Individuality in The Yellow Wallpaper jbnite
Individuality in The Yellow Wallpaper –jbniteIndividuality
A person’s individuality is one of their most important characteristics. Individuality makes people special and when appreciated builds self-worth. Everyone has their own unique traits they bring about. In order to be happy and successful in life, one must use their traits as effectively and creatively as possible and be recognized for their individuality and abilities.
In the 19th century it was not an unlikely occurrence for women to be held back by men. The main character in The Yellow Wallpaper is being subjected to this type of oppression. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novel graphically illustrates this oppression. The main characters inability to be recognized as an individual is the root of her inability to maintain her sanity throughout the book. As her state of mind worsens, she relates the wallpaper in her room to her struggles. She describes the wallpaper as consisting of “lame uncertain curves” that “suddenly commit suicide-plunge off at outrageous angles, destroying themselves in unheard of contradictions” (Gilman 31). This describes how her efforts in controlling her life also follow this same pattern. These patterns are representative of her and her methods of dealing with society.
Throughout the book, she is seeking and receiving advice from those around her instead of making up her own mind. John, for example, has told her, “the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition” (Gilman 32). She does not use her own mind and free will to think about this at all but takes his words for face value and obeys. She then asks John to re-paper the room, instead of handling this issue herself. Even when John tells her no, she passively accepts his decision, which is a failure on her part to exert her own will. Since she is still trying to please her husband she puts aside her irritation caused by the wallpaper and attempts to focus on the world outside her window.
She is not able to keep her focus on the outside world though. Her focus begins to revert back to her room and the wallpaper. When this happens her goals change and she begins to engage in actions that contradict the will of others just so she can exert her own will. One hint of this type of behavior is, “John is a physician, and perhaps…that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 28). Here she is prolonging her own illness to sabotage her husband in his own field of expertise. As her perversity becomes more apparent, the wallpaper takes on new characteristics. One of these was its ability to now stain everything it touched, “The paper stained everything it touched” (Gilman 35). The paper also now developed a smell which represents the idea that she is always at least partially in her internal world even when she is not alone in the room. She has now locked out the outside world and John.
This change started by the oppression of her free will by her husband, yet the whole social structure of this time period contributed to her oppression. Her assertion at the end of the story, “I’ve got out at last” (Gilman 42), is ironic because although she now has the opportunity to physically get out of the prison-like room and try the cure that she prescribed to herself, she now ignores it. The refusal of her peers and society to allow her to act on her own thoughts and ideas caused her to find another outlet for self-expression. Since she could not have individuality and control in the real world, she has discovered the one place she can-in her own mind.
Even with the strength she achieved, she has lost touch with reality, swallowed up by her own imagination as a result of constant oppression. This is why a persons individual thoughts and abilities, and how they are treated by others, are so important to their well-being.
–jbnite