Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, was an influential short story that spread many of Gilman’s core ideology regarding the treatment of women and intersectionalism. Gilman found that writing was the best way for her to relay her ideas about women’s suffrage and the unfair treatment that these women faced from their male counterparts. What drove Gilman to write such controversial material can be found by examining how the world around her changed her opinions and shaped her attitudes about the unfair treatment of women. What prompted such a groundbreaking story can be traced to influences from gender and social normality and through treatment of women through an outdated healthcare system.

The primary cultural influence that prompted Gilman to write her story is the differences in social status between genders. In the late nineteenth century, women were believed to be highly inferior to men in facets ranging from mental capacity to religious enlightenment. They were treated as an inferior sex, in most cases men made most of their decisions for them. Both in terms of everyday decisions, medical, professional, and leisurely decisions as well. In Peiss’s “Going Public: Women in Nineteenth-Century Gothic Cultural History”, a course is explained through which students learned about the many aspects of life of a woman in nineteenth century America. Women could have not rights to their own property or wages most of the time. Both fields of science and the church defined women as the inferior gender. Scientists and philosophers in the nineteenth century defined women as intellectually short-handed and emotionally unsound. Many of those scientists believed that women were incapable of controlling their emotions. The church went as far to say that women could achieve spiritual development but had to do so by learning from “the strong guidance of morally superior men” (Peiss 5). We see this come up in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character’s husband and brother were both physicians, men of science, they did not believe that she knew what she was talking about. Since Gilman’s husband was an educated man this could explain why she chose to depict the John in the story, as a husband who cared little for his wife’s opinion. They ignored what she thought and decided that shoving her in a dark room alone and away from society was the best thing for her health. Gilman clearly is explaining her belief that men were actually making life harder for women in general. “John is a physician…perhaps that is why I do not get well faster” (Gilman 1).

It was also noted by Peiss, that women were frequently not taken seriously, which is also clearly demonstrated by this scenario. Since these occurrences were common in the time period when this was written, clearly this had an influence of the daily life of Gilman. One line, found early in “The Yellow Wallpaper” accurately captures this idea: “John laughs at me of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 1). Perhaps this is what led to the creation of this short story, Gilman wanted to convey her frustrations and concerns to the rest of the world in the form of a subtle short story. Perhaps she herself has experienced such frustrations and writing may have been a way for her to relieve some of her frustration, then one day she put her talents to good use 

Another way in which Gilman was influenced was through the social norms that were imposed upon women in the nineteenth century. In terms of women’s suffrage, some women took to the stage and decided to use public speaking as a way to spread their ideas about the unfair treatment of women. Much can be learned through Maia’s “Representation of Women’s Public Speech in Suffrage Literature”. Which discusses what public speaking was like for women who were participating in the suffrage movement. She discusses that women who spoke publicly, frequently had a difficult time doing so because the act violated the social norms of society. It was marked as odd and scandalous for a woman to do so. It was also quite common for the crowds that attended such events to be crude and unemotional. Sometimes people who came to these events came to simply tamper with the overall quality of the speech by being obnoxious, although the idea of breaking social norms is exactly what these suffragists desired, it was considered far too unacceptable by common people and very few suffragists actually preferred public speaking as the primary medium for conveying their ideas.

This can be attributed to why Gilman chose to write this story, if speaking in public had been more of an acceptable act for women to do, perhaps Gilman’s short story would have been told in front of an audience. We see that Gilman very much prefers the pen and paper to the platform. The subtly of slipping in suffragist propaganda into a short story is far more effective at transmitting ideas to people who do not actively follow her cause. Those that generally try to avoid such messages would not deliberately go to a women’s suffrage public speech, but if that person simply bought a book for enjoyment they might find that reading the book changed their mind about the subject. Not to mention that writing a book is a much safer way of keeping the cause for women’s suffrage alive as well. For example, if one who did not believe in the suffrage movement decided to join in on the public speech, just to tamper with Gilman’s performance, it would be highly negative for her image as well as the image of suffragists. But a book is a non-direct way of communicating, and therefore, these people cannot affect Gilman. Also, being that this topic was an extremely controversial and delicate one, it was far better that Gilman wrote her ideas for the public, by doing so she had plenty of time to reflect on the proper wording of her arguments. Judging by Gilman’s hundreds of published works, this medium of work proved most effective. This is a primary reason for Gilman to write her story instead of to do so orally. 

