Although Gilman leaves us with a somewhat ambiguous ending, I
would argue that the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is absolutely Jane: a
woman with an overbearing husband, possibly postpartum depression, and most
definitely schizophrenia.
The clearest
evidence of her schizophrenia appears at the very end when the narrator exclaims,
“I've got out at last…in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the
paper, so you can't put me back!” (Gilman 10). We had discussed in class the
possibility of Jane having Dissociative Identity Disorder (commonly known as
split personality), however, Ms. Bumgarner’s point that she does not switch
back and forth got me thinking. First of all, the ending clearly supports the
idea that the narrator (Jane in this case) had schizophrenia and suddenly broke
from reality and “became” the woman in the wallpaper. More than that, though,
several of the narrator’s nervous behaviors throughout the short story could
also be explained by schizophrenia. For example, towards the middle of the
story, Jane begins to get paranoid that her husband and Jeannie are acting
weird and hiding things from her.
“I have watched John when he did not know I
was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and
I've caught him several times looking at the paper! And Jennie too. I caught Jennie
with her hand on it once. She didn't know I was in the room, and when I asked
her in a quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner possible,
what she was doing with the paper - she turned around as if she had been caught
stealing, and looked quite angry” (Gilman 7).
This type of
suspicious and paranoid behavior is very characteristic of schizophrenic
individuals. They are so caught up in their delusional world that they often
cannot tell the difference between the two, or, in Jane’s case, believe that
those around them are also absorbed in this world.
Another
interesting factor that points to the idea that the narrator is Jane with
schizophrenia is the way in which she seems to suddenly transform from a fairly
sane person (possibly stricken with depression, postpartum or otherwise) into a
delusional, creeping woman who tears up the walls (and possibly kills her
husband?). Oftentimes, people with schizophrenia in their family will go a
majority of their lives without experiencing signs of inheriting the disease until
around their mid-twenties. We can assume that the narrator is in her early to
mid-twenties due to the fact that she is a woman in the 19th century
who just had her first child, thus putting her psychotic break at approximately
the perfect time to suggest schizophrenia. Her age combined with the torture of
the resting cure that would drive anyone at least a little insane was the
perfect formula for a schizophrenic break from reality.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The
Yellow Wallpaper. N.p., n.d. United States Library of Medicine.
Web. 11 Mar.
2015.
Great post, though I'd like to humbly suggest "The Perfect Time For Schizophrenia" as an alternate title.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, that's a very insightful point--all the more so when we take Perkins-Giman's own experience into account. She's alive in this age in which her options include: get married and had a kid, or fail at life. She TRIED option A, but it was fundamentally not for her, and of course, given that, the attempt backfires (accompanied, as marriage and having one's first child of necessity are, by a lot of fear and stress).
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! You give great text and background support to backup your claim. I completely agree with you that Jane does have schizophrenia. I think her mental state was less severe with her only suffering from postpartum depression, but her condition later morphed into schizophrenia after being isolated in the room for a long period of time. Jane begins to confuse reality and her own delusions and finally gives in to her delusion by becoming part of it.
Very good point Laura. I had not previously considered the possibility of Jane having schizophrenia. I was really convinced when you compared her age to that of most schizophrenia patients. Have other critics considered this notion within the literary or psychological community?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with your claim, I also think that the disease represented in "The Yellow Wallpaper" was not meant to be diagnosed exactly. Gilman gave Jane an intentionally vague illness to capture a more universal meaning: sick women were treated like Jane regardless of what disease they had. Thus, I think the "cure" rather than the condition holds more importance in this short story.