A Freudian Understanding of The Yellow Wallpaper (but is it all a lie????)

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s mind ought to be studied for her ability to conceal layers on layers of criticism under the flawless cover of simplicity is remarkable. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1890) has only recently been recognised as the mini masterpiece that it is, only becoming iconic 50 odd years ago- almost a whole century after its release (talk about late to the hype…). The notions she embedded were well ahead of her time, and they remained hidden in plain sight, until the rest of the world caught up to her speed, an  icon even after death. Her narrative describes the rapid descent of a female persona into a state of insanity, catalysed by her physician husband’s prescription of the infamous rest cure (aka the stop-being-dramatic-sweetheart cure), consisting of bed rest, isolation and the forbiddance of mental exertion. TYP is heavily inspired by Gilman’s own life, in which her experience with rest cure led her till the point of attempted suicide. Hence it is no surprise that this anecdotal piece, written 3 short years later, was efficacious in its contribution to the recognition that rest cure is a form (possibly one of the most destructive ones) of medical misogyny.

Gilman presents a crystal-clear message: the rest cure CAUSES the illnesses it supposedly cures. A psychoanalytical reading of TYP (feat. Sigmund Freud), illustrates how this treatment promotes the development of neurosis and other mental disorders. With reference to 3 Freudian theories, we observe:

 

1.   Firstly, How the repression of an internal impulse leads to neurosis, which then causes regression to childlike behaviours.

2.   Secondly, the Double; an alternate form of self  that embodies the repressed parts of an individual, which in TYP eventually merges with persona.

And if you stick around, there’s a hot take at the end… so stick around!!

In Freudian theory, personality has three parts: the id (pleasure principle, raw desire), the superego (morality principle, shaped by external standards), and the ego (reality principle, mediator between id and superego). The ego’s strength determines mental stability.

Repression, Regression, and all things Depresssing:

Gilman’s choice to write this piece in the first person provides us with a personal outlook on the persona’s mental evolution, over the 3 months she stayed in an abnormally cheap mansion. From the beginning we see persona is already in acceptance of her helplessness (though not okay with it). She reluctantly confesses she believes she would get well faster without John, though she would not dare tell this to ‘a living soul’, for she is aware that if ‘a physician of high standing assures [others] there is nothing really the matter’ but ‘temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency’, then her opinion is as good as dirt.  She has a likeminded physician for a brother, and Gilman’s choice to have two characters representing the same traits strengthens the power division being established; a 2 vs 1, where our girl never stood a chance at being heard. The persona is voiceless in her own treatment, evident as she repeats ‘what is one to do ?’ thrice in the opening paragraphs alone, like some hopeless motto of sorts. Typical to the restrictive nature of rest cure, the persona is forbidden from the only emotional outlet she has, writing, regardless of her belief that ‘congenial work, with excitement and change would do [her] some good.’

Freud theorised that the repression of an internal impulse by ego is a defence mechanism which is a causative of neurosis. This explains the personas behaviour, where persona is taught her internal impulse to express herself through writing is simply unacceptable. This prompts the conflict of her id and superego; her id yearns for emotional expression, whilst her superego is taught by John to do nothing of the sort. The ego is torn, incapable of finding a compromise, and resorts to the unconscious repression of this desire. As she increasingly limits this outlet, her mental decline progresses. Freud said ‘unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways’, which indeed is the result depicted in TYP, where this seed of repressed self-expression develops into the tree which grows the fruits of insanity and neurosis.

Furthermore, as her neurosis worsens, persona has an increase in childlike behaviours, evident when she seems to lose her grip on reality whilst pondering how the strange mark that runs round her room would’ve been formed; ‘round and round and round and round – round and round and round – it makes me dizzy!’. Her excessive repetition mirrors the simple and undeveloped mind of a child, as well as the playful expression of being ‘dizzy’. This response can be described by another Freudian theory; regression to childlike patterns of behaviour is a defence mechanism. This defence is against the internal conflict between the id and superego, and it is observed as an unconscious shift, facilitated by persona’s ego, as it attempts to juggle both the regulation of ids desires, and superegos taught standards. Hence, ego resorts to a mental state with reduced anxiety, associated to feelings of comfort: the mental state of a child.

The Double- You is I and I is you:

 Throughout the story, persona increasingly fixates on a disfigured woman trapped behind the wallpaper’s pattern, a figure that evolves from ‘a strange provoking formless sort of figure, that seems to sulk’, to ‘a woman stopping down and creeping about behind the pattern’, to ‘a great many women behind, who crawls fast’. As her mental state deteriorates, her perception of the figure becomes more specific, whilst her emotional response becomes more muted. Initially, when she perceives it, she is insistent on leaving the room though John will not allow it, but by the end, she is calmer as she describes multiple women, who freely ‘creep’ around, seemingly desensitised. The visual of a ‘creeping’ lady is uncanny, and while readers discomfort increases, personas reality blurs, as she believes she too is an escaped woman from the paper, wondering ‘if they all came out of that wallpaper as [she] did.’

In TYP, the woman trapped in the wallpaper serves as the personas Freudian double; an alternate form of herself, which embodies what she represses, in internal conflict; her desire for emotional expression through her writing, supressed by rest cure treatment. So, as she increasingly identifies with this double, there is a symbolic collapse of the boundary between her conscious, and the unconscious that contains all she suppresses. Once again, the ‘unexpressed emotions, come forth later in uglier ways’, is clearly demonstrated, as she descends into madness.

 

Hot take coming right up....

Okay SO here’s an additional point to consider; though Freuds theories do accurately explain the dynamics depicted in the story, perhaps it’s a subconscious manifestation. Perhaps Freud is not too different from the male perpetrators of the story- being oblivious to his demeaning contribution to a system that forces subjects to fit the narrative, such that the persona may be perceived as instable female through a Freudian lens, but Gilman’s suggests her response is a rational response to an irrational system.

When we reconsider the previous points, it can be noted that personas developing neurosis is not necessarily because of her repression of expression, but because of the heavy opposition she faces from her all-knowing male counterparts, when she tries to entertain herself in the only way she can, as she confesses ‘it does exhaust [her], having to be so sly about it [reading], or else meet with heavy opposition.’

Likewise, maybe her childlike behaviour is not solely due to the neurosis caused by her repression, but perhaps a submission to the expectations of John in her weakened mental state. Even when she was sane, John referred to her with silly little nicknames like ‘little girl’ and ‘blessed little goose’, so it is plausible to consider that her mental degradation simply opened the opportunity for his ever-present infantilisation to pierce into her personal perception, prompting her childlike behaviours, and hence creating a positive feedback loop, of infantilisation.

I don’t deny that there is most definitely strong Freudian theories in practice embedded in TYP, but I simply present you with some food for thought; Freud himself admitted his ‘understanding of women was inadequate’, so his lack of consideration of the prewritten narrative for the lives of women, is explainable. Women are pressured into these narratives always, but in times of mental weakness it is amplified, such that it does have significant effect, which Freudian theories do not consider.

 

 

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