In this short narrative, Gilmans chief character is isolated about three stat mis off from a nearby small town. She is to remain in an upstairs baby’s room of an old colonial sign of the zodiac. The Windowss are barred and the walls covered in a xanthous wallpaper that is melting dramatically. The narrative negotiations about how the wallpaper in the baby’s room has sprawling forms and commits artistic wickednesss. The wallpaper in this room reduces a really artistic adult female to a animal. Every spot of her saneness and humanity is stripped from her, and she is fundamentally left creeping on all-fours in circuits around the room. This is the ground feminist critic Elaine Hedges wrote in 1973 that the “ paper symbolizes her state of affairs as seen by the work forces who control her and hence her state of affairs as seen by herself ” ( Afterwood 51 ) . Gilman ‘s narrative became a women’s rightist text that purportedly showed that the work forces were the 1s to fault for the chief character ‘s physical and mental death, though this is a extremely argued statement. Whether it is the work forces ‘s mistakes or non, it is obvious that she is losing her head.
Throughout the narrative, the storyteller sees things that she truly takes a monstrous involvement in. At one point in the narrative, she claims to see eyes that are unblinking in the wallpaper. This leads her to believe that there is doubtless something behind the paper. This fright of what lies behind the eyes of the paper is what consumes and presses her ultimately to her lunacy. She ca n’t assist but to believe to herself that she merely wants the top form to be torn off of the under one. This can perchance be related to how the writer merely wanted to be able to come out of her shell. She wanted to acquire out of the room that the physician had her staying in. She did n’t desire to be caged like an animate being. Whatever the writer was seeking to state through this narrative, there is no uncertainty that it remains one of the most spectated narratives of the century.
Many critics believe that Charlotte Perkins Gilman must hold at least briefly identified with Charlotte Bronte for Gilman ‘s intervention of a few parts of her narrative. It has great resemblance to Bronte ‘s intervention of the exact same elements in Jane Eyre. The xanthous room from Gilman ‘s narrative parallels Bronte ‘s ruddy room: Both are really big suites located in upper parts of a house ; a monolithic bed being the chief focal point of both narratives ; and the resistless colour of each constantly alters as assorted visible radiations play upon it.
Possibly a more noticeable analogue is the similarity between John Reed from Bronte ‘s narrative and Gilman ‘s John. John Reed is the more evidently oppressive. Gilman ‘s John is overbearing and unwittingly barbarous, although he presents himself as a lovingness and loving hubby. Gilman ‘s John insists that his married woman and ward follow his prescription to rest for the encephalon and organic structure. At the same clip, Bronte ‘s John Reed orders Jane Eyre, his ward, to be imprisoned in a ruddy room against her will. Each adult male acts as if he is an important male parent figure to the storytellers of both narratives. Gilman was clearly seeking to give her readers a message of how she felt with her ain personal life.
On August 17, 1935, Gilman committed self-destruction by imbibing trichloromethane. Gilman ‘s self-destruction represented far more than merely the self-inflicted decease by a terminally sick old adult female. It was more of the climaxing act in a lifetime contemplation about decease and deceasing. Many believe that stoping her ain life represented Gilman ‘s concluding entreaty to society to change its sentiment of non merely suicide, but of mercy killing, cremation, and traditional funeral services. She viewed these as a waste of clip. Gilman hoped that her actions would talk louder than the words she had said through her literature. She expressed what she hoped her self-destruction would carry through to Lyman Stowe: “ Doctor now says six months. . . and I say likely less. Katharine [ her girl ] instead dreads my ‘self-help, ‘ but I think it a existent responsibility. For a nice individual of some standing to protest against our inhumane absurdnesss ought to bestir serious treatment and promote alteration of idea. ” ( Gilman Papers ) . Her decease, like all of her life ‘s work, was meant to be informative.
Whether readers are looking for a piece of literature to read to go through clip, or critics are desiring a good narrative to analyse, there is no uncertainty that Gilman ‘s narrative is a must read. There are so many things to happen in this narrative. Not merely is at that place a nexus to the writer ‘s personal jobs, but there are analogues to other narratives by wholly different writers that many believe influenced her. No affair what one is peculiarly looking for there is ever something to acquire from Gilman and her work.