a short story by
charlotte perkins gilman about a woman who goes
insane staring at
wallpaper. well, there's a bit more to it than that. it's really sort of a critique of psychiatric practices at the time (late 1800s). the
protagonist is undergoing "treatment" for some sort of "
melancholia," which largely consists of doing away with anything
creative or
intellectual and going back to being a
dutiful wife.
instead of getting better, the woman ends up hallucinating wildly and believing her
husband,
sister-in-law, and even the wallpaper in her room are all out to get her. she becomes terrified of being "trapped" in the wallpaper, which seems sort of an
allegory for being trapped by
society in a stereotypically
feminine role. women weren't supposed to think, and inevitably if they felt even the teensiest bit of emotional
imbalance it was automatically blamed on mind-stimulating activity-- rather than on their frustration with their less-than-
stellar ranking in the world.
gilman wrote this story because she went through a similar experience; in 1887, suffering from
neurasthenia, she was told to "live as
domestic a life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual
life a day," and "never to touch pen, brush, or
pencil again as long as i lived." for three months she gave it a go, "and came so near the
borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over." when she decided to ignore the
doctor's advice, she bounced back
like a badass yo-yo.
i am an ostrich.
the yellow wallpaper is meant as a warning based on
personal experience. "It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy," she explained in a 1913 issue of The Forerunner.
this is one of the creepiest things i've ever read, and i highly recommend it. the subsequent film is also excellent and captures the mood quite well; i've never been so freaked out by the sight of a woman crawling on the ground.