Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper (1891)

Cath’s classic quote: "I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin." – Unnamed female narrator

[be warned, my friends – spoilers await you]

If you’re a fan of analysing the thin line between reason and irrationality, patriarchal power as a dangerous force, and the gothic descent into madness with a strong female narrator, look no further – this one’s for you. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1891 feminist novella, The Yellow Wallpaper, is a disturbing yet utterly gripping read.

Set in the Victorian period, it follows an unnamed young woman as the first-person narrator who struggles with postpartum depression and is sent to an eerie, isolated mansion under the watchful eye of her physician husband, John. Forced to stay inside the attic under John’s enforced rest cure, the narrator slowly descents into madness, tracking her observations of the bizarre, hideous yellow wallpaper adorning the attic through multiple diary entries. The novella works as a mixture of social commentary on the expected maternal instincts of women, oppressive gender roles, and the strict binary between science and imagination that prevailed in eighteenth-century England.

Reading this novella for the first time had me curious as to why it isn’t upheld as the pinnacle of Victorian gothic literature, in my humble opinion. The yellow wallpaper is dubbed as an exquisitely horrifying symbol of the narrator’s oppression and mental health deterioration, and it hooked my attention with every artful metaphor and selection of descriptive language. Indeed, Perkins Gilman describes the wallpaper as a ‘smouldering unclean yellow’ colour that later in ‘twilight, candlelight, lamplight’ and ‘moonlight’ ‘becomes bars!’ This is just a taste of Perkins Gilman’s excellent writing in this novella.

Indeed, written from a first-person narrative point of view, the diary entries feature a mix of engaging long syntax and long paragraphs, which progress to short, succinct syntax and sentences. This symbolises the narrator’s worsening madness under John’s care and the quite frankly absurd rest cure designed by Weir Mitchell, an actual physician that Perkins Gilman went to (you can read about it here). Moreover, the diary tracks the narrator’s increasing suspicions of her husband, John, with Perkins Gilman commenting on the fallibility of the ‘masculinist’ rationality and logic that dominated scientific methods and medicine.     

It’s a classic gothic fiction piece, with the textbook abandoned decaying mansion, the tyrannical male character of John, the vulnerable unnamed female narrator silenced under oppressive forces, and the supernatural wallpaper. What more could you want? Plus, it’s a short piece, too – around sixty-four pages! Something well worth your next read.

Get drawn into the captivating horrors of this gothic novella over with a warm cup of Earl Grey tea, and once you have, leave your thoughts below or on my socials, linked as always below!  

Until the next captivating read,

Farewell and goodbye,

Traditionally and timelessly,

Yours truly,

classicallycath xx (maybe one day I’ll have a shorter farewell, but alas, I am a fan of words)

As always, here are my references for your curious eyes:

Gilman, C. P. (1981). The Yellow Wallpaper. Virago Press.

Larson, A. (2019). THE YELLOW WALLPAPER [Image]. Illustration West. https://illustrationwest.org/56/unpublished/the-yellow-wallpaper/  

Martin, D. (2007). The Rest Cure Revisited. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(5), 737–738. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.5.737