A Response to Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In 1913, Charlotte Perkins Gilman stated her short story entitled The Yellow Wallpaper "was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy." It was then, years after its publication, Gilman drew herself close to her readers and told them her story was a cautionary tale. She insisted it was an informative work that warned against the use of "rest cures" to treat the malady of depression. Nevertheless, as straightforward as her analysis of her own work appears, it is important to remember these thoughts were spoken in hindsight, and, although revealing, they could very well be misleading and contrary to the author's original intent. In all, the truth Gilman asked her readers to believe may not have been wholly accurate.

Before continuing further, The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written in 1892. With the exception of a few readers, it was not widely read at first. It was not until 1973 that it began to achieve real notoriety. The story itself is about a woman, of indeterminate age, who suffers from a depressive condition. As a result of this, she is prescribed a "rest cure" by her doctoring husband to sort out her preexisting malady. Unfortunately, the cure has an increasingly bad effect on her, and she slips into a realm of artistic stiflement, abandonment, and eventual insanity...

"So I take phosphates or phosphites--whichever it is--and tonics, and air and exercise, and journeys, and am absolutely forbidden to work until I am well again" (317).

Now, if I were feminist, I would say The Yellow Wallpaper is a rallying call for the feminist ideal. Gilman, after all, was outspoken in these matters, and it would be logical to assume her principles found their way into her fiction. "I've got out at last," her heroine declares as she observes her pampering, chauvinistic husband fall to the floor (327). With a feminist approach, Gilman's story becomes a tortured cry for freedom. It becomes a significant contribution to writings that speak of equality and change.