Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Term Paper

Weir Mitchell, is an allegedly 'wise' man of medicine" (Hume pp).

The woman considers her child lucky because he does not have to occupy the room with the horrible wallpaper and stresses that it is impossible for her to be with him because it makes her very nervous (Hume pp). She believes that the room was once a nursery because of the bars on the windows and the condition of the wallpaper (Hume pp). Hume states that the woman is expressing her belief that children should be kept behind bars in order to control them, yet are capable of showing their hatred and perseverance by destroying the wallpaper (Hume pp).

At first blaming the yellow wallpaper for her illness, and in the end, embracing it, "now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell" (Gilman pp). Mary Roth writes in the December 2001 issue of "Mosaic," that the yellow wallpaper is symbolic of cultural imperialism (Roth pp). Writes Roth, "There is no question about the Oriental identity of the art: Gilman calls it 'florid arabesque'...Domestic ornament in the nineteenth century contained sign systems that articulated a complex of attitudes about the imaginary East" (Roth pp).

Roth also points out that yellow wallpaper was a familiar character in realist fiction and was usually found to be distasteful (Roth pp). For example, George Sand wrote of her room in a Paris convent that, "the wallpaper was once yellow, or so I am told.However that may be I find it a source of constant interest for it is scribbled all over with names, mottoes, verses, all sorts of foolishness, reflections and dates, the relics of former occupants" (Roth pp).

Whether one believes that the wallpaper represents cultural imperialism or whether the entire story reflects feminine oppression is certainly open for debate. However, the story does reflect the nineteenth century male superiority over matters such as health and medicine. Since the woman in the story has a baby, one might also suggest that she might well be actually suffering from postpartum depression.

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wall-Paper." http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cUSWW/CPG/TYW.html.

Hume, Beverly a. "Managing madness in Gilman's 'The Yellow

Wall-Paper.'" Studies in American Fiction. March 22, 2002.

Roth, Mary. "Gilman's Arabesque Wallpaper.(Charlotte

Perkins Gilman's short story the Yellow Wallpaper considered for its themes and influences)." Mosaic (Winnipeg). December 01, 2001......