Panopticism In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

John S. Bak’s article draws attention to evidence of Foucaldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Bak begins by giving a brief one paragraph introduction describing Gilman’s diagnosis of “neurasthenia,” or “nervous prostration,” as well as the treatment she was prescribed: “Mitchell’s Rest Cure.” (Bak 39) Gilman’s own experiences are reflected throughout her composition through the narrator. Within this first paragraph, Bak brings up the question “is she mad at the beginning and is pathologically reliving the descent that has already taken place?” (Bak 39)
The second paragraph uses several quotes from Gilman’s story to describe the narrator’s environment, as well as justifying the influence it has on the narrator. …show more content…
Its primary goal was to “generate a symbiotic relationship between the observer and the observed” and would provide those inside with a “clean, well-lighted, and relatively pleasant environment, and the warden with the most efficient means of control through minimal effort.” (Bak 40-41) Physically, the Panopticon is a wheel-like structure with a central tower and connecting cells protruding from its center, making it possible for a single person to monitor the populace. The directive of the structure was to make the authoritative power between inmate and warden irreversible by making “the subject visible and the observer’s presence unverifiable,” similar, in concept, to a two-way mirror. (Bak 41) The prisoner had no means of counter-surveillance while the observer would be able to keep each cell in sight at all times. The concept may seem effective, but only for the observer. In implementing the use of the Panopticon the psychological health of those being observed declined sharply. As a result, “panopticism grew literally from a "house of certainty" into a societal mode of inquiry and inquisition reminiscent of Orwell's Big Brother or Fitzgerald's Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.” (Bak 42) Beginning as a tool of benevolent control, the Panopticon developed into a disciplinary weapon. Whether it is present or merely threatened, surveillance proved to …show more content…
Within the room itself, she is confronted by more objects of restraint: the “rings and things in the walls,” which we later realize were used to secure her, the immovable bed, and the barred windows. While surrounded by all of these devices of constraint, only the yellow wallpaper, “the object of surveillance with its "bulbous eyes," has an adverse effect upon her.” (Bak 43) Initially, the narrator dismisses the wallpaper, simply stating her dislike for it. However, she gradually develops paranoia “that Foucault says is inevitable with unabated surveillance.” (Bak 43) Once the narrator became aware of these “eyes,” she begins to believe that there is something behind the wallpaper, describing it as a sub-pattern. The outer pattern she can deal with as it represents the external restraints in the mansion; “the imprisonment of the body and not of the mind.” (Bak 43) By portraying herself through the imaginary woman within the sub-pattern, the narrator can free her mind from imprisonment. It is freedom, after all, which the narrator longs for most- not just from the physical confines, but from the endless scrutiny of the wallpaper. Contrary to common interpretations, Bak asserts “in believing that she has finally broken free of this internal prison--the Victorian mind-set her patriarchal society has instilled in her--she