The artists' yellow wallpaper and Hysteria

The Yellow Wallpaper is a beautifully crafted piece of prose. Unlike many of the other nineteenth century literature that we’ve been exposed to in the class, The yellow wallpaper is the strong prose piece. Although the actual length of the piece is short, especially in comparison to the other works we’ve looked at, it is by far the strongest. The tone of the piece is very thrilling and at times haunting, and the character of Anne is possibly the most compelling woman character we’ve examined. The Gothic narration follows writer Anne, a woman who has moved into a house that her husband- John, a physician- has rented during the summer. As the story begins to unravel the audience becomes well aware that something about Anne is off as she beings to obsess with the yellowing wallpaper in her writing room. Through the wallpaper pattern, Anne sees a woman being smothered, “The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!
 Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.
 Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” and her want to get out mirrors that of Anne who feels trapped in her marriage, the house, and only desires of being liberated form the traditional 19th century social roles. Although it is never expressed directly of her condition, it is safe to assume that Anne is suffering from hysteria, suffering mainly from depression and not being able to write and be as independent as she truly wants. One passage that was very compelling was the opening scene when john and Anne’s brother, both physicians- forbid Anne to write, as they see this passion for art and writing is the trigger to her hysteria. This theme of women not being able to express themselves through their art seems to be a common there- thinking back to Little Women and their lack of pursuing their artistic dreams (all except for Jo of course.) It’s interesting to see how creative people, especially women were perceived in the 19th century, and how passionate women were quickly labeled as being sick because of their passion and zest. Was this a common thing happening in only western cultures? When and where did this concept root from? How well was this accepted among fellow artists? (mainly men…)

Going back to Meghan's post,about whether or not Anne is insane- i honestly don't feel that Anne was crazy. I felt that she was depressed and felt isolated, especially after her husband essentially forbids her to write, or control how much writing she does, and this smothers her even more because it was through her writing that she was able to escape from her oppressed life. Her breakdowns seemed to be triggered more with this oppression rather than just her being insane.