Research Article

The secret diary recording the depression of the ımaginative woman narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall Paper”

Number: Ö9 August 21, 2021
  • Zennure Köseman *
TR EN

The secret diary recording the depression of the ımaginative woman narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall Paper”

Abstract

As reflected through the highly imaginative storyteller of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall Paper” (1892), this article underlines how secret diaries kept in mind expose the inner worlds of individuals who expose what they have in their consciousness. As both a work of feminist literature and a work of psychological fiction, the target one indicates a fragmented female mind of the secretive narrator kept behind the wallpaper. Recording her thoughts about the wallpaper implies that the narrator, named as Jane or not Jane, is the stereotype representing such kind of women in society and keeps most of her thoughts behind the wallpaper. To illustrate, she has some conflicts existing between her and her husband so that she manifests them in her diary kept in mind through her writings. Although her husband seems to love his wife, yet, he does not understand the negative impact he has on her that indicates their alienation. Reflecting the existence of a strong inner/outer world distance in this short story, this article highlights that as the narrator alienates herself from the outer world, she comprehends her inner world realities better in her loneliness. In this case, the narrator has a great psychological suffering. She has great imagination and identifies herself as the trapped woman behind the wallpaper. In this case, she has an obssession of marginalizing herself with the wallpaper.

Keywords

References

  1. Delchamps, Vivian. (2020). “A Slight Hysterical Tendency” Performing Diagnosis in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Performing Hysteria: Images and Imaginations of Hysteria. Leuven University Press, 105-124. Retrieved June 20, 2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18dvt2d.9.
  2. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (Stetson). (2008). The Yellow Wallpaper. (1952). Gutenberg EBook The Yellow Wallpaper. Pp. 647-656. Retrieved 10 June, 2021, from https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=E0F60AD27DC9875AE332EE3D24AF9E74.
  3. Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. (2010). Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of the “Yellow Wallpaper.” Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from Library of Congress Cataloging on June 10, 2021.
  4. Hochman, Barbara. (2005). The Reading Habit and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. In Badia J. & Phegley J. (Eds.), Reading Women: Literary Figures and Cultural Icons from the Victorian Age to the Present (pp. 129-148). University of Toronto Press. Retrieved June 18, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt2tv2v1.10
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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Linguistics

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Zennure Köseman * This is me
0000-0002-3420-9801
Türkiye

Publication Date

August 21, 2021

Submission Date

July 7, 2021

Acceptance Date

August 20, 2021

Published in Issue

Year 2021 Number: Ö9

APA
Köseman, Z. (2021). The secret diary recording the depression of the ımaginative woman narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall Paper”. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, Ö9, 177-183. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.981522