The short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a cry for freedom. This story is about a woman who fights for her right to express what she feels, and fights for her right to do what she wants to do. The narrator in this short story is a woman whose husband loves her very much, but oppresses her to the point where she cannot take it anymore. This story revolves around the main character, her oppressed life, and her search for freedom.
There are many male influences in this womans life and although they may mean no harm, push her over the edge. The main characters husband, John, and her brother are well-known physicians. They use their power to control the main character, perhaps subconsciously, to feel what they think a woman should feel. For example, the woman tells the men she is sick but they believe differently. “John is a physician, and perhaps- (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind-) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!”(507) The men are under the impression that what they say goes and therefore the woman has no choice but to follow. “He knows there is no reason to suffer and that satisfies him.”(508)
This quote illustrates that the men are in control. If they strongly believe nothing is wrong, then nothing must be wrong. It is a feeling of self satisfaction the men feel when they are superior to the woman.
The main character knows John loves her, but it is the oppression she feels that bothers her so. Her husband expresses his love for her but at the same time imposes his will on her. He hinders her from having her own thoughts. “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction”(507) The last few words of this quote show how John did not let her have any freedom because he was always there. John acts as if he knows what the main character feels at all times. The main character had absolutely no freedom, for her husband would let nothing happen unless he was there to supervise. An example of this treatment is when she wanted to get out of the house and visit some cousins, but John insisted she really did not want to go. “Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasnt able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there”(511) The main character understands her husband loves her, but he insists on her doing what he wants her to do. John says she will not stand it after she got there, but how did he know this? John has absolutely no idea how his wife feels, he just imposes his ways on her and expects her to abide. John sees no reason why his wife should go so therefore he believes she should not. He does not consider her wanting to go a good enough reason for him to let her go visit.
Another example of the misery the main character feels is her inability to write freely. The woman hides herself while she writes the frustration she feels inside. Writing is this womans only way of expressing her emotions, the anger, sadness, fear, and what little happiness she felt. She cannot express these emotions physically in public so she writes them down or else she will suffocate in her incapability to express her mind. John strongly disapproves his wifes writing because he knows he will not be able to control this factor of her life. “He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good the check the tendency.”(509) The husband knows she has the ability to think for herself. He tells her she should use her “good sense” not to do use this ability. John is also aware of her imaginative power, and this is a power he does not like. If John gives in to this power then he loses all control over his wife.
The main character states many times her need for expressing her thoughts. “I dont know why I should write this. I dont want to. I dont feel able. And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way— it is a relief!”(511) Gilman shows in this quote that this woman is oppressed by her husband. It is almost as if she is fighting between having to conform with this oppressed way of life and her need for freedom. The woman states she does not want to write, she does not feel able. This is her dispirited self. When she states: “I must say what I feel It is such a relief!”(511), this woman is actually wanting independence even if she must defy her husband.
The main characters oppression is due to her husband, but the house and specifically the room she stayed in helped her realize who she really was, and helped her find the freedom she looked for. The yellow wallpaper which covered the room disturbed her greatly. At the beginning of the story she hated the color. “The color is repellent, almost revolting, ..DullI should hate it myself I had to live in this room long.”(508) Through this the woman expresses her feelings towards the room, but specifically the wallpaper. Throughout her stay at the house and as the oppression sets in even greater, she begins to see patterns in the wallpaper. The woman is engrossed in finding what this pattern is all about, what meaning it holds. She states: ” and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some conclusion.”(510) The woman longed to find some kind of importance in that pattern.
The woman herself has made conclusions as to what the pattern symbolized. Being in the house, closed all day, oppressed by her husband, not being able to do anything the woman had all the time in the world to think about the meaning. She makes an unclear conclusion that the wall symbolizes a woman behind a cell. Perhaps the woman, the main character, sees herself in the wallpaper. She states: ” By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still”(511) She describes herself in the paper, but she is also subdued by day. The main character mentions “I dont sleep much at night, but I sleep a good deal in the daytime”(513) By using these quotes from the main character Gilman gives us the impression that the main character is describing herself subconsciously.
Another example of the main characters resemblance to the woman in the wallpaper is when she states: “I think that the woman gets out in the daytime! I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden. I see her on that long road under the trees” (514) Much similar to what the woman in the wallpaper does all day the woman also has a daily routine. “So I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, or sit on the porch under the roses”(516) Combining both of these quotes allows the reader to realize that the woman in the wallpaper and the woman in the room are the same person.
All of these patterns the main character sees, and the resemblance she makes to herself, lead her to try to change her life.
As Johns wife discovers the meaning of the yellow wallpaper she changes. “Life is very much exciting now than it used to be. I have something more to expect, to look forward to”(513) This quote describes how the main character perceives life now than what she used to, and that was conforming to her husband.
By the end, the last thing the main character can do is rip up the wallpaper, and help the woman in the wall to become free. In other words to help herself to become free. She sits and waits for her husband to come home to confront him, to reach her goal of freedom, to not be subdued anymore. “Ive got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane? And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back!”(516)