Dylan Hakala

Critical Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper

The story of The Yellow Wallpaper was a psychological horror story that points out

critical problems in society in order to reform. Not only is the story creative and horrific but also

is based on events that has happened in the authors life. The author uses themes and symbols in

order to shed light on the terrible oppression of women in society.

Gilman had her own experience much like the one the narrator had in the story of The

Yellow Wallpaper. She wrote in an article that she was diagnosed with depression by a

neurologist after three years of suffering through nervous breakdowns. The doctor told her that

the rest cure was the best option for her to help her get through her disorder. The doctor was

later found to be very objectifying towards women believing that they were inferior and docile

creatures with a weak mind, the doctor would later be portrayed as the husband in the story

making the narrator suffer through the rest cure. The rules of the rest cure were much like the

rules in the story, she was told to stay in isolation, get a lot of bed rest, to live as domestic of a

life as possible and to never touch a writing utensil. Gilman would later see this as an act of

patriarchy against women attempting to revert them to an infantile state of mind and helped

advocate male control and authority. Gilman much like in the story felt as if she was on the

brink of insanity and had to quit the rest cure for good. Gilman wanted to bring attention to the

oppression of women from doctors as well as husbands by creating a character that is both in the

story. Through all this, Gilman uses her own experiences with oppression to help other women

learn from and to advocate for women who are free thinkers in a society ruled by men.
 Gilman was a strong advocate for social, economic, and religious reform movements and

placing many of those themes and ideas in her short storys. She was called by many to be an

optimist reformer because of her belief in many different reform movements and that they

could change social structures in society very quickly. Her essays and short stories are very

notable today in the feminists movement and earned herself the title as one of the mothers of

feminism because of her leading role in the movement. In the story The Yellow Wallpaper she

shows the idea of a woman breaking out of the wallpaper as a symbol of women breaking from

oppression they were facing in society. She spreads her ideas as themes and symbols through all

her short stories and was a major role in the beginnings of the feminist movement.

Gilmans main focus for reform was womens rights, and she believed that women cant

just be equal in the work force and other public areas, but also equal when it comes to personal

relationships and marriage. Her idea was that women could never be equal in things like the

work force and the economy if they couldnt even be equal to their boyfriend or husband in their

own personal life. This idea of women being equal in the relationships is shown in The Yellow

Wallpaper because her husband is the one that has all of the power of the in the marriage. In the

story her husband controls everything she does in her life as a part of the rest cure that he told her

she needed. She wants women to break free of oppression in society and relationships for any

chance of equality.

The story is full of symbolism and themes that all relate to feminism and the oppression

of women caused by patriarchy in society. The main character of the story is shown as the

stereotypical average wife back in the 1800s where oppressing women was the social norm and
was expected of society. The author uses symbolism to show what problems occur when a

husband has all the power of the relationship, and when the wife is just obedient to him. She also

points out the major problem in society that many doctors believed women were weak minded

and had far less brain function and control than men. She brings this issue to light by showing

that the doctor in the story, who is also her husband, was wrong about her mental illness and how

to treat it to where in the end she is far worse off because of him.

Almost all critics and people that read the story now see the story is about the

empowerment of women and has anti-oppression themes. Back in the time of the storys initial

release, the story was seen as a psychological horror and not making any big observations on the

problems of society. The story became more associated with the feminist movement once

feminism became more popular in the mid 1900s and the mainstream ideas of feminism that we

have today began to form. Now the story is synonymous with the feminist movement and has

been embedded into history as an important story that lead to the mass growth of the feminist

movement. The late 1800s was a very oppressive time for women with strict control of moral

ideas and a womans behavior. This story was an early push for the equal rights of women and

helped people look more closely at the unfair social norms of the 1800s and even now.