The Yellow Wallpaper Reader Response

(This entry was posted on my first blog account, but it would not allow me to log in, I created a new account and this is a repost of the my reader response for The Yellow Wallpaper)

I have read The Yellow Wallpaper before and each time I find it more and more interesting. The first thoughts that come to mind are, this book is very creepy and hard to follow. But the more I read it, the more things I begin to notice. The Yellow Wallpaper is a good book that I think gets overlooked.

One of the first things I picked up on is the narrator is never given a name. We know a lot about her and the bool is her personal journal but she is never given a name. I think the author did this on purpose. By not giving the narrrator a name it means she could be anyone. She could be any woman anywhere in teh world, facing these same conditions. Since the author wrote this novel with a strong feminist tone teh anrrator takes on teh role of all women who are suffereing from teh unfair gender laws of that time period.

From teh beginning of the book we can see that hte narrator loves to write, on page 19 she mentions how she must write, but is told she can not for it is bad for her health. The narrator states, "John hates me to write a word"(13). Writing seems to be a form of escape, an outlet for the narrator. She says, "I did write for a while in spite of the; but it does exhaust me a good deal-habing to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition"(10). Writing allowed her to make sense, in her mind at least, of the confusing world she was livein in. JOhn did not like her writing because to him it was a threat. He has to control her, and as a woman her thoughts were not important. Writing gave the narrator a smal sense of control or power. It allowed her to express ehrself and her thoughts, which John was uncomfortable wiht.

I did not care for John throughout the novel. It seemed in teh beginning he was a loving, caring husband who only wanted the best for his wife but the more you read teh more you realize he treats her with little respect. She is like a pet or a child to him, not a wife or an equal. He is very controlling and never takes teh time to actually listen to her even when it comes to her own illness. The narrator writes, "John doesn't know how much I really suffer"(14). He calls her pet names like "little goose" or "little girl" which are very degrading and make the narrator seem childlike. The narrator also states in the beginning how John laughs at her but that is what you expect in marraige. Which doesn;t seem like an equal marriage at all. The narratoor mentions how she believes she needs social engaements and work to get better but is todl by John thats not right. Everything the narrator does ahs to be controleld by John. The narrator thinks that is why she doesnt get better.

The wallpaper brings two different themes to the book. First just by reading it, the descriptions give you a creepy feeling. The narrator offers distant detail of what the wallpaper looks like. She talks about the color and how hideous it is, how the patterjets off in to sucidal turns. Slowly she becomes obseesed wiht the paper. Trying to follow the patterns through the sharp dips and turns. Slowly she begins to see a woman take shape behind the wallpaper, and eventually becomes completely engrossed by the paper. The narrator states, "That is why I watch it always"(26). Besides just offering a creepy storyling, the wallpaper serves as sybolism for women and they way they ere treated. The woman behind the bars, wanting to get out represented the women of that time period. Men were barring them they in, they had less rights and were not treated as equals. Women were trapped, like the figures in the wallpaper. They were expected to be perfect house wifes, to cook and clean and take care of the children. They trapped in a world ruled by men.

I think The Yellow Wallpaper is seen more as a book dealing with the psychological breakdown of the narrator. Which in itself is a unique story, but I believe the book was also written to show the exteme poles between the genders. The author wrote this story to reprent a large majority of women in general. Throughout this book the male characters make all the decisions and over see everything. Slowly the narrator begins to go completely insane under the complete control of John, who doesn't ever listen to a thing she has to say. What she needed was to be treated as a human, to be able to read and write, go outside and work. Instead she was couped up and told to do nothing which drove her to insantity.

The books ending is very different. It is extremely sad to see the narrator at her worst point. Yet the ending was inevitable, we watched her break down slowly throughout the novel but it was still hard to read. I think this is a great book that has to be read more then once to get a better understanding of the text. Reading the Afterword also helped me to understand the book better.

A couple questions:

Was the house John takes the narrator to really a summer house or was it some kind of mental hospital>
Does the narrator not remember ripping off the wallpaper? She talks about how the children and made such a mess and it was really her.