Short Story Review – The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 34 pages
Publisher: Wisehouse Classics
Release Date: January 31, 2016
ISBN-13 : 978-9176372289
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4/5 stars

“THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is a story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It 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. Foregoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment she 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. She hides her journal from her husband and his sister the housekeeper, fearful of being reproached for overworking herself. The room’s windows are barred to prevent children from climbing through them, and there is a gate across the top of the stairs, though she and her husband have access to the rest of the house and its adjoining estate.

The story depicts the effect of under-stimulation on the narrator’s mental health and her descent into psychosis. With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper. “It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper – the smell! … The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone short story that I bought for Kindle.

Story (4/5): This is a rather short story about a young woman suffering from postpartum depression who is told to take rest in a room with yellow wallpaper in a house that her husband rents for the summer for her recovery. It was well written and stands the test of time well, I enjoyed the tone to it but it is sad as well.

This poor young woman who is in deep depression is left to her own mind and not supposed to do anything to help her recovery, which she knows is the wrong thing to do given her mental state. However, her husband and other male doctors know better. Her seclusion and isolation leads to her obsession with the wallpaper and eventual mental collapse.

Characters (4/5): I enjoyed the main character a lot and really felt for her. Someone else is taking care of her baby (as was common for the time) and her friends and family are asked not to visit because it is too stimulating. She tries to follow the advice of her husband (who is also a doctor) but feels like if only she could do something, anything it would help her pull out of her depression.

Even writing in a journal is considered too stressful for her. I can’t even imagine going through postpartum depression and having no one to talk to and nothing to do but sit in your own mind day after day, hour after hour. The surrounding characters aren’t outwardly cruel, they are just ignorant and following the advice of the times. However, their ignorance made me cringe and it was even worse because a lot of women’s issues are still brushed under the rug even today.

Setting (4/5): The whole story takes place at a rural country estate. Most of the story focuses on the bedroom the young woman and her husband stay in and the ugly dilapidated wallpaper that the room is covered in.

Writing Style (4/5): I actually liked this a lot. The writing style was easy to read, had a very light ironic tone to it that I enjoyed. This does seem very ahead of its time and is a good addition to classic literature that talks about women’s rights and health. I have read a number of books about how women of this time were treated when they showed “mental instability” and it’s absolutely fascinating, upsetting and atrocious. I am so glad that some of Gilman’s works are gaining more notoriary.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this is a very well done short story and has a big impact for the small page space it takes up. I found it to be an entertaining, fascinating, and sad read about the state of women’s health in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. Sadly a lot of these issues around things like postpartum depression are still not taken seriously by many people even today. Would recommend this, it’s an easy and quick read and is well done. I also really enjoyed the short preface that gives an overview of Gilman’s life and her written works.