1Traditions come in all kinds of forms from all kinds of cultures and backgrounds, usually they follow what is valued in those certain societies and can be an in depth glimpse of said culture. Most of the time these traditions are harmless but in other cases they can have the tendency to perpetuate inequality amongst the differing people in a society of the culture where that tradition is used/from. And such is the case In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s semi-autobiographical short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, first published in 1892 we see how the oppressive tradition of strict gender roles/expectations for women in the late 19th century alongside the tradition of ignorant medical treatment come to hinder the narrator deeper and deeper into insanity. Gilman uses various forms of imagery and symbolism to deliver true tellings of the harms she encountered first hand through themes such as lack of identity and expression to the oppressive nature of the ruling patriarchy and the evils of the “Rest Cure”. As the short story is laid out it is easy to see from the perspective of a modern reader that the narrator lives in such a way that her freedom to do as she will is micromanaged and suppressed even if in small ways at first. The setting and background of the story also brings forward the qualities and expectations of women during the time of this stories inception and how much the man was in charge, “There could be no doubt that the narrator dwells in the middle of the patriarchy…she has given birth to a baby boy and is surrounded by men- her husband, her brother, and somewhere in the background (dictating her treatment) Doctor Weir Mitchell the one who put her under such treatment.” (4. Haney) and even the female characters
in the story have the qualities that reflect what the patriarchy is expected a “good Woman” to have. For example, Mary, who is described as being great with the baby,and then there is Jennie who is described as being a “perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession.” (Gilman. 14). All these descriptions are shot out as a sarcastic envision of what men seek for in the women and then in contrast shows how she is not comparable to themand acts outside of these expectations and for that is not behaving ideally. The story speaks to a feminist ideal and highlights what women had to go through back then and how unequal it was between men and women, what is so important of these same notions are the fact that they still hold true in today’s modern time and still resonate with the modern reader that exist in dealing with the patriarchy in everyday life over 100 years later. Eveninthe stories reemergence in the 19070’s tells how the themes of oppression weren’t as internalized as they should have been. ‘But it was not until the rediscovery of the story in the early 1970’s that “The Yellow Wallpaper” was recognized as an early feminist indictment of Victorian patriarchy.’( Scharnhorst) the story is one of mental sickness but beneath that is lies a secondary message of equal importance, how detrimental a tradition it was to downplay the women’s mental health driving them further into oppression. When the novel was first published it was met with good criticism but all the comments revolved around how terrifying her depiction of insanity/mental illness was, the theme of mistreatment to women and the lack of seriousness when dealing with the sanity of women as well flew over the heads of the men/critics who read the short story, The story was under-read much ado because of how it was internalized by said audience, instead of seeing it as a plea to be interpreted as a call for change the audience of the time (majority male) took is as a spooky tale of a woman’s battle with insanity.(1.Crewe) Gilman stated herself, “it was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy’”(2. Gilman) For in 1887 when she was dealing with melancholia and nervous breakdowns she visited “the greatest nerve specialist in the country” (Gilman, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman 95). He diagnosed her
with hysteria and began his usual non-working treatments.’ (Stiles) and after he concluded that the the Rest Cure would be suitable a treatment for her and for Gilman to keep any ‘intellectual’ activities to a maximum of 2 hours a day and to “never touch a pen, pencil, or paintbrush as long as you live”, suppressing her creative identity and forcing his own skewed diagnosis upon her for such activities weren’t for women to do. The imagery used in the Story and how the room is described and even right down to the wallpaper elevate the story to a place where it immerses its audience to see how scary a position like this is, being trapped by your “loved” ones in a situation that neither helps nor fixes the problem, and it stems from misinformation and ignorance as much as it did from the practices and ideals of the time. The narrator’s description of the wallpaper is one that the yellow “dirty” wallpaper symbolizes a figment of what/who she is, and she tears down the wallpaper in both insanity and in a symbolic search where she hopes of finding the answers to who she is and in search of a formed identity that has been both oppressed by the traditions of malpractice and the traditions of doing as men said, driven mad by her inability to see her own identity. Works Cited1.Crewe, Jonathan (1995). “Queering ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’? Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Politics of Form,” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 14 (Fall 1995), pp. 273–293.2.Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “‘Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?’https://doi.org/10.1192/apt.17.4.265Published online: 02 January 20183.Hume, Beverly A. “Gilman’s Interminable Grotesque’: The Narrator of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’”
4.Haney-Peritz, Janice. “Monumental Feminism and Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look at ‘The Yellow Wallpaper, ” Women’s Studies 12 (1986): 113–128.5.King, Jeannette, and Pam Morris. “On Not Reading Between the Lines: Models of Reading in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Studies in Short Fiction 26.1 (Winter 1989): 23–32. LA 0ct 26.Scharnhorst, John S. “Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte PerkinsGilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’”7.Stiles, Anne. “The Rest Cure, 1873-1925.” Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web. [october 1 20