The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860 - 1935
The Yellow Wallpaper - A Victorian Nightmare
by J A Bennett
Since Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story The Yellow Wallpaper, which was written in 1890 and originally published in 1892, re-emerged in a Feminist press edition in 1973 it has been the subject of speculation, most of which concentrated on readings of the story as a metaphor.
My aim in undertaking the research on which this paper is based was to identify those parts of the narative which are not autobiographical. And if possible to find indications as to their origins.
Gilman had little to say about the story that has been recorded. She did however contribute a much quoted article about the story to her own magazine "Forerunner" in 1913. In that article she alludes to "embellishments and additions" of her own brush with a "severe and continuous nervous breakdown." The story goes further in showing the disintegrating mental condition of the narrator than Gilman endured. As she said, "I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations".
I believe this reference by Gilman to "embellishments and additions" is an important one. The additions are perhaps additional aspects of her condition sending the character in the story to suffer greater mental distress than she suffered, though that in itself was very severe. The embellishments on the other hand create the structure round which the story develops and is fictionalised.
(This is an opening extract from Jim Bennett's paper The Yellow Wallpaper - A Victorian Nightmare, read at the Second International Charlotte Perkins Gilman Conference held at Skidmore Collage, Saratoga Springs, USA in 1997)
TEXT OF JIM BENNETT'S PAPER WITH ANNOTATION
The Yellow Wallpaper - A Victorian Nightmare
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