"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Stetson

“The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson addresses the issue of woman’s inability to confront and solve issues imposed upon them by a male dominated society, in a productive and conventional way. Women in this period were denied the means of usual problem solving, because of their role in society. Men of the period believed women were weak, prone to flights of fancy, unable to decide what was in their best interest, and needed a man to direct their life for them.

            The work begins by the Narrator expressing her concern that the house is unusual, and maybe haunted. Her husband, John, laughs at her and the Narrator says, “one expects that in marriage.” The narrator is concerned but her husband will not take her seriously. John believes that he knows what is right.

            Like his belief that the house is okay, John does not believe that there is anything wrong with his wife’s health. However he has recommended a cure that includes isolation rest, and no work of any kind. The Narrator wishes to see her family, and child but John does not think that would be good for her health. John prescribes scheduled naps, and chastises the Narrator for getting out of bed at night. The Narrator is dissatisfied with their bedroom but John does not allow her to change rooms, and attributes her dislike for the room as a fancy, which she must not indulge.

            The room itself represents the Narrator’s, and women in general, place in society. She cannot change the room even though she finds its alarming and revolting. The bed is nailed down, the windows are barred, and the wallpaper forms a prison for a woman, when viewed in the moonlight. Like the Narrator the woman in the wallpaper is trapped. The Narrator tries to help her escape, but rather than the woman escaping out of the wallpaper, The Narrator escapes into it, or rather into her own head, rejecting the world which has resigned her to a nominal role.

            A man in this period would not have been forced to accept bed rest as a cure for a problem that no one believed was really there at all. He would have been taken seriously, and his opinion would have counted. A man would have had the opportunity to decide for himself that he is well enough to work, or visit his family. If a man were unhappy with his room, he would change it. Women were denied the same paths for seeing their will put into effect. They were something to be conducted by men, their decisions contingent on the decisions of the man. The Narrator is denied this options and must resort to a different sort of problem solving. There is no way to seek change within the system, so she leaves the system.