In "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, it is clear by the end of the story that the main character has gone insane. There are several key phrases in the woman's journal that point to the idea that being kept in confinement is what made her crazy. For example, the couple leases a house in the country, remote and isolated. The woman is not allowed the room she wants, but is instead put in the old nursery, where "the windows are barred" (page 2). The readers come to find out that the bed is bolted to the floor, and there is even a gate at the top of the stairs to prevent the woman from going downstairs or outside when she wishes (page 3). Her husband John belittles her and tells her that her ideas are frivolous or unreasonable, placing mental confinements on her - for he also tells her that she must not use her imagination or give in to fancy (pages 2-3). On page 6 he even calls her "little girl." The woman is unable to be creative and must write and even think in secret. Mentally, the yellow wallpaper is another form of confinement. On page 7, the woman realises that in moonlight, the pattern on the wallpaper is bars that trap a creeping woman behind them! The repeated use of the word "bars" on windows and on wallpaper is an example of the diction that reinforces this theme of confinement, as is the constant belittling of the woman by her husband through the use of phrases like "little girl" and "little goose."
Ultimately, the woman's insanity becomes clear as she bites off a piece of the bed, rips off wallpaper, and locks herself in her room on page 9. "The creeping woman" is a repeated phrase that attests to her insanity, as are her bizarre descriptions of the pattern in the wallpaper - for it is no longer just "bars," but also a pattern that "strangles" and has many "heads" (page 8). The confinement of the house and of her husband drive the woman insane in the end of "The Yellow Wallpaper."
No comments:
Post a Comment