Escape in The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis Essay

đź“ŚCategory: Literature, The Yellow Wallpaper
đź“ŚWords: 875
đź“ŚPages: 4
đź“ŚPublished: 25 April 2022

“Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”- J.R.R Tolkien “On Fairy-Stories” lecture, 1939.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman born July 3, 1860 was an American novelist best known for her outspoken feminism in the early 1900s. Her most famous work is her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” published in 1892. We read the short story through the perspective of a new mother who is writing in her journal as she and her husband John, who is a physician, move into a new home for the summer. Throughout the short story we see the narrator, Jane face problems such as her mental illness affecting her as a woman as well as being a mother, her husband belittling her and how she sees a woman behind the yellow wallpaper in her new room. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in the form of a diary kept by an allegedly hysterical woman who uses the diary as a means of escape.  For example, here we can see how much of a controlling husband John is. 

“There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word.”(Gilman, 2) This is the last sentence in section one, and we can see how John holds power over her. In her first entry she tells how John had prescribed her a “rest cure” to hopefully help her mental illness. She obeys the rest cure, meaning she's on bed rest with no visitation and she can't do any reading or writing. Jane needs something to occupy her mind as she can’t do anything a wife or mother would typically do; instead she keeps a journal to escape her daily life, as well as her husband. 

“It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work.” (Gilman, 2) The narrator  is saying how it's hard for no one to be there to help and to talk to about her writing. Assuming when she mentions her work, she means her journaling that she does, as she has no other actual job. Jane never mentions her family, and John's mother is the only person who visits there and doesn't live in the house. She is cut off from society and feeling like an outcast with her mental illness so she keeps a journal to help her cope with the loneliness. 

“I don't know why I should write this. I don't want to. I don't feel able”(Gilman, 3) The narrator does not know she keeps writing in her journal, especially about the yellow wallpaper. Even though this is only written in the third section, we can tell the rest treatment is doing her no good. In fact it is most definitely worsening her condition, however she can't do anything about it. She must obey what her husband says, as he is a physician and thinks he knows what is best for her. With nothing else to do, Jane continues to write in her journal, even though she doesn't feel able. She believes this is a way to still feel human, a way to feel normal as being on a rest treatment is dehumanizing. 

“I'm feeling ever so much better! I don't sleep much at night, for it is too interesting in the developments, but I sleep a good deal during the daytime.”(Gilman, 5) The narrator is slowly becoming more and more obsessed with the wallpaper. This is an important part of the middle passages, we see her writing less in her journal and when she does she just talks about the wallpaper. Jane is now finding another way to escape her real life, and it's the wallpaper. She's finding excitement, something she hasn't been having recently. She is now dismissing her mental health, as before she used to try and bring it up to John and tell him that she's still struggling. She is dissociating from her actual life as a way to escape it. 

“I don't like to look out of the window even- there are so many of those creeping women, and they all creep so fast. I wonder if they all came out of the wallpaper the same as I did?” (Gilman, 6) This is a sentence taken out of her last journal entry. The narrator has now fully lost herself in her obsession with the wallpaper. Jane now says “I” when referring to coming out of the wallpaper. In a sentence later on she says “ I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. ‘Ive got us at last,’ said I ‘ in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can't put me back!’ ”(Gilman, 6) She even refers to herself in the third person. Jane has become a complete stranger to herself, not even identifying with her own name. She found herself a new escape, she can be a different person. 

Jane had no other prospects for her life ahead of her, she needed to find a way to be free; and in order for one to be free, one must escape. Jane found her escape in her journal, she would  write about her controlling husband, her mental illness and her encounters with the woman in the yellow wallpaper.  In a song written by Patrick Watson he sings,“ A bad day, looking for a way home/ for the great escape” ( 0:19-0:26).  Jane had finally found her way home after finding her great escape.

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