Another reason that Gilman chose to write her story can also be attributed to the poor healthcare that women received in the nineteenth century. As seen in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character is treated almost as a prisoner-specimen by her husband. She is forced to sit in a dark room to slowly go crazy in, in which she is forbidden to write, read, or communicate frequently to others. Her input into her own concerns are disregarded by her husband which she finds completely normal. Although this treatment seems extreme, it was actually not too far off from how women were treated by doctors and surgeons during the time. In Verbrugge’s “Women and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century America”, information regarding the relationship between the physician and the patient is discussed in depth. Women were not allowed a full title of physician, therefore almost all high ranking medical professionals were men, some nurses were women, but they had to strictly follow the instructions of the head doctor. They were forbidden from making any real medical decisions on their own. Which can be seen through the character Mary in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Mary acts as an assistant to the main character’s husband. She is seen spying on the main character, attempting to read her journal to discover the crazed thoughts of the wife who is slowly becoming mentally unstable. Most of her dialogue says that she is just following orders from John. This is clearly a subject that frustrates Gilman, by talking about it in her short story she can reach out to society and hopefully make them understand the negative effects of having an “inferior sex”. 

We also know that during this time, women acted less as patients and more as victims, being controlled by oppressive male doctors and staff. In general, medicine was based off a disguised but very hostile atmosphere of male sexuality and superiority. These male doctors would often manipulate the female patients both physically and psychologically. To clarify, this is not to say that these doctors were perceived as cold hearted individuals, people simply believed that this was the proper way to attend to a sickly woman. In Verbugge’s discussion of many credible sources during this age, she also talks about how a theme of “psychological warfare” between doctor and patient was a common theme. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, we see that theme resurface in Gilman’s writing, the whole plot of the story centers around a psychological struggle between husband and wife. Where the two go behind each other’s backs for their own reasons. It leads to her husband eventually spying on her activity and what she writes in her journal. This “psychological warfare” is something that Gilman most likely had experienced herself. 

Gilman’s past life has also had an effect on the subject matter contained within” The Yellow Wallpaper” as well as why she decided to write it. By examining Joyce Kinkaid’s “Recommended: Charlotte Perkins Gilman”, one can discern more about her past and what effects it had on her writing. From an early age, she was determined to live a life of self-sufficiency, however, this was cut short when she married a man by the name of Charles Walter Stenson. According to Kinkaid: “…the marriage had brought her to the brink of insanity” (Kinkaid 1). She also frequently suffered from swings of depression and frustration. This can directly be contributed to “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the story itself acts as an autobiography of Gilman’s horrifying experiences as a domesticated woman. It is obvious to see that the subject matter of the story acts as a subtle metaphor to how Gilman felt in her relationship to Charles. It is obvious that she felt trapped and very much alone because the main character is trapped in a dark room and the only interaction she has is with a mysteriously colored wallpaper. She did not get to make any decisions of her own, since the same thing happened with John in the story. She must have felt like she was  being patronized and had no say in things due to this satirical comment: “John laughs at me of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 1). Since this is one of the first lines in the story, it must have been one of the first things that came to mind when Gilman thought of the unfair treatment from her husband. 

It can also be seen that Gilman was more successful in terms of writing versus speaking by analyzing the specific ways that she brilliantly incorporated messages to the reader about her beliefs on the treatment of women. She uses several strategies to try and pull more supporters to her cause. One example is by using Mary. By depicting Mary as an antagonist, she portrays women who listen unquestionably to their men in a negative manner that makes them seem like mindless servants. By making those who don’t believe in her cause feel like bad people, perhaps they would join in and see the error of their ways. By making the end of the story a disaster, it shows that when men are controlling and restrictive of the opposite sex, things only can get worse. By incorporating these small symbolic, subliminal messages Gilman is able to subtly get her point across to her audience. 

In conclusion, Gilman was prompted to write her short story, based on many influences from society toward specifically women. Gilman expressed what she dealt with on a daily basis in her writings, highlighting some of the main talking points of the women’s suffragist movement. What was considered “normal” for her gender and for society, as well as the way that women were treated in an outdated healthcare system all had a substantial effect on how and why Gilman wrote her short story. These experiencers and influences are what drove Gilman to be so passionate about what she wrote, she simply wanted to help others, to make sure that the same unfortunate events did not happen to other women. Gilman frequently repeats the line “what is one to do” in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, this seems to be a question posed to the women of the world. The ending of the story makes the answer clear, Gilman has the answers to this question and those who followed her, helped to make the women of tomorrow find the answer for themselves. 
