Welcome back to Complexities with Khuffash! Last time we discussed Alina Starkov’s story in the trilogy Shadow and Bone, and how her’s is reminiscent of the trope of women and entrapment. Today we will be looking at the more physical attributes of entrapment for women, and how interestingly enough madness can be the key to freedom. Taking it a little ways back, the woman that we will be discussing today is The Narrator from the short story written in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This blog post will contain spoilers for the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story about a woman, the Narrator, who has been trapped into a room by her husband John because she has been deemed ill, and being in the room will help her health. The woman hates this room, especially because of its yellow wallpaper, and throughout the story her mind deteriorates. John controls whether or not his wife can leave the room, and until he decides that she is better, she is not allowed to leave. When she starts to voice her concern that the room is not doing her well, he dismisses her. Since he is a doctor himself, and not to mention her husband, he believes that he knows better than she does about her mind and mental health. The woman also knows that if she does not get better, then he will send her away to a hospital. Practically being threatened to feel better, she is not only trapped by the room, but also trapped by her husband. John acts in a way where it seems that he thinks that she is in control over whether or not she gets better, and when she is getting worse, it is somehow her fault, so he keeps her in the room. Even when she wants to leave the house, not just the room, he expresses his displeasure, forcing them to stay there, despite her pleas to leave. He is constantly telling her that she looks better, and that the room is doing good things for her, yet even though she feels the opposite, it does not seem to matter as long as he is getting what he wants, and that is for her not to be a problem for him, and they get to stay in the house for longer.
In the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the Narrator does not seem to mind being in the house. She sees the beauty of the gardens from inside, and she believes that her husband is taking care of her while she is ill. Towards the middle of the story, the Narrator admits that her mind is slipping away from her. She starts to realize that she is losing control of her mind and herself to the illness, she starts to see a woman behind the wallpaper. This woman that she starts to see may be a mirror of herself being trapped and waiting to be free. She starts to see the woman outside of the house as well, showing that it is not just in the room where she can see this woman, but beyond it. The room is not the only thing that is making her ill anymore, and this illness goes beyond the space that she is locked in. As the days draw near to her leaving the house, she decides to tear the wallpaper down, setting the woman free, thus finding freedom herself in the room that she once felt trapped by. This realization that she must set the woman free shows that she identifies with that woman behind the wallpaper. The Narrator is making her own decision to, not only free the woman behind the wallpaper, but also free herself. As John tries to get into the room because it is locked from the inside, she has to explain where the key is and he now, in contrast to before, must listen to what she is saying. When John gets into the room, he is so stunned and confused by his wife crawling in circles around the room that he faints. Since he falls into the pathway that she claimed for herself, she must crawl over him, claiming power over her husband and power back to herself. Her succumbing to her illness or madness makes her claim to control easier, and it helps her claim some individuality away from her husband’s wishes, making her have more power.
I thought it was incredibly interesting how the trope of entrapment fits within this story. The woman in this story starting with physically and mentally being trapped inside a room with the yellow wallpaper by her husband with no way out. Progressing with accepting her madness being the only way she could be free, and even though the door is wide open and she could leave, she chooses not to because she has found freedom in the room. Ideally, I would say that I don’t like that she had to claim madness in order to be free, but for this story I think it works because of the time period that it is set in because of societal standards and expectations. If she were to go outside and live by herself it is likely that she would never be free, and at least in this room she was able to get that even if it meant going mad because was able to have that freedom and power over herself.
– Alyssa Khuffash, Prose Editor and Blogger
Alyssa Khuffash – Prose Editor & Blogger: Alyssa is a Senior at Lewis University majoring in English with a concentration in Writing. She is also minoring in Creative Writing and Theology. She enjoys walking her dog, taking care of her plants, reading, and listening to music. Some of her favorite authors include Katherine Arden, Holly Black, and Madeline Miller. She hopes to improve her writing while at Lewis and apply her skills to her future as a writer.