{"id":1808,"date":"2018-03-12T18:55:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T22:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=1808"},"modified":"2018-03-12T18:56:51","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T22:56:51","slug":"the-yellow-wallpaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-yellow-wallpaper\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yellow Wallpaper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Yellow Wallpaper\u201d by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a brilliant 1892 story that presents the first-person chronicle of a woman in a stifling marriage driven mad by spirit-crushing, enforced boredom and her horrified obsession with the floridly ugly wallpaper in the bedroom of the country manor her husband has rented for the summer. The story works as both a feminist critique of the societal suppression of women in the 19<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0century and as a gothic horror tale; one could read it even as a type of haunted house story (and viewed as all three, it is an excellent piece to compare and contrast with Henry James\u2019 1898 novel\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-turn-of-the-screw\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Turn of the Screw<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p>While there\u2019s a great deal in this tale to examine, one of the aspects of the story that struck me was Gilman\u2019s symbolic use of paper.<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, there\u2019s the paper that the narrator writes upon: \u201cthis is dead paper and a great relief to my mind\u201d. The paper in her notebook might be dead, but her thoughts are alive, and her physician husband frowns upon her writing those thoughts down as a violation of the strict rest she is supposed to endure as part of the \u201ccure\u201d for the nervous depression he has diagnosed her with. She must hide her writing from her husband and his sister Jane, whom he has enlisted to keep house.<\/p>\n<p>Why does she see the notebook paper she writes upon as \u201cdead\u201d? Because it\u2019s whitely blank. It\u2019s completely passive, lacks any innate imaginative qualities and bends completely to the will of whomever seeks to use it \u2026 just like the perfect Victorian housewife. The narrator\u2019s intellect and imagination are seen as defects in her world, and initially she tries to use her writing as a way of getting those aspects of herself out of her system. But she realizes that if she purges those parts of herself, she will be just as dead as the paper she writes upon.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, she sees the hideous wallpaper that surrounds her in her room as not just a stylized representation of flora but an actual living creature. She first tries to make sense of its weird, conflicting, confounding patterns \u2013 much as she\u2019s trying to make sense of the complex, illogical rules and double-standards of the patriarchal world she\u2019s trapped in. Then she starts to see malign eyes moving inside the pattern. As her madness progresses, she starts to see the image of a lurking woman trapped inside the pattern, and the narrator becomes obsessed with getting her out.<\/p>\n<p>At the climax of the story, the narrator has become convinced that she herself was the woman trapped inside the wallpaper all along and she glories in having freed herself as she crawls on her hands and knees around the perimeter of the room, an insane orbit that some other woman travelled before her, leaving a streak for her to follow: \u201cBut here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gilman\u2019s careful, layered use of the two kinds of paper as symbol and metaphor is truly impressive and masterful, and it the kind of thing I need to be more mindful of and to try to work into my own fiction more often.<\/p>\n<p><em>Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/juliejordanscott\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julie Jordan Scott.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Yellow Wallpaper\u201d by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a brilliant 1892 story that presents the first-person chronicle of a woman in a stifling marriage driven <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-yellow-wallpaper\/\" title=\"The Yellow Wallpaper\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[92,119,9,94,95,6],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","tag-characterization","tag-gothic","tag-horror","tag-short-fiction","tag-short-stories","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-ta","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-red-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808,"position":0},"title":"The Red Tree","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Caitli\u0301n R. Kiernan\u2019s\u00a0The Red Tree\u00a0is a dizzying weird gothic novel that chronicles the final months of a writer named Sarah Crowe as she grieves for her dead girlfriend, wrestles with writer's block and tries to unravel the dark mysteries behind the legends surrounding an ancient oak tree growing near the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;dark fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"dark fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/dark-fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/redtree.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1436,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/whats-weird-fiction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808,"position":1},"title":"What&#8217;s Weird Fiction?","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Weird fiction can refer to a couple of different types of literature, depending on who's discussing which books and stories. Classic Weird Fiction \"Classic\" weird fiction is the type of late 19th Century\/early 20th Century speculative fiction written by authors such as H.P Lovecraft, Robert Chambers, William Hope Hodgson, Lord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;dark fantasy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"dark fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/dark-fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/looming-low-cover-spread.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/looming-low-cover-spread.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/looming-low-cover-spread.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":610,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/on-horror\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808,"position":2},"title":"On Horror","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"October 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction, meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores. Horror is an emotion.\"-- Douglas Winter, 1982 As a literary genre, \"horror\" can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;genre&quot;","block_context":{"text":"genre","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/genre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=lookwhatifoun-20&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/classic-horror-novels\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808,"position":3},"title":"An Overview of Classic Horror Novels Written by Women","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"How does a horror novel become a classic? First of all, it has to be good, or at least unusually compelling. But quality alone doesn\u2019t ensure that a book will become a classic: it also has to be read, admired, and spread widely enough to inspire other creators. There are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;gender&quot;","block_context":{"text":"gender","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/gender\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/shelley-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7203,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/sister-maiden-monster-cover-reveal\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808,"position":4},"title":"Sister, Maiden, Monster Cover Reveal","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"April 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the cover for my cosmic horror novel Sister, Maiden, Monster, which Tor Nightfire will release next February. The story is set in the aftermath of our planet\u2019s disastrous transformation and told through the eyes of three women trying to survive the nightmare. For those who have been following my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Books","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sister Maiden Monster Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sister-Maiden-Monster-Cover-Reveal_Twitter_Nightfire.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sister-Maiden-Monster-Cover-Reveal_Twitter_Nightfire.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sister-Maiden-Monster-Cover-Reveal_Twitter_Nightfire.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sister-Maiden-Monster-Cover-Reveal_Twitter_Nightfire.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2755,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/american-gothic-short-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808,"position":5},"title":"American Gothic Short Stories","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"June 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"My story \"Approaching Lavender\" will be in the forthcoming American Gothic Short Stories anthology from Flame Tree Publishing. Other featured authors include Terri Bruce, Ramsey Campbell, Maxx Fidalgo, Joshua Hiles, Russell James, Clayton Kroh, Sean Logan, Madison McSweeney, Lynette Mej\u00eda, Joe Nazare, Wendy Nikel, Christi Nogle, Lina Rather, M. Regan,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Books","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gothic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gothic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gothic.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gothic.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gothic.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gothic.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1808"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}