"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?”
ummm, well, confinement on the 3rd floor of an old mansion ~ in what was once a childrens nursery ~ with bars on the windows and torn yellow wallpaper sounds like just the ticket to good health, doesn't it? NOT!
Holy cow. When I think women haven't come far enough, this piece of chilling literature makes it seem like we've reached the pinnacle. I cannot imagine why anyone would think a world devoid of stimulation was the answer to hysteria (whatever that is?)
When the description of the wallpaper first came up, my first thought was that someone had hung it wrong. The more the narrator perseverated on it, the more I realized she was deteriorating mentally for lack of anything else to do. and rapidly too since the mansion was only rented for the summer! That was quick. I want to hate her husband, that lauded, esteemed physician, for leaving her alone all day long and even quite a few evenings. I think being in the Covid pandemic has shown all of us how difficult it is to be in isolation and we have many more tools available to us to reach out than this woman did. This woman knew better than her husband how to help herself ~ she suggests taking one of the downstairs rooms, that was more appealing in every way and more connected to outside life. She wants to visit her Uncle and his wife. All of these things better choices.
Of course I wanted to dissect it & analyze how she saw a face and then a girl and then multiple women behind bars in the wallpaper. I could understand where the bars came from that she thought were imprisoning the girl. The moonlight shining thru the actual bars on the nursery windows created that effect and I'm actually wondering if the face behind the bars was a projection on her part (of herself) since she felt trapped in that lifeless existence?? This would be a great book to discuss!
I read that the author herself was subjected to this kind of treatment and realized it almost caused her to have a complete mental breakdown which was the purpose behind penning the book. I hope it did contribute to changes in treatment. Men definitely had complete control of their wives until not that many years ago (in the scope of time.) It's absolutely frightening to think how many women, over the course of history, were put "away" in this manner or worse. No doubt when her husband recovered from his faint, he immediately hauled his wife to a sanitorium.
This book is a classic which makes it difficult for me to give it only two stars. I really couldn't "like" it or find it "amazing" tho. It's seriously disturbing literature and very disjointing to read. Maybe it deserves higher marks for the visceral reactions it elicits?? I'm happy to have an awareness of this work but I'm not sure I feel better for it??
