The Yellow Wallpaper
2018 Reprint of 1892 Edition. This short story is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's health, both physical and mental. Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Forgoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment, the unnamed woman is forbidden from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air, so she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency", a diagnosis common to women in that period. Gilman used her writing to explore the role of women in America at the time. She explored issues such as the lack of a life outside the home and the oppressive forces of the patriarchal society. Through her work Gilman paved the way for writers such as Alice Walker and Sylvia Plath.
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Community Reviews
There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.
In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator, who has been confined to strict rest to cure her "nervousness", finds herself obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room. First time reading this tale and I understand why it is such a well known and liked classic. You can really feel the frustration of the narrator as well as the crisis they're going through. It's also quite easy to understand the themes of this tale wiithout being spoon feed by the author. I felt so frustrated with how the narrator was treated by the men around her, it's awful when you learn that the same thing happened to the author. This one is a 5/5 for me.
The edition also contains two other stories by the same author. In The Rocking Chair a pair of friends rent rooms in a house after witnessing a mysterious young woman in one of the windows sitting in a rocking chair. The friends are haunted by this apparition that they only get small glimpses of, putting a strain on their relationship. I did not care much for this one to be honest, it wasn't bad just not something I enjoyed. 3.5/5
The last tale is Old Water. In it a poet grows obsessed with the daughter of a friend and tries to persue her to no avail. This one stressed me out. I think any woman has come across men like this poet and been persued simply for existing. I really liked the ending of this one. 4/5
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