A Room of Her Own  

 Freud discusses the idea of suppression and how one’s emotions can be the cause of its physical manifestation which is depicted in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story,  “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Without a healthy expression of emotions, a person’s symptoms can worsen which within the story is shown from the narrator’s perspective as she has suppressed her emotions throughout her life and is therefore trapped. She is unable to express or think for herself because of the fact that she is detached and disconnected from society as a whole. Individually, she cannot discern what is right or wrong and develops the conflict of suppression mentally. She indirectly describes how her lack of an emotional channel led to her insanity which can be illustrated through the relationship in her marriage where she does not seem to have a say in any type of key life decisions and is almost always being contradicted by her husband, John. He sincerely believes that he knows what is best for his wife, even though he is only further hindering her condition depicting the struggle between the two gender roles. As a physician who has great knowledge of medicine and who is also a male, he knows the most appropriate treatment for her, however it seems as if he had suppressed her emotions instead of addressing them and examining them from a medical standpoint, which was the cause of her trauma altogether.  

Gilman depicts a marriage in which both the narrator and her husband are trapped within their “assigned gender roles”. The narrator feels uneasy in her home and is slowly losing touch with reality, the outside world and even herself as she slowly realizes the fact that she is trapped and is unable to socialize or express her emotions simply because she has a lack of control within her own household.  “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman, 1). Her overall experience shows her true feelings of suppression in her marriage, as well as within society due to how she slowly loses her sense of reality through the ways that she is being misdiagnosed and misunderstood by her husband, a doctor who seems to be unable to understand her or any women’s psyche of mind. He believes the best treatment for her is confinement and isolation in her room and to simply “rest”. In the nineteenth century, physicians or any other profession in the medical field did not understand how to treat women’s mental health issues. This often led them to misdiagnosis of disorders of these women as just hysteria. Jane Thraikill, an author of many feminist pieces of writing and literature, explains that physicians simply diagnosed “the rest cure” as a way to regain control over a situation that they cannot fully comprehend. People with all types of illnesses keep powerful emotions within themselves instead of “allowing its discharge in the appropriate signs of emotion, words or actions.” (Freud,2207). This idea is later shown in the story through the persona of the narrator, in terms of when she begins to write in her journal and let her emotions out.  

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent feminist, who rejected the idea of a traditional domestic life and clearly showed her stance on a women’s role in society through many of her literary works. She saw the idea of gender roles to be inadequate and unnecessary within a society and is clearly demonstrated in her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” as the narrator is depicted as a symbol for all women in the late 18 and 1900s; a prisoner of a restricted society.  During this period, women were expected to raise children, clean do domestic work and were given little freedoms of their own. Men however were seen to be privileged enough to have their own education, a career and a more dominant role in the family not just as the breadwinner, but the decision maker. The narrator’s mindset simply goes against the idea of a traditional domestic lifestyle, whereas she believes that living a life avoiding any work or excitement will not be helpful or aid her in recovery, but she sadly has the burden of her husband. “…And what can one do?…”, “..What is one to do?…”, “..But what is one to do?..” (Gilman, 1). She exemplifies her suppressed importance in society, asking herself three times what someone in her position were to do. This sense of repetition shows her struggle and incapability to do anything to fix or change her life due to her husband; society and the authority he has over what she is able to and unable to do. The narrator’s writing correlates with this conflict as writing was looked down upon, not acknowledged in her society at that time as a “profession” for women. Due to society’s oppressive nature, the narrator has been unable to write in the presence of other people as she believes that people would view her writing as a reason for her “illness”, therefore leading her to do it on her own secretly.  

Since men were able to suppress women within that era, John is presumed to have control over the narrator. Gilman implies that this idea is a combination of a societal control as well as the woman in the story personal weakness which contributes to the suppression of women. These factors result in the narrator’s inability to make her own decisions and voice hostility to men. It is these pretentious attitudes that Gilman perceives and wishes to fight against, showing the ways that gender roles have a negative effect on both men and women. John is represented through idea of being a rational, and well-respected doctor who is always taken seriously, while the narrator is represented as sentimental, and sensitive, not being taken seriously. The narrator is cautioned by her husband in the ways of being unsupportive or not giving into her imagination and fancies such of writing, “There comes John, and I must put this away, — he hates to have me write a word, he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman, 2). And as Freud states, “…she suppressed any manifestation of her very intense disgust.”(Freud, 2207). The idea of suppression plays a big role as John ultimately believes that if his wife represses her urge of her desires, she will become well again and later take up her role as wife and mother. Unfortunately, the narrator imputes her husband’s advice, “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already” (Gilman,3) acknowledging the thought that following John’s every command would be the correct thing to do considering he is a “professional” physician after all. But it is clear that John does not let his wife think for herself, as happens most of the time when she asks John for anything or tries to tell him anything, he ignores her and calls her names, such as “blessed little goose” and “little girl”. These are names to call a child which is exactly how John treats his wife; like a child.   

John assumes that he knows more than his wife about her condition. By repressing his wife’s wishful impulses and imagination, John later leads her into the exact state that he was trying to avoid. By the conclusion, she discloses and loses her grip on reality as their marriage falls apart, and eventually John loses his wife to madness. Ultimately, if John was not so over confident in his authority as both a doctor and a husband, he would have been able to help his wife. But, if the narrator had not been so willing to follow to John’s commands and wishes and had not make the assumption that her husband was always right, then she would have been able to stand up for herself as well as get the help that she really needed. But this wasn’t the case, “It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (Gilman,6). The narrator believes that it is not a woman’s place to question her husband, and that she assumes he already knows what he is doing, leading her to question herself instead of questioning him. Her condition worsens due to the overconfidence that they both carry in believing that John can be truly trusted to know what is best. In the end, the relationship between husband and wife are lost because they are “trapped” in the idea of fixed gender roles.   

The narrator’s diary becomes a symbol of her rebellion against John’s commands, and the mysterious figure of the woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper becomes a symbol for the ways in which the narrator feels trapped by her role in the family and in society as a whole. The narrator’s urgent desire to free this woman, and to hide her existence from John, leads to her final breakdown, tearing the paper, and “creeping” around the room and over her husband, “It is no use, young man, you can’t open it!  How he does call and pound! Now he’s crying for an axe. It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door! “John dear!” said I in the gentlest voice, “the key is down by the front steps, under a plantain leaf!” (Gilman,11). Perhaps it is shown to be the first time she effectively communicates with John as it was a personal weakness of hers that contributed to the narrator’s suppression; she is finally able to get through to him. In this situation, their roles reversed as John himself fainted in shock at this surprising sight of his wife, while the narrator is now looked upon as a strong defender, finally gaining the control she should have had of her life and becomes her own persona by finally standing up to her husband and society.   

Societal control over what a woman should or should not do and their sense of weakness is a supplement to the suppression of a women by leaving the woman without any say to her personal interests. The narrator’s suppression could be based on the fact that John truly does not listen to her and how her sense of emotions throughout the story show her weakness and support John’s idea about her being weak and in need of control. In the conclusion of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is shown that a woman is not much different from a man, in the sense of being an independent individual. People; whether male or female, need to have their own control of their own lives and decisions.