Self—loss and Self—salvation of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is a distinguished piece about self-loss and self-salvation of women， based on the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilmans own experiences with postpartum depression. The nameless woman in this story was closet in a room decorated with yellow wallpaper by her husband only to treat her mental illness. At the end of the story， she finds there is a woman in the paper and she totally goes insane. At the beginning of the story， “a colonial mansion， a hereditary estate” hints that women are subordinate to men in society of patriarchy and they had the feeling of inferiority under the political， economic and cultural relegation and repression. Women live according to others willingness and requirement without thinking about what they really want and what they really want to pursue. Different from the objectivity in others eyes， self- identity stresses self- control and self- cognition and it explores internal needs and desires of human beings. In patriarchal society， women must follow men s will and arrangements， including their father， husband， even their brother and son.

When the woman sees the yellow wallpaper at first time， she detests the paper very much. She advises her husband to take off the paper but fails. She tries to control her will to check the tendency and she gradually finds “there is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.” The yellow wallpaper gradually becomes the source of sin and the woman loses her identity without doing anything when she is alone except a paper in the room. Her condition is getting worse and she cries most of the time. The only thing she can do is to keep calm， keep observing and keep thinking. Influenced by the circumstances around her and under the high pressure of her husband， she comes into the course of self- loss. She becomes increasingly confused and wretched and she gradually loses the direction of her life.

Does she totally give up the hope to look for the true self or find her identity？As far as Im concerned， facing the impediment， she doesn t shrink back. The way she expresses the anger is to be quiet， to be mad in others eyes. Her life is becoming the world of exploring self-enclosure， inspired by the initially queer yellow wallpaper. She is so determined that she is the only woman to find the mystery of the paper， which signifies that she is the only one to get trapped in the difficulties and the misunderstandings. Quite a few women are facing the trouble about discovering the identity of themselves. Similar to the woman in the yellow wallpaper， the confessional poet Sylvia Plath expresses her dissatisfaction from the perspective of unpriviledged women. Unluckily， Plath was also clinically depressed for most of her adult life and she died by suicide in 1963. In the story the yellow wallpaper， the creeping woman in the paper symbolizes the true self. She wants to escape from the small room， from the control of her thoughtful and considerate husband and from the constraint of social rules towards women. The creeping is the searching of herself， as she says in the end “Ive got out at last.” The crawling woman in fantasy illusion truly becomes herself in reality.

The pimping and subordinate status both in their family and in society is extremely detrimental to their mental， emotional or even physical well-being， which makes them become depressive， repressive， oppressive and even suffocative. Under the inferior and passive circumstances， numerous females are trapped in a way about how to get out from the adelomorphic cages successfully. The nameless crazy woman searches for her identity and shows her rebellion and anger in this radical and queer way and maybe for her， this is the only way to win back a true self.

References：

[1]Owens，E.Suzanne.“The Ghostly Double behind the Wallpaper in Charlotte Perkins Gilman s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.” in Haunting the House of Fiction：Feminist Perspectives on Ghost Stories by American Women.University of Tennessee Press，1991.pp.64-79.

作者簡介：田甜（1992.2-），女，漢族，河北人，中央民族大學外國語學院，2016級碩士研究生在讀，研究方向：比較文學與世界文學。