Recently, there was a novel titled "room" in where a mother and her child were trapped in a room for countless years before they finally escaped. The only bit of freedom they had to the outside world was a small window that allowed them to see daylight. This is a clear example of confinement. But is this situation mirrored in both "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "A Room of One's Own"? I would argue that the limited freedoms of the characters in both the yellow wallpaper and a room of one's own are very similar to that of the book "room". Of course, in the yellow wallpaper, it is similar in the fact that she is actually put in a room, but in A room of one's own, it is similar in that she describes that women cannot begin to write fiction unless they have their own room, one that belongs only to them so that they can write and be free. While in The yellow wallpaper, the woman does have a room, but it is monitored by her husband and at one point she even mentions that he wouldn't want her to write.
While women in Woolf's writing aren't physically trapped like The Yellow Wallpaper, their limited freedom of expression can make it seem that way. Women ate differently, women had different rules, women were treated like an entirely different group of people. Finally, at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper, John walks in to the room with all of the wallpaper scratched down and his wife says "I've got out at last [...] and I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!". To me, this physical confinement can mean many things. She has finally "escaped" being in the room, yes, but she has also escaped being under her husband's finger. Her physical confinement begins to feel like something much bigger because she begins to go insane. If women in Woolf's essay were treated the same way in that it almost felt as if they were locked up- how did they not go insane as well? Whether you have a room or not doesn't matter as much as who put you there. Did you go into the room to be alone and write what you please, or were you put there by a husband, or society, to limit your freedom and keep you from being heard. Although being locked in a room may seem more severe than keeping women from writing fiction, in the end they both drive women into the ground.
I've read the first chapter of "Room"! It's a very interesting concept that I have yet to finish. I would like to propose a question as to why people may be kept in confinement. Do you believe that people should be kept in rooms (for long periods of time) to escape the monstrosity of the world? Is having your own room a protected place from the rest? I haven't finished "Room" yet, but I believe they might've addressed these questions. As for The Yellow Wallpaper, I do also want to guess that since John (her husband) is a doctor, he's prone to treating people like his patients. Perhaps he's isolated from folks too? I think it'd be neat to hear from his perspectives on his wife's mental breakdown.
ReplyDelete