It is true that the husband’s language is exaggerated at times, but dismissing the husband’s character as caricature seems extreme. Many of the passages concerning the husband can be interpreted as containing sarcasm, a great many contain irony, and several border on parody (Johnson 528). He could be viewed as the patriarchy itself, as Beverly Hume says, with his dismissal of all but the tangible and his constant condescension to his wife, but some critics have viewed this character as near-caricature (478). Weir Mitchell with a “propaganda piece.” A copy of the story was actually sent to Mitchell, and although he never replied to Gilman personally, he is said to have confessed to a friend that he had changed his treatment of hysterics after reading the story (15-19).Īlthough the autobiographical aspects of “The Yellow Wallpaper” are compelling, it is the symbolism and the underlying feminist connotations that lead best to discussion. She was in fact driven to near madness and later claimed to have written “The Yellow Wallpaper” to protest this treatment of women like herself, and specifically to address Dr. Weir Mitchell, who personally prescribed this “cure” to Gilman herself. As Gary Scharnhorst points out, this treatment originated with Dr. “The Yellow Wallpaper” gives an account of a woman driven to madness as a result of the Victorian “rest-cure,” a once frequently prescribed period of inactivity thought to cure hysteria and nervous conditions in women.
It is difficult to discuss the meaning in this story without first examining the author’s own personal experience. This story contains many typical gothic trappings, but beneath the conventional façade lies a tale of repression and freedom told in intricate symbolism as seen through the eyes of a mad narrator. But it was not until the rediscovery of the story in the early 1970’s that “The Yellow Wallpaper” was recognized as an early feminist indictment of Victorian patriarchy.
Early readers were appreciative of the sheer horror of the tale, and, indeed, it still stands as a wonderful example of the genre. The gothic tale of “The Yellow Wallpaper” has become just that, although it took nearly a century to find a truly understanding audience. Charlotte Perkins Gilman had no way of knowing that a story she wrote in 1892 would one day be regarded as a classic in feminist literature.
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