In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf introduces us to her idea that "a
woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." She
explains that a woman needs a space of her own to express her creative freedom
if she is to write. Additionally, by the end of the book her ‘little idea’
about women needing a space of their own is connected to history, politics,
sexuality, and society.
In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the woman is
confined in a room. Rather than seeing a room as imaginative, creative,
private, and free as Woolf, Stetson she argues that a room of one’s own is
limited and belittling. However, Woolf argues that woman do not have a room of
their own because they are oppressed by society – they cannot enter certain
libraries, they do not eat the same food as men - and to be truly happy they
need money and time as men have. Stetson’s woman is far from being ‘oppressed.’
She is well off financially, she has many people working for her and taking
care of her, she is a wealthy person that has everything Woolf says is
necessary to thrive but yet she is still completely unhappy and victimized.
So the question is do woman need
a private, secure and comfortable place to write from? The ides overlap on one
theme. Women are societally and personally oppressed when it comes to writing.
“There comes John, and I must
put this away, -he hates to have me write a word” (649).
The woman’s in Stetson book
is not ‘supposed’ to write similar to the Woolf’s idea that women have been historically
and systematically denied to the right to write comparative to men. However,
the reason Stetson’s woman cannot write is because she is experiencing “a
slight hysterical tendency” (648) as described by her husband, who is a
physician of high standing. Her husband symbolizes science, rationality,
reality, and the proper way to do and think of things throughout the book. So
the read is left to believe the woman is fortunate to have her own room to heal
but the isolation may be exasperating the sickness. Woolf argues that this secure
place is essential, and Stetson writes that an isolated room might lead to more
issues.
“The front pattern does move -and no wonder! The woman
behind shakes it!” (654).
The woman in Stetson’s writing
has been isolated in the room with the yellow wallpaper for so long that she becomes
obsessed and proprietary of the wallpaper. In the exert above, the woman
personifies the wallpaper. In her mind, the wallpaper is alive. This challenges
Woolf’s believe that a secure room would lead to creativity and the chance to
truly and fully express one’s ideas. However, for Stetson there is no
creativity or free flowing expression or even writing. There is only the
wallpaper. The wallpaper is the one thing the woman fixates on and becomes
obsessed with. Stetson challenges Woolf’s claim that a secure room leads to
creativity and happiness. Stetson’s secure and individual room may have led to depression
and cultural hysteria.
Woolf and Stetson’s books
might agree that historically women are oppressed when it comes to writing.
Woolf cannot find literature about women or by women and is not given the same
writes as the men; Stetson is unable to write because her husband disapproves.
However, they clash in the fact that Woolf believes if you have money, time,
and a free space to write that you should be perfectly happy to exercise your
creativity and therefore write. The
Yellow Wallpaper contradicts this belief and tells the reader that a room
of one’s own can lead to a certain type of hysteria.
The question remains
pertaining to gender and how gender is actually playing a role in The Yellow Wallpaper. Gender has so much
to do with social class, money and power. Is the husband’s diagnosis of
sickness for his wife about being sick or is it about being a woman. I believe
he truly believes she is sick but by isolating her and treating her, as she is
sick is only making the sickness worse. I wonder how he would treat a patient
if it were male.
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