Woolf and The Yellow Wallpaper Inconsistencies

In comparing the overall messages between Woolf and The Yellow Wallpaper, I identified a few discrepancies. First of all, Woolf asserts that a room of one’s own is symbolic to a place for liberation, creativity and imagination for women. According to Woolf, this space of liberation is primarily dependent on social class and wealth, which is difficult for women to acquire do to their societal inferiority. In fact, Woolf clearly asserts her thesis in chapter 1 of her piece by saying “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved.” I see an inconsistency between Woolf’s claim and what was explained in The Yellow Wallpaper regarding social status and wealth. Woolf argues that it is pertinent to be wealthy in order to become a successful writer for women. However, The Yellow Wallpaper is based off of an extremely wealthy family who even had the luxury of renting a beautiful secluded mansion in hopes of curing the writer’s illness. The creativity Woolf wants to see is neglected through women not having money and power, but The Yellow Wallpaper has all the money and power, but is still victimized.

I also identified inconsistencies between how each writer described and interpreted a quiet room for writing. While a room of one’s own is symbolic to freedom and liberation in the eyes of Woolf, I think The Yellow Wallpaper regards a secluded room as oppressive, belittling and demeaning. In fact, the narrator goes on to say the room she was confined to was “dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study…” This passage clearly shows that the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper feels trapped and scared of her own quiet space while Woolf argues that this secluded room should stimulate creativity and freedom. In fact, the writer of The Yellow Wallpaper uses words like “smoldering,” “sickly,” “burden,” and “irritating” to describe her personal space that Woolf is so adamant women writers don’t have.