My blog on "The Yellow Wallpaper"

John, John's wife, and the yellow wallpapered room, I believe, are the main characters of the narrative "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I have very little knowledge about mental illness such as is described in the work by Gilman. At times however, under stress, I can empathize with the character in the story and the author whom, I believe, was writing the story in response to a tremendous stress in her own life.

The antagonist in the piece, I believe, is the husband, John, who even though a doctor, did not know how to treat his ill wife, or maybe her hormone imbalance.

When the paper in the room was new, bright, pretty, and happy looking for the children in the nursery who enjoyed it, it was a joy to look at. However, the mentally disturbed wife dwells on the deterioration of the paper to the extent of excessive compulsiveness. Now the paper is a dirty faded yellow, which to some represents fear and cowardice. To the imagined woman caught in the yellow wallpaper the doctor's wife thought that she could not escape without her help. In setting the woman free in the wallpaper, by tearing it down, she would be freeing herself. The confused wife would be in control instead of John.

According to Charlotte Gilman's biography, she had been wrestling with a postpartum nervous breakdown. Gilman was treated by a doctor in real life to whom the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper was threatened with being sent to if she did not get well quickly. Silas Weir Mitchel was the name of her real life doctor.

The third-person omniscient is used by the author as she has the main character, the doctor's wife, equate scripture with the wallpaper. "It sticketh closer than a brother" (511) . The quote found in "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman can be found in Norton Anthology of American Literature Shorter Edition Vol. II. Edited by Nina Baym and in the King James Version of the Bible. In the situation in the wallpapered room, the paper was not considered a blessing to the disturbed main character. Jesus in contrast meant the words found in the book of Proverbs 18:24, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." The friend, or woman in Gilman's story caged in the wallpaper was herself, and she needed to free herself in her mind because she was her only true friend and savior.

Constantly referring to the wallpaper, the action rises to a climax as her husband passes out when he sees that his wife has gone completely mad. By crawling all over the floor of the room in the midst of her handiwork of tearing the yellow wallpaper off the walls she demonstrates her separation from reality.

I guess the question is; should a woman stay with a man that is driving her nuts or should she stay until he dies or he divorces her? God hates divorce, but he also hates abuse. By not understanding his wife's needs was John abusive? I do not think so, but others might.