"The Yellow Wallpaper": Breaking Free from Patriarchal Structures
Individuals worldwide seek self-fulfillment on a daily basis, in hopes to live a life well lived, a life that is satisfying, enjoyable, and worthwhile. Self-fulfillment is the fulfillment of one’s hopes and ambitions, the striving of this is what helps guide people's lives, and direct them down the road they want to go in life. Self-fulfillment can include being wealthy, remembered, respected, loved, a hero, as well as being happy with life. It can help to allow individuals achieve greatness in life, allow them to have the necessities they need, and the luxuries they want. However, self-fulfillment can also have a negative impact. It can cause an individual to become self-centred, materialistic, greedy, and mentally exhausted or hurt. It can also cause one to drift away from there family or drift away from common shared ideologies.
In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she illustrates how the pursuit of self-fulfillment can be potentially harmful for one and their mental state. She depicts in her writing how the protagonist, (Jane-Doe), strives constantly for self-fulfillment but cannot seem to achieve it, which begins to take a great toll on the mental-state of the protagonist. In the early stages of the story, Jane and her husband, John, visit the house they have rented for the summer. It is a rather large and exquisite estate. Although it gives off eerie and creepy vibes to Jane, the only things she dislikes about it is the rundown greenhouse, and the yellow wallpaper in her room, which she despises. She tells her husband and he blows it off, just thinking she is exaggerating because of her “illness”. Jane suffers from postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression is a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth, it can result in immense sadness, low energy, anxiety, crying, and irritability. Jane’s husband, John, is a well-respected physician in the community and looks down upon Jane and her illness. He believes it is not as serious as she says, and that she just needs to rest and it will go away. She is required to stay in the room with everything she will need to get rest and to “get better. ” She is restricted from doing anything besides rest. No walking, no writing, and no helping around the house, no visitors that might cause stress, and no seeing the baby. Jane constantly feels oppressed because of this, and desires to become more of what she can be in life and to break free from John’s oppression so she is able to secure the satisfaction of self-fulfillment. Jane desires to be a writer, and write freely about her feelings without any negativity towards her. However, Jane seems nervous and passive in her attempts to gain the satisfaction of self-fulfillment, it is shown when she says “I did write for a while…. but it does exhaust me a good deal – having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition. ”
The author shows in this that when Jane secretly writes in her journal, it proves to only make things worse for her by causing her unneeded stress and fear, which directly affects her mental state.
Throughout the entirety of the story, John is shown to be constantly pursuing his “Alpha-Male” role, while he keeps the protagonist in a omega role. This can be connected directly to the behavioral patterns of wolves. The Alpha wolf usually controls the activities of the other wolves in the pack; just like John does to his wife. The Omega wolf is the male or female at the bottom of the packs’ “hierarchy. ” The Omega is often seen to be the scapegoat for the other wolves and generally submits to the following and orders of others. Jane is treated as the Omega wolf of the family, while John maintains his role of dominance over her as the Alpha. As a result, the idea is forced into her head that she does not have the ability to make her own decisions, and that she is trapped in her role as the Omega. Jane still does not in anyway feel self-fulfilled in her domestic role of wife and mother. She is constantly being watched and controlled by John, which is commonly shown throughout the story, an example being when she says “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. ” This quote also ties back into the feeling the protagonist has that she is unable to make her own decisions, it is visible that John is in complete control of nearly all aspects of her life. She begins to become hopeless that her self-fulfilment will ever be achieved, especially with John in her life. Jane is mentally exhausted at this point and continues to emotional spiral downwards.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s protagonist can be described now as mentally weakened and fragile. With all that time she must spend in her room, and nothing to do, she seeks to find something to do. The protagonist begins to grow an increasing interest for the yellow wallpaper she hated prior. She begins to see the patterns within the wallpaper. The protagonist describes it as “a woman stooping down and creeping around behind that pattern. ” Jane becomes captivated by the women in the wallpaper, she loses grip of all hope of self-fulfilment and forgets that she wants to be the perfect wife and mother. She envisions the woman in the wallpaper as one much like her self, trapped and oppressed by a man, restricted from self-fulfilment. Jane now is more interested by the wallpaper during the night, so she starts to sleep during the days. She believes the woman is alive at night and is trying to break free. “I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden. I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines. ” Jane soon starts to disregard John and not seek his approval for decision making anymore. She began a transformation and started standing up to John, not allowing him to command her anymore, she started to take control of the role her husband previously had. Jane started to achieve her self-fulfilment, as well as discover her true self, while John was away, she locked the door and began to peel off the wallpaper.
The protagonist then began creeping around the room, just like the woman in the wallpaper. John later returned home and frantically tried to open the door. Once he gained entry and saw what Jane had done, he fainted. She then proceeded to creep over John to continue peeling the paint. The author added the addition of Jane creeping over John because it symbolizes that she had achieved self-fulfilment, and got back control of her own life. In conclusion, Jane achieved self-fulfilment, which she had struggled with getting prior. She was controlled by her husband, but then rebelled against her oppressor, gained control and realized her opportunities for her own decision making and growth.
The author depicts how Jane went from being mentally exhausted, and in a not-right state of mind because of the lack of self-fulfilment she had, to overcoming her husband and reaching peace, and happiness in life. As well as her main goal, self-fulfilment. Although the pursial of self-fulfilment took a great toll on the mental-state of the protagonist initially, it proved to pay off in the end when she broke free from her oppression, and finally achieved her main goal, self-fulfilment.
