When you think about yellow wallpaper do you think about female hysteria cures? Now you will. Today I'm reviewing a short suspense story about a woman dealing with depression. Her "cure" was to do nothing at all at home. Let's dive in.
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| Courtesy of enwallpaper.com |
The basic, overall plot is this; a woman dealing with postpartum depression is given the "cure" of staying home and doing nothing, only to start losing her mind and seeing the wallpaper come to life. It is so much more than that, but there are your cliff notes. If you want more context see the video below. If you don't care about historical context (but you really should), go straight to my review.
The Review
Five out of five. It is literally fifteen pages and one page of introduction in my copy. It's a pamphlet of a story published in 1892 when the "rest cure" was common. The author went through the rest cure, decided she'd had enough, then gave it up. She wrote this and sent it to the physician who suggested it. He amended his cure as a direct result. The alternate title should be "Why We Always Listen To Women".
The characters are Jennie (the housekeeper and John's sister), John (the husband) and our main character secretly journaling. She has a child, but a woman named Mary is caring for it while she is ill. Our main character sleeps during the day, stares at the wallpaper at night, and cries often. She is dealing with depression after just having a child. Her husband is no help and says she's making it up. The lack of stimulation leads her to observe the wallpaper and see a trapped woman shake what seems to be bars, as in prison or jail bars, within the wallpaper.
Let's pause at the woman behind the wallpaper real quick. She sees this woman more clearly as she becomes more restless and is left alone more often. Her husband is a horrible husband who infantilizes her like she is a child. He makes the marriage about him. She's supposed to be better for his sake, her child's sake, and then her sake. She's put last in the marriage. Imagination is put down like it is something only for children. Funnily enough, the bedroom with the wallpaper was a nursery. The story claims he's gotten irritable and kind of cross. She tries to say her ideas and he says they are not good, silencing her from speaking her mind. In my opinion, the woman behind the wallpaper represents her, trapped in a marriage and a mental state of distress and depression, seemingly with no way out.
Now we get to the end, where she goes way off the deep end, or so it seems. If you watched the video above you'll know what Books 'n' Cats has to say about the ending. You didn't? Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait. Now that you've checked that out, let's continue. The deep end of this mental pool is her becoming the woman behind the wallpaper. She "frees" the woman in the wallpaper by ripping down the wallpaper, all of it and not one strip remaining. She locks her husband out, throws the key out the into the garden, and makes him go get it.
I'm with Books 'n' Cats in this regard. This is the first time she has put herself first and put her husband second (if you don't count her fascination with the wallpaper). She not only locks him out, but talks to him like he is a child. She's explaining where the key is over and over as if he is a child. She calls him "young man". She creeps around on the floor giving no crap whatsoever and tells him she's free despite him and "Jane". Some say this is a misprint and should be Jennie, but some say our main character is Jane. She's freed herself from herself in some respects. Is she a little unhinged? No doubt. Humans need stimulation and she was denied that for too long. Is she finally free of caring what John thinks? No doubt about it. She gives no craps about him. She tells him he can't put her back. She pretty much gave him an industrial middle finger by talking to him like he was a child and making him unlock the door so he could find her handiwork. The ending can be seen as both empowering and disturbing. He faints.
Odd Things To Note
We see that the wallpaper leaves stains on clothes and smells bad. Why is this important? I know it was here for some reason. I did my due diligence. It turns out that Victorian wallpaper could be deadly. We know she and others were touching the wallpaper, including John and Jennie. John got irritable to the point of our main character being a bit scared of him. She and John, and even Jennie (who also gets a bit scared of John) may have inhaled the chemicals of the coloring in the wallpaper. It would explain a lot. Yes, symbolism, is really important in this, but I'd be stupid not to talk about the literal side of it, too. The smell shows up in their clothing. She notes it. Those pretty colors of wallpaper included arsenic in the ingredients list. Oops.
Now, to be fair, Sheele's Green is technically the color that caused the most harm. The bright yellow also included arsenic and we see that here in the main character's room. It could cause illness due to the arsenic in the wallpaper- particularly in damp rooms. Our main character talks about damp weather and then mentions the smell becoming obvious on everything. Dry wallpaper released flakes into the air and damp wallpaper (like the damp weather described by our main character) released poisonous gas.
It is also mentioned in the story that the nursery room that became their bedroom was a hot mess and the bed was looking rough. Did the kids react to the wallpaper, the notorious wallpaper that killed many children? The wallpaper had torn over the bed. There was a case of kids licking wallpaper after they tore it down, so it isn't out of the ordinary that they got this beautiful house because of tragedy. Kids wasted away until they died in rooms like this. Our main character felt so weak she only slept and lay down. She does mention that it was strange how they got such a large house so easily and no one wanted it. Did a child die of licking arsenic wallpaper? It's possible. And our main character was weak and ill - for real - so let's not forget that her husband should have listened and taken down the paper. Or better yet, moved them to the room she wanted to sleep in. Novel idea, listening to women. John should have taken note. I'll note that John also gave her lots of tonics, and even they could include arsenic in small doses. Oops again. Did I mention that our main character had a bad feeling about that house, as in maybe sensing the death of the kids in the room? Triple oops. I'm almost sure our main woman will die soon of arsenic poisoning.
Want more information on toxic wallpaper? Remodeling a house from the 1800s or earlier? Check out this link courtesy of The Smithsonian. I'd take down any gaudy, bright wallpaper if I were you. Or at least get it checked out before you live in the room.
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Jack Thomas is running from a past case. He's hiding in Wrenville. Is his past case catching up with him?
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