The Yellow Wallpaper

Bibliography: McGowan, Todd. “Dispossessing the Self; ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and the Renunciation of Property.” The Feminine ‘No!’: Psychoanalysis and the New Canon. Albany: State U of NY P(ress), 2001. 31-46. eNotes. Web. 7 April 2013. In a critical essay by Todd McGowan analyzing The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, he focuses on the narrator’s struggle between what she desires and controlling herself. McGowan indicates that if the narrator were to free herself from the binds of social convention, she would free John, against his will, as well. (McGowan 4). As the narrator continues figuring out the wall paper, she is really figuring out what she desires most; freedom. McGowan uses literary terms and examples from the text to prove his point. He references works by other literary critics and uses their opinions to help support his analysis. Throughout the article, he relevantly references them and explains what he means by these references. His article sticks to discussing what is stated above. Ultimately his article is clear in meaning and how it should be interpreted. McGowan is very clear about his knowledge of the time period in which “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written and the views of the time period. Roth, Marty. “Gilman 's Arabesque Wallpaper.” Mosaic (Winnipeg) 34.1 (Dec. 2001): 145t. Questia. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. In Marty Roth’s analytical essay of The Yellow Wallpaper that wallpaper is “conceal[ing] dirt” and she also says that wallpaper is “the invention of laziness and filth” (Roth, 2,3). In this instance the wallpaper is seen as a definite negative and can also be seen as symbolic of Jane, the female character in the story, because “Americans live the wallpaper” (3,3). As the wallpaper is personified a “concealing dirt” she also does the same by only creeping during the day when she will not be caught and she also is covering up how she is mentally unstable to her husband by pretending to feel better. Gilman being a woman affects the way that her story is not just written but also the way that her audience receives it. Roth defines Gilman’s story as a “captivity narrative” (5,1). This means that her audience can see it as a story about Gilman breaking out of captivity as Jane does in the story as there are many similarities between the two. Treichler, Paula A. “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 3.1-2 (spring/fall 1984): 61-77. eNotes. Web. 7 April 2013. In Paula A. Treichler’s analysis “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnoses and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’” Treichler focuses on analyzing the connection between women and writing found in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. She discusses the symbolic nature of the wallpaper and shows how it can be interpreted as a symbol for “discourse” (Treichler 1). The authors writing cycle is very unique to the story. The narrator desires to write, to express herself, but is forbidden to by her husband. She writes in a secret journal directly to the readers, which gives the story the feeling of a secret being told directly to us. The readers can see the narrator’s infatuation with the wallpaper progressing as her journal entries become solely about the wallpaper and are written in a short and furious manner. As the narrator becomes more secluded from the outside world, she becomes less able to express herself and eventually turns to the wallpaper as a form of expression. The woman in the wallpaper represents “the representation of women that becomes possible only after women obtain the right to speak” (Treichler 2). As the narrator begins to slowly lose her speaking privileges due to the oppression and dominance of her husband, she becomes more and more obsessed with the woman in the wallpaper. Eventually the narrator frees and becomes the woman in the wallpaper, which allows her the privilege of expressing herself through discourse when she finally openly defies her husband with the words “I 've got out at last,” she tells him triumphantly, “And I 've pulled off most of the paper, so you can 't put me back” (Gilman 36). “Her husband faints, and she is obliged to step over him each time she circles the room” (Treichler 2) symbolizing her finally overcoming his oppression.