When I first read The Yellow Wallpaper, I didn’t perceive Gilman’s writing as a piece that was advocating change. Although Mandy’s lead respondent activity certainly made me rethink some of the motives of her writing, I still don’t necessarily believe that Gilman was writing a story about liberating women or advocating change. For instance, one of the examples that was brought up in class was the quote, “I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?” (Gilman 365) which was suggested to represent the fact that women were hidden behind the duties of the home and controlled by men. When she finally frees herself from the paper, John faints in front of her and she “had to creep over him every time” (365) which is also supposed to represent that by freeing herself from the paper, she in turn has liberated herself from John. While certainly an interesting perspective on the text, I don’t agree with any of that. How is a story about a woman who kills herself and/or is dead and existing throughout the story as a ghost dealing with women’s liberation? If anything, this is a story about defeat. The dominance of her husband and being in solitary confinement with that wallpaper drove her crazy and she killed herself. I believe that this story is more about the dominance of men over women and not about liberation.
I also don’t agree with some of the other pieces we’ve read this semester that have been ‘written to affect change’. For example, The Yares of Black Mountain although certainly written about the North and South, did not, in my opinion, symbolize the baby as ‘our sick nation’. I personally think that is ludicrous! You can pull anything and see what you want to see from the text, that’s one of the great things about literature, however I personally fail to take the side of these pieces being written to change society.
I disagree that this text did not emphasize the issues women dealt with regarding their rights in the nineteenth century. The room that became her prison was forced upon her by her husband, who was responsible for taking away all of her humanly rights.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't hit me that The Yellow Wallpaper might be advocating change when I read it the first time, either! I didn't think about it until Mandy's presentation, but now that I think about I can see how one could interpret some of the plot that way.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I’m going to have to disagree. All writing affects society. And I would venture to say that every great author is fully aware of his or her power, carefully curbing writing to affect the change they intend. There is no way that Gilman could have written such a perfect criticism of her society accidentally. This story wasn’t an accident in the same way that Catch 22, Candide, Alice in Wonderland, and all other socially critical texts were not accidents.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Bill, i dont believe Gilman would just write this story with out having some sort of purpose, or wanting to make some sort of change.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy your blog though because it gave me a different perspective to look at. I do agree with you on some of the other stories we have read this semester. There were times where i did not see the symbolism and wondered if as readers we take and see what we want to see from the story
I think that every story written by anyone has a purpose. In other words the author had to have a purpose to write whatever he or she was writing right? Otherwise there would be no point to writing anything at all. So, I will say that I also agree with Bill on this one, but I did enjoy reading your blog. Nice job!
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