Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This is a book about a crazy women that hates the wallpaper in the room she is "forced" to stay in. Okay it is about a bit more then that but not that she actually leaves the room...but the wallpaper is like an allegory of her life. She is feeling coddled and belittled by her husband and other Doctors and professionals. She feels caged in as her life gets so boring she starts hallucinating. She goes completely crazy in the end. The wallpaper peels and fades and gets ripped...

It takes place in the 19Th century when women were just supposed to fit stereo types of the good housekeeper, wife and mother and do WHATEVER their husbands want them to do without question. The lady in the book couldn't even be herself around the person that was supposed to be her best friend, her husband. She got tired of always faking the happy face when she wasn't really happy. I thought it was a pretty weird book but I am glad I read it despite the unhappy ending...actually the ending leaves you a bit hanging...I hate that. Gilman is a total feminist...I might read more of her short stories sometime, I hear they are interesting too.
The Afterward was also stimulating reading as it explained a bit more about the author and her mind. The afterward was almost longer then the actual story.
VERY BROKEN BOOK I think on the border of HEALING if you add the afterward which was by Elaine Hedges.

1 comment:

cchrissyy said...

i rememebr it being pretty disturbing when I read it in college. anyway, if I recall, she's institutionalized, so that room is not her home.