Chapter 24:Illness

Lit/Prof

"The Yellow Wallpaper"--Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In music artists often times compose songs about what they are going through in life or things that are happening around them. With the same approach Foster describes in this chapter of the book that authors often times write about illnesses or sickness that are surrounding them or they have encountered. He explains that each era has an illness that is used most commonly in writing. In early times it was consumption while in the present age it is AIDS. For some writers giving a deathly illness to a character is just a way to dispose of an unwanted member of the plot but for others this is a way to explain experiences that they have went through and show other people the traumatic affects that it has on the victim and their supportive people.

In this short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the main character is suffering from a nervous disorder. She is forced to stay in a house that her husband rented in order to recuperate so that she may return to her normal lifestyle which includes a young child. Whenever they moved into the house the woman was deeply perturbed by the yellow wallpaper that surrounds the room where she is forced to stay most of the time. As time progresses she becomes so obsessed with the ugly wallpaper that she begins to see things. She no longer focuses on other things in her life like family or events; instead she only focuses on her health and the yellow wallpaper. The narrator thinks that in the wallpaper is a woman, in many different forms, trying to break out. Whenever the woman does get out (during the day) she sees her crawling around in order to be unnoticed by anyone else. By the end of the story the narrator tears off all the wallpaper and sets the woman free.

This story is very symbolic and has a deeper meaning than what is foreseen. The woman that is stuck in the wallpaper is in essence herself. She is no longer allowed to live her own life and is forced to conform to her husband’s desires. Whenever the “woman” escapes from the wallpaper and is creeping around in order not to be seen, it is like whenever the narrator is writing or doing something she is not supposed to be doing. She has to be very secretive and sneaky in order to allow herself the little independence that she desperately needs. Whenever she breaks the barrier between the wallpaper and herself, her sanity is all but gone. She no longer tries to hide her disease or how she truly feels instead, just like the woman in the wallpaper she creeps around sullenly.

In this chapter Foster shows readers that authors don’t simply use disease to make a sappy ending, instead it is way more personal. In both music and literature the writer tries to make a connection with the listener while still pertaining to their own lives.