The Yellow Wallpaper is one of the most progressive novels of its era, which carefully elaborates on the imprisonment of women in a patriarchal society. The writer elaborated on the events in the story by using psychoanalytic imagery. Thus, the backgrounds, events, and outcomes in Jane’s story were carefully woven, keeping in view human psychology. The writer proficiently used symbolism, which gave each event in the novel depth and invited readers to think. This essay will summarize the journal article: The Writing’s on the Wall: Symbolic Orders in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Barbara A. Suess.
A New Lacanian Reading
Since its first publication, the novel has always enjoyed the limelight and has always found its way into the press in the form of reviews, critical analysis, and socio-psychological analysis. Each analyst or critic has adopted a different lens to see the yellow wallpaper (St. Jean).
The Mirror Stage and a Disrupted Identity
Barbara A. Suess, a proficient reviewer, adopted a different reviewing strategy and viewed “The Yellow Wallpaper” from the perspective of “Lacanian psychoanalysis” in her review “Symbolic Orders in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Lacanian psychoanalysis presents the therapy in the form of an interrelation between subjectivity and language. Suess adopted a reviewing strategy based on analyzing the underlying facts, i.e., root causes rather than surface issues. She highlighted that Jane could not distinguish “reality” from “fantasy” because the patriarchal encounter she suffered had disturbed the “mirror stage” of her personal development. Relating it to Lacan’s view, Suess described the mirror stage as the establishment of reality for an individual. The mirror stage helps a person to identify his/her individuality in the surroundings. After the mirror stage, the individual is capable not only of self-governance but also of self-constitution. However, Jane’s subjugation in patriarchal society led her to struggle with self-constitution.
Postpartum Depression and Deeper Psychosis
As the curtain rises in The Yellow Wallpaper, the readers can learn about the narrator’s disrupted mental health. Jane, the narrator of the story, suffered from postpartum depression. She plunged headfirst into severe postpartum delirium soon after the birth of her son. According to the writer Gilman, Jane’s husband, being insensitive and ignorant of her mental state, used to characterize postpartum depression as:
“Temporary nervous depression with the slight tendency for hysteresis”.
However, according to Suess, Jane’s later symptoms, such as hallucinations and paranoia, were too serious to be characterized as the results of postpartum depression alone. Rather, Suess suggests that the mental conditions had long been subdued in the unconscious of Jane and appeared on the surface after crossing the threshold in the form of postpartum depression.
The Wallpaper as Prison and Altered Selfhood
As the narrator used to consider the nursing room as a prison in which she had been imprisoned by the voracious patriarchal society, Jane’s belief was so deep-rooted that she used to visualize the bars in the yellow wallpaper of the room. Yet the hallucinations were consistent with the grief she had within her personality. Suess viewed the condition as extending beyond hallucinations and suggested that the woman behind the bars was Jane’s ego, continuously striving to thrive in patriarchal society. Gilman used the word “escape” in the original text to refer to the freedom of the woman from the wallpaper. Suess presents this as unchaining the societal standards that have long been constraining Jane, thus creating her own symbolic order. Jane triumphantly revamps the mirror stage of her identity and rules out the symbolic order John wants her to practice. Suess carefully highlighted the succession of the fantasies in the progression of the story. Though her perception of self-constitution was clouded by the image of the woman who appeared on the wallpaper, Jane was able to develop an altered sense of identity. Suess related this to the disembodied images that used to appear on the wall at first,
“Nobody could climb through the pattern strangles, so I think that is why it has so many heads” (Gilman, 15)
But later, she progressed in her fantasies to constitute herself as a whole.
Freedom Psychosis and the Irony of Triumph
Suess maintains her individuality and rational approach throughout the analysis and continues it gracefully in the conclusion. According to her, though Jane was able to creep out of the wallpaper, in reality, Jane was unable to gain freedom either from society or from herself. It was her altered image, the symbolic order she constituted for herself, that enabled her to achieve freedom. She strengthens her stance by quoting from the original text when Jane says to John:
“I have got out at last […] despite you and Jane, and I have also pulled off most of the wallpaper so you cannot put me back” (Gilman)
Here, an irony is also highlighted: she constituted her own order while continuing to flounder in a world without symbolic order. The order she perceived as a triumph, which dares to rule out the orders of John, was, in reality, the progressive stage of her mental illness. In conclusion, Suess leaves the readers with the question:
“How can living in a state of psychosis be considered triumphant in any way?”
Work Cited
Barbara A. Suess (2003). The writing’s on the wall: symbolic orders in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. Women’s studies, 32(1), 79. Retrieved from ebscohost
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The yellow wallpaper. Virago Press, 1981.
St. Jean, s. (2002). Hanging ‘the yellow wallpaper’: feminism and textual studies. Feminist studies, 28(2), 397. Retrieved from ebscohost.
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