by Naomi Foster

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, a classic gothic horror, portrays the downward spiral and  alarming regression of a woman following the birth of the child. Her constant feelings of “nervousness” have impaired her judgment/ altered her behavior causing those around her to question her sanity. Rather than referring her to a psychiatrist for a proper evaluation, her husband, John, whisks her away to a countryside mansion, declaring that this would be the “cure” to her ailment. Pumping her full of fish oils and tonics, confining her to a single room where she was ordered to sleep, her mental state worsened. The woman began hallucinating and developed hyperfixation on the wallpaper . When she attempted to address her concerns about the treatment and her own progress, she was met with demimunitive pet names and deflection. By the end of the story, the narrator has become a shell of herself, briefly contemplating suicide, removing a chunk of wood from the leg of the bed with her teeth and tearing off  the yellow paper strip by strip. Her husband returns home to find her in a disheveled state and within moments of seeing her he loses consciousness, unable to deal with the “monster” he created. 

Assessing the situation with the knowledge of mental health we have today, it can be argued that the woman’s behavior could be attributed to her untreated postpartum depression and psychosis. While it’s true that her mental illness is the root cause of her behavior, the worsening of her condition is due to the stressors in her life, like John. A great deal of blame is to be placed on the narrator’s husband, who actively manipulated and abused his wife. Had it not been for his neglect and passive aggressive behavior, there is a chance that her postpartum psychosis and depression could have improved.

 In recent years, society has opened up the floor to discuss domestic abuse  in its many forms. It’s not always a physical altercation resulting in black eyes and bloody noses. Domestic abuse can be characterized by blatant neglect of emotions, forcing a partner to withdraw from their social life, and verbal abuse tactics such as infantilization and gaslighting, all of which John employed.  

The story begins with the confessional narrator discussing her new living situation. She finds it odd that two ordinary people would be able to secure a colonial mansion for the summer. Logically, she began to question her surroundings. Raising questions to her husband like “why should it be so cheaply? And why have  stood so long untenanted?”(Gilman MS. 22). Instead of  addressing her concerns John dismisses her with a laugh, which the narrator claims “one expects in marriage” (Gilman MS. 22). John’s behavior and the narrator’s  reaction (or lack thereof), “[imply] that because of the respective roles that they each occupy… she has come to expect the condescension, insults, and appropriation of power that John exhibits(Knight 78). 

Part of the reason why John treats his wife in such a condescending manner is because he doesn’t expect her to react. It’s not so much an assertion of authority, but an act of cruelty.  This goes further than merely taking advantage of his wife’s passiveness. John has manipulated the narrator into questioning her own intelligence and forced her to second guess her intuition. Since laughing is associated with contentment and affection, it sends a mixed signal to the narrator when her husband laughs at her as she’s in distress. 

The laugh is not a nervous reaction to  his wifes “hysteria” but a premeditated  gaslighting tactic, which sends the subliminal message that John does not take his wife’s concerns seriously. He views her the same way a parent views a budding adolescent, not fully capable of making her own decisions. This infantilization of the mother of his child is demonstrated throughout the story when he references her as “blessed little goose” and “little girl” (Gilman MS 28 and 38). 

John’s infantilization of his wife stems further than the language he uses when speaking  to her; it can also be observed in their entire dynamic. When she expresses her desire to leave the room, she feels the need to ask John, even though they are  both adults. When she wishes to visit her cousins, “he said [she]wasn’t able to go nor stand it …”(Gilman MS 36). He controls every aspect of her life, not because he’s trying to protect her, but because he doesn’t know what else to do. When abusers sense that they are losing their grip on reality, they attempt to control those around them. Instead of seeking proper help he continues to try to do things his way and even when he sees that it’s destroying her. Rather than coming to terms with the situation he insists that “she shall be as sick as she pleases”, suggesting that her mental illness is something that she’s brought upon herself (Gilman MS 38).

Following their one-sided conversation, John carried [her] up the stairs and laid her on the bed, and read to [her] til it tired [her] head(Gilman MS. 36).  Out of context , his actions are sweet and almost admirable. He cares for his wife when she’s not well. But when you consider the verbal abuse tactics, suggestive laugh, and the degrading language and solitary confinement he  subjected her to, it’s clear that even the act of putting his wife to bed is just another way of signaling to her that she is not well enough to take care of herself  nor will she be  able to do anything without his “help”. 

As mentioned, the husband ordered the wife to remain in one room with yellow paper, the narrator with the bars on the windows, scratches above the bed and rings on the walls. When she raised her concerns about the peculiar appearance of the room, he told her that it’s just an old nursery. Since she believes everything he says, she goes along with this, never to mention the prison-like structure again.

Even though the narrator doubts her husband, she still goes along with what he says. Is it trust? Is it a concession? Or is it fear? The narrator admits that she fears her  husband. She confesses that she scared of the way he stares at her and at one point she alludes to sexual coercion by “[charcterizing] the wallpaper as “a sickly penetrating suggestive yellow” (Knight 80). In her analysis of the novel, Knight uses the details that might have otherwise been overlooked as clues, saying “ The great immovable bed is, after all, “nailed” to the floor and becomes a symbol of John’s power to demand at his pleasure conjugal relations with his wife a scenario that would likely engender and both fear and antipathy in the narrator since she’s already despondent as a consequence of the pregnancy that resulted in the birth of her son”(Knight 80). This brilliant take adds a new layer to the discussion.  If it’s true that she was coerced by her husband, it would make sense that she fears him. It would also explain her  passiveness around him. She fears what he might do if he gets angry enough.  This theory would also explain why she has so much pent up rage, which she releases at the end of the story by destroying the bedroom that he confined her to.

To write off the narrator’s concerning behavior as “a deliberate act of rebellion-an expression of the tremendous rage she feels towards her husband”, as suggested by Denise D. Night in her published critique of “The Yellow Paper”, seems a bit unrealistic. Knowing what we know about postpartum psychosis it is very likely that the behaviors were directly linked to her mental state/ clinical insanity. “Postpartum psychosis, an extreme exacerbate of postpartum depression,is characterized by an inability to concentrate insomnia, significant weight gain or loss, confusion, mania, obsessive thoughts, delusions…[and] spontaneous crying is also common… (Pasco 90).  The issue wasn’t that she had a mental disorder, because that was beyond her control, despite her husband telling her otherwise as a way to manipulate her. How she was treated following her diagnosis, was where the real issues began. Her husband locked  her in a room and forbade from her participating in any sort of mind engaging activity, which obviously upset the narrator. When she tried to discuss her emotions with her husband she was denied a voice. Between the lack of human interaction, physical activity and the lack of sleep, she was bound to have a psychotic break. 

Knight  raised a valid point in that the narrator felt a tremendous rage towards her husband. Being taken away from her child and her former life to be locked away in rooms with barred windows with little to know explanation is enough to make anyone’s sanity suffer. While the narrator’s behavior at the end of the story is of major concern it is important to consider other factors in her demise. Some may argue that John’s behavior was not domestic abuse, but misunderstanding of the condition, but if his mannerisms and actions as described by the narrator are carefully examined, it becomes clear that his mistreatment was in fact intentional, therefore classified as domestic abuse.