Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
As recorded on Librivox, 28 mins long

Our narrator is a woman who has recently moved to a summer rental in hopes of "curing" her of a malady her husband, a physician, is not convinced she has as there are no physical manifestations.  His prescribed for her "nervous depression" is to cease all physical exertions, including writing.  Once they arrive at the house she is almost entirely limited to time spent in what she determines must have been a nursery.  She is convinced that she might do better if she were allowed to work and have more freedom.  Instead she does manage to keep a journal, chronicling her thoughts which more and more begin to be about the yellow wallpaper in the room which she initially finds "revolting."  Eventually she becomes convinced that there is a woman caught behind the "bar" of the wallpaper and that she must set the woman free by tearing off the wallpaper.

I was first introduced to this story by Care of Care's Online Book Club (her review here).  She was clever enough to get me very intrigued but didn't tell me enough to have any idea what the story was about. So - wow!  Apparently when Care was substitute teaching they talked about this story and some of the kids said it was boring.  Boring?  First of all, how can you get bored by something that is only 80 pages (or 28 minutes) long?  Maybe it just went by them so quickly that they weren't picking up on what was happening and so thought that nothing much had happened.

What did happen to our increasingly unreliable narrator?  She mentions a baby a couple of times; perhaps she was suffering from post-partum depression or psychosis, something that people of the time (this was written in 1892) would not have been familiar with.  Or perhaps the entire story is a feminist statement about a woman's need to escape from the bars of her life.  I'm still not entirely sure what happened in the story but I do know that it was fun to be able to get on to Twitter after I listened to it and talk to Goodreads friends about their thoughts.

This is just the kind of short story to make me understand why some people love them so much.  This story was included in a volume of short stories on Librivox.  I'm eager to try some of the others now.  What short stories might you recommend?

13 comments:

  1. Oh I LOVE this! The Yellow Wallpaper is probably my favorite short story of all time. The last line gives me chills no matter how many times I read it. There is a fascinating exchange between the author and a Dr. "critic" that is often published in accompaniment with this story. I am a big fan of many of Gilman's shorts.
    Another great short story favorite is Kate Chopin. "The Awakening" still moves me even after several readings and "A Pair of Silk Stockings" is another short that I really love.

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  2. We read this in high school, and I think people just didn't quite get what was going on and didn't really react to the creepiness as much. It gave me the chills though -- I bet it is great on audio.

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  3. We had to do group projects in my college American Lit class about 6 years ago and we chose this story. It is an excellent story and successfully illustrates how women were treated in that era. Pure genius actually!

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  4. I have read this short story and at that time I was pregnant. It was clear at that time that the unreliable narrator was suffering from postpartum depression.
    At that point of time, I found it difficult because of the subject, but I really found it engaging and interesting.

    I think I would definitely recommend "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J. D. Salinger"

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  5. I would like to read this as well as the story sounds very interesting.

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  6. This short story is listed in nearly every anthology that I have picked up - and I know it is on several high schools' "required" reading lists. I, however, have yet to read it, but that will now change after your review. Thanks so much!

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  7. I have this on my TBR list. I'm so glad you liked it, becuase now I'm really looking forward to reading it. I love that something so short can lead to such a great discussion - definitely means that the writing is good! That is so cool you were able to tweet about it afterward and discuss it.

    I agree with Gypsea Tree about Chopin - amazing short stories! And there is also Jean Rhys, Murakami, Vonnegut, Jhumpa Lahiri and so many other amazing short story writers. Its definitely a genre that should be explored more.

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  8. What an interesting book - I haven't heard of this one. I love a good short story every now and again, too.

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  9. They're not as long as this, but Hemingway was an amazing short story writer and I'd recommend any of his short stories and Salinger's Nine Stories is also pretty good.

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  10. I have been wanting to read this for ages, and have read several great reviews of it. It sounds like it's masterfully psychological and that it really has a lot of impact. I am going to have to over and check out Librivox now!

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  11. I absolutely loved this and wrote a 6 page paper about it!!

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  12. I saw your tweet yesterday? about listening to this and am glad to see you got the recording off librivox! I'm one of those who had to read this at a young age and found it a little boring. I've read it a few times since in various English classes but am in need for a revisit.

    Glad you liked it Lisa!

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