There are some lovely reviews of this on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ already, so I'm not going to attempt an extensive or informative review. I'll just say a few thingsThere are some lovely reviews of this on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ already, so I'm not going to attempt an extensive or informative review. I'll just say a few things straight from the heart. Van Gogh and his troubled life is one of those subjects that appeals to one's deepest feelings; to one's heart rather than one's head.
Reading these letters gives you a window into Vincent's immense pain. Vincent was a deeply spiritual person who never, during his lifetime, received the recognition that he so richly deserved. An extremely prolific painter with works mainly done in a post-impressionist/neo-impressionