Interior Design: Sadness and Psychosis

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a clear-cut story of a woman’s descent from depression to insanity. The story, written as a personal journal by the narrator-protagonist—a woman whose name we never actually learn—details her own descent into madness from her own perspective. It is obvious to the reader by the end of the story that the narrator has gone insane; however, it is also obvious to the reader that the narrator doesn’t know this herself.

The introduction of the story outlines the mental situation of the narrator. The narrator knows from the start that she is not completely sound of mind, but insists that her physician husband “does not believe [she is] sick!” (8). The husband, named John, is convinced that the narrator is simply suffering from a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” (9). John constantly prescribes cures for this hysterical tendency, but the efficacy of his cures is questionable at best. The narrator tells in her entries that her husband has her taking “phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and [that he forbids her] to ‘work’ until [she is] well again” (11). It is notable that phosphate is involved in ATP synthesis while phosphites are used in the production of pesticides and adhesive; take whatever meaning you wish from this. The narrator complains that she has “to be so sly about [her writing], or else [she is met] with heavy opposition” (15). The point of this paragraph is to explain that the narrator is suffering from some sort of mental instability and her husband’s actions are doing nothing to help.

The actual “yellow wallpaper” is part of the décor of the upstairs bedroom which the narrator and John choose to sleep in. The relationship between the narrator’s slide into insanity and this “almost revolting” “smoldering unclear yellow” (34) wallpaper is closely intertwined. The descriptions of the wallpaper in the beginning of the story describe it in concrete terms as “one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (32). But at the end of the story, the narrator starts seeing a woman in the pattern whom she actually begins to believe is real. Right before the story’s climax, the narrator is in the yellow-papered room by herself, but “really [she isn’t] alone a bit” (216) for she was in the company of the wallpaper woman! The narrator sees the wallpaper woman trying to escape from the design, noting that she “takes hold of the bars” which make up the pattern “and shakes them hard” (188). The narrator does her best to help the wallpaper woman escape, collaborating with her on a solitary night to pull off the wall covering, and “before morning [they] had peeled off yards of that paper” (217). The final manifestation of the narrator’s complete loss of mental capacity comes when she locks her husband out of the room and peels off all of the wallpaper.

A student of psychology may attribute the narrator’s insanity to two different things. Firstly, it is possible that the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression—not farfetched considering the fact that the narrator has a baby (mentioned in paragraph 46)—or maybe even postpartum psychosis, the symptoms of which, according to Wikipedia, include “seeing or hearing things that others don't” (i.e. the woman in the wallpaper), “random or uncontrollable anxiety attacks” (i.e. the narrator’s locking herself in the bedroom), and an “inability to take care of the baby” (i.e. the fact that the baby is hardly mentioned in the narrator’s journal at all). Secondly, the domineering demeanor of the husband may be exacerbating the narrator’s pre-existing mental conditions, but the narrator herself refuses to consciously admit it. The trapped woman in the wall is actually a “Freudian Projection”: the woman trapped behind the bars trying to escape the pattern is actually the narrator’s subconscious realizing her suppressed feelings of repression and constraint by John.

Freudian Projection is theoretically a psychological defense mechanism, which would project the narrator’s negative feelings away from her; however, her mental problems are apparently too great for this alone to work, which indicates that she is indeed suffering from some sort of psychosis. The end of the story, from paragraph 297 or so to the conclusion, outline the final descent into insanity. (724)

The Downsides of Principle-Based Action.

Mr. John Hoyer Updike’s short story “A&P” is a tale that demonstrates the downsides and dangers of standing up for one’s principles. “A&P”’s narrator, Sammy, quits his job when his boss, Lengel, berates three young, swimsuit-clad ladies who are shopping in the local A&P Food Market. Sammy believes that his quitting will give him not only satisfaction for having stood up to “the man,” but also the affection of the three attractive young ladies whom Lengel scolded, saying that he wanted them to be “decently dressed when they come in[to the A&P]” (16). Unfortunately for Sammy, neither of his beliefs hold up in his post-quit world.

The satisfaction that Sammy gains from standing up to establishment is minimal, partly due to the negative effects doing so will have on his own life, and partially due to the disappointing reaction of Lengel. It almost seems as though Sammy is hoping for Lengel to explode at him when he says that he is quitting; it would make his action that much more satisfying. Instead, Lengel just “sighs and being to look very patient and old and gray” (30). It is right at that moment that Sammy begins to feel regret: he agrees with Lengel that he will feel the ramifications of his quitting “for the rest of [his] life”(30), and he admits that “it’s true” that he doesn’t want to “do this to [his] Mom and Dad” (30). The fact that Sammy has to consciously think to himself that it seems to him that “once you being a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it”(30) indicates the regret that he feels for his actions.

In addition to the regret that Lengel makes Sammy feel, the three girls who incited Sammy to quit do not even see him do so. After his discussion with Lengel, Sammy “look[s] around for [his] girls, but they’re gone, of course” (31). The tone of my previous quotation signifies that Sammy didn’t really expect to impress the girls. He acted on an impulse, and his talk with Lengel made him quickly understand the consequences of such an action. The feelings of regret that Sammy feels at this point naturally set him up for this pessimism.

Although Sammy realizes that he made a mistake when he stood up to Lengel based on misguided principles of chivalry, he does not go back on his decision and grovel to Lengel to get his job back. That is because Sammy has real principles also, chief among them his belief that he once he has done something, he cannot go back on it. He quickly accepts the situation and even finds the positive aspects of it, noting that it was fortunate that the incident should occur during to summer because “there’s no fumbling around getting your coat and galoshes, [he] just saunter[s] into the electric eye in [his] white shirt that [his] mother ironed out the night before”(30). Although Sammy tries to find the positive aspects of his quitting, he fails, admitting to himself that his “stomach kind of fell as [he] felt how hard the world was going to be for to [him] hereafter” (31). (527)

Disillusionment and Discontent in "Interpreter of Maladies":

“Interpreter of Maladies” is a story which focuses greatly on the Das family’s cultural and moral distance from their genetic and ethnic background. But the underlying driving force behind the plot movement is Mr. Kapasi’s quixotic belief that despite the Das’s distinctly foreign and very liberal values, he can still connect with Mrs. Das on a romantic level.

In the story’s opening sequences, the tone of the writing indicates mild disapproval for the lifestyle of the Das family, but also focuses heavily on a physical description of Mrs. Das, her hair, and her clothing. Since the story is told from the a third-person narrative view that is limited to Mr. Kapasi’s point of view, one can safely intuit that Mr. Kapasi himself holds mild disapproval for the Das’s and spends quite a lot of mental energy gathering an image of the very attractive Mrs. Das, noting minute details such as her blouse’s “calico appliqué in the shape of a strawberry” (15), which he “found irresistibly becoming” (116).Later, when Mr. Kapasi and the Das family are at the temple, Mr. Kapasi is “pleased especially that it appealed to Mrs. Das”(97) and specifically notes via the narrative her interest in “the topless female musicians”(97) which are carved into the frescoes. Seeing Mrs. Das and the topless figures side by side brings his mind to his own dissatisfaction with his love life.

Mr. Kapasi’s physical attraction to Mrs. Das, along with his own discontentment at home, sets him up to fall for her at the slightest hint that she might be interested in him. And—perhaps predictably—he does. He misconstrues Mrs. Das’s usage of the word “romantic” when she remarks on his job as a medical interpreter, and when Mrs. Das asks for his address so that she might send him pictures, Mr. Kapasi creates in his mind a delusional fantasy of a clandestine, trans-oceanic relationship that he and Mrs. Das may have, in which she “would reveal the disappointment of her marriage, and he his” (89). Throughout the most the “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mr. Kapasi is “anxious to be alone with [Mrs. Das]” (100), so that he might have a chance to pursue his fantastical relationship with her.

But when he finally does get a chance to be alone with her, the secret she confides in him and the reasons behind her sharing that secret shatter any of his hopes that she and he might liaise. Mrs. Das confides in Mr. Kapasi the secret of her emotionally painful extramarital affair with a friend of Mr. Das. Instantly, Mr. Kapasi’s delusional illusions disappear: he realizes that her confiding in him about her sordid past means that she has no romantic interest in him, but instead only a practical interest in his talent as an “interpreter of maladies.” He resolves himself rather quickly, deciding to do his best to interpret her malady by asking the incisive question that a psychologist might ask: “is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?” (162). Mrs. Das glares at him and leaves the car, without responding, indicating to Mr. Kapasi that he was not even important to Mrs. Das as an interpreter of maladies, but as simply a receptacle for the dirty secret of hers which she had grown tired of holding all to herself.

So when boiled down, “Interpreter of Maladies” is a story of disillusionment. Mr. Kapasi’s mental image of his relationship with Mrs. Das was detailed almost to the point where it was real to him. Part of this mentally real fantasy is Mr. Kapasi’s daydream-like belief that Mr. Kapasi feels the same way about him as he does her. When he learns otherwise, his imagined relationship with her shatters instantly, broken in to so many little pieces that he does not even try to hold on to it.(636)