Reader Response to THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

Reader Response criticism

After finishing The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, I found myself re-reading the text several times like I re-read my diary entries. I had to remind myself that this was written by someone back in 1892, not the 21st century. In this short story, the narrator describes her ‘rest cure’ or basically her treatment for “temporary nervous depression” prescribed by her physician husband. Nowadays, we would call what the narrator is experiencing ‘postpartum depression, and this is usually treated with medication and therapy.

The text, however, gives the readers a pretty good idea about what kind of treatment was available during the narrator’s era and how people viewed any kind of mental illness during that period. I agree with the text’s portrayal of women’s unequal status in marriage and feel as if many girls living in contemporary Pakistani society can relate to it. I also agree with how the characters of the short story react to the narrator’s illness as this kind of situation is not impossible to see even today.

The text elucidates the narrator’s views on her illness and the people around her. Her name is Jane and she lives with her physician husband, John, in a rented mansion. Jane and John are staying in this three-month rental to help Jane “get better”. In the first few pages, she does not give us that much information about her illness but she does describe her relationship with John.

Any reader will notice how domineering, condescending, and insensitive he is. When Jane mentions that he laughs at her and “one expects that in marriage”, I had a feeling that John was like most men—patriarchal. He treats her more like a father treats his daughter than how a man should treat his wife. He orders her around and she has to gain his approval before doing anything. He also does not acknowledge her true illness which I think is postpartum depression since she clearly states that she recently had a baby.

Continued

One thing that particularly riled me up was when she says that “he takes care of me, and so I feel basely ungrateful to no value it more”. No offense, but I kind of wanted to slap the narrator across the face. But, I calmed myself thinking that the era she lived in basically forced women to let their male partners think and act for them. Even our society still has this tendency. On John’s forbidden list, one is writing. This made no sense to me. How is writing bad for her health?

Perhaps because it requires thought and imagination and he does not want to lose his control over her so that’s why he asked her not to do it. All of these textual shreds of evidence support the motif that women tend to have an unequal standing in marriage. I believe that John would have ignored Jane’s demands for giving up something that he liked.

Regarding the mental illness, it is clear that both John and the narrator’s brother (despite both being physicians) are either unaware of it or disregarding it. When the narrator says, “You see he does not believe I am sick!”, I empathize with her. Mental illnesses are hard to realize or understand and most people will disregard them as having a bad day or being highly sensitive. Sometimes, the people closest to us are the ones who cannot see it even if others can.

Therefore, I can personally relate with this as I have had some anxiety attacks in the past and the people around me would just devalue it saying that “I’m just not eating well” or “too stressed with university work”. It is easier to ignore the signs than to deal with the actual problem and this is exactly what John is doing.

The constant repetition of the phrase “What is one to do?” clearly depicts the helplessness of the subjugated. I feel like this phrase speaks out to all female readers as this is something they have probably asked themselves dozens of times during their lifetime. In a society where women are regarded as the responsibility of a man, it is hard for them to clearly express or do things without getting the green light from others.

Another thing that I wanted to point out was how the narrator tries to defend John by saying that it is her illness that is making her angry with him. In my opinion, her illness is the game-changer in their relationship. Now, she has a perfect understanding of who John really is when she is not able to benefit him in any way. She is mad at John for not understanding her nor allowing her to socialize or write. These feelings are valid but because they have never come to the surface till now, she feels as if it’s because of her deteriorating mental health.

Conclusion

In the end when John barges into the room and she tells him that she has finally escaped the yellow wallpaper and he cannot put her back inside, I think this is her way of telling him that she finally realizes everything that was wrong with his behavior. She finally understands that John has been insensitive towards her and her illness is something worth treating but in a more proper way rather than social isolation. She understands that he has been using his dominance over her in trivial things and that she herself also let him as she thought this would please him or he was just showing his love. No doubt, he is a controlling husband and she finally calls him out on it.

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