The Yellow Wall-Paper, a short novel by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, tells a sad and dark story of a woman who lost her mind after unsuccessful rest cure treatment. Perkins Stetson portrayed her female protagonist as an unreliable narrator in order to demonstrate how the treatment based on a dismissive attitude toward the patient led to horrible consequences. From the beginning, the reader can see that nobody understands the narrator’s feelings.
Her husband, John is the worst offender — while he seemingly loves the narrator and means well, he uses his physician’s authority to dismiss her input. In the narrator’s words, “John is a physician, and perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.” (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 647). John uses his authority as a doctor and a husband to confine his wife in an “atrocious nursery” (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 649). He believes that rest in a big, airy room is all the narrator needs to recover from nervous depression. However, John only triggers his wife’s descent into real madness.
The narrator’s storytelling becomes more confusing and unreliable as time passes. In the beginning, the narrator does not technically try to lie — she is forced to spend her days staring at the yellow wallpaper and starts seeing disturbing images. For instance, the narrator notices a spot “where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.” (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 649). At this point, a reader can relate to the narrator’s words since one would likely feel uncomfortable if forced to spend almost whole days staring at the wall and doing nothing. The narrator hates the wallpaper and calls it “horrid” (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 649).
However, the long exposure to the wallpaper slowly turns the narrator’s hate into fascination. In particular, she begins pretending to go to sleep and does not tell John or John’s sister, Jennie, that she stays awake (Perkins Stetson, 1892). The narrator becomes obsessed with the once-hated wallpaper, which drives her insane. The reader can see that the narrator’s mind is plagued with hallucinations; the loss of reliability highlights the tragic results of the forced rest cure.
One can logically explain the causes of the narrator’s lying. Initially, she is unhappy with the nursery and finds the yellow wallpaper especially displeasing. She tried to convince John to move somewhere else, but he “would not hear of it.” (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 648).
Eventually, the narrator accepts her fate because she would not want to make John “uncomfortable just for a whim.” (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 648). As a result, she remains trapped in a depressing room with boredom, idleness, and the hated yellow wallpaper as her companions. In this regard, John’s attitude directly contributed to the deterioration of the narrator’s mental health. Subsequently, the narrator develops paranoia and hallucinations; she has become convinced that the wallpaper holds a secret she must reveal before John and Jennie do that (Perkins Stetson, 1892). The horrid yellow wallpaper gave her a purpose, something that John could not do. Consequently, the narrator lies to John and Jennie to disrupt their cunning plans that only exist in her mind.
The reader can also see that hallucinations and paranoia guide the narrator’s actions. For instance, she lies to Jennie about wanting to sleep alone in order to “rest better for a night” and praises herself for being clever. In fact, she wanted to stay alone to tear down the wallpaper and free an imaginary woman, a “poor thing” trapped behind the pattern (Perkins Stetson, 1892, p. 655). In this regard, the narrator’s lies and unreliable storytelling are the product of her unstable mental condition. Charlotte Perkins Stetson wanted to illustrate the destructive effects of boredom and idleness on a woman’s mind, and she delivered her criticism of rest cure in a dark, disturbing manner.
In conclusion, one can claim that the narrator was a victim of circumstances since she had little to no influence over the situation. In the late 19th century, women were supposed to be quiet and do what men wanted. In the narrator’s example, one can see that her husband ignored all her early attempts to complain about the nursery and boredom, clearly implying that he knows what is better for his wife. As a result, the narrator accepts her fate and stays alone with idleness and the yellow wallpaper, the symbol of insufferable boredom. The wall eventually twisted the narrator’s mind, as she developed paranoia and hallucinations.
At this stage, the narrator could not stop lying because the wallpaper had become an obsession, a mystery that she had to protect and solve. Therefore, the narrator cannot be held accountable for her lies and unreliable storytelling. Her unreliableness stems from mental health issues and an inability to tell the difference between hallucinations and reality. In the end, a reader can only sympathize with the narrator, given that her erratic storytelling is a result of indifference to her sufferings.
Reference
Perkins Stetson, C. (1892). The yellow wall-paper. Web.