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| "One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin." |
The Yellow Wallpaper is a story of illness - the kind of illness that takes hold of the mind and shakes it about until one's sanity has been torn to pieces. Although this idea is indimidating enough, even more so is the fact that such illness can progress incredibly quickly without the victim even realizing what's happening. The narrator of this tale, a woman suffering from an unspecified kind of depression or hysteria, never becomes truly aware of her situation; as the story progresses, she appears to recover from her original symptoms, but the wallpaper of her bedroom drives her mad in an altogether more frightening and uncontrollable way.
Gilman makes use of the fact that the narrator is "writing" this story as some sort of diary, and alters the syntax to show the narrator's current state of mind. For instance, the first few pages are filled with fluid, elegantly-constructed sentences, describing the wallpaper as "dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study" and using terms like "congenial" and "romantic felicity" (316). However, by the end of the story, her writing style has degenerated into sentences like "This bedstead is fairly gnawed!" and "But I must get to work" (327). Her sentences are now short and choppy, utilizing simpler vocabulary - seeming more like random observances about her surroundings than coherent trains of thought, and clearly showing her deteriorating mental health. Taken into context with the fact that she "[bites] off a little piece at one corner" (327) of the bed and "[keeps] on creeping" (328) around and around the room despite being aware of her husband's alarm, it's obvious that a summer trip out to the country has done far more harm than good for this woman.
Works Cited:
Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011. Print.
Photograph of a Woman Examining Yellow Wallpaper. “Jake’s Take on ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” Jake’s Take. Web. 12 Sept. 2012.
I did not notice that the language disintegrates throughout the text. Thank you for that perspective, it's given me a greater appreciation for the story. Reminds me how important it is to not only pay attention to the substance of a story, but also the syntax. You probably agree with me that this story would not be as compelling if it wasn't written as a diary. The author would no longer have a chance to literally show some sort of "madness" develop though their character's word choices.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator never is aware of her own state of mind. She knows something is wrong with her but the distant interactions she gets from John and Jane prevents her from speaking up. She is isolated in a house and forbidden to do anything but rest. Not having anyone to talk to is one of the reasons why I think the narrator started obsessing over the wallpaper. She is always in the bedroom and ventures from hating the wallpaper to being intrigued but it. I also noticed how her journal entries took on a different tone/approach towards the end of the story where she loses her mind. Her thoughts and writing both become sporadic.
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