughout the day. The narrator tells us that this confinement is prescribed by Dr John (her physician) because he believes his patient has suffered “a slight nervous breakdown,” caused by overwork which was exacerbated by lack of sleep during convalescence after childbirth. He prescribes strict bed rest until further notice, so as not to aggravate her condition any more than it already is. When we first meet our protagonist, she is happy and content with her new-found domesticity. Her only complaint is that she cannot go out to town, but the narrator assures us this does not bother her as much because of all the work they have done on the house lately (turning it into a home). The woman’s physical health deteriorates further after John leaves for vacation and his wife offers no substitute treatment. Weeks pass in which our protagonist grows more despondent over time; at one point we hear “a laugh like somebody jabbing an old sore place.” She becomes convinced that there are men around her, even when there is nobody there. The laughter gets louder and seems closer by every day—it sounds just outside of the door or under some cushion close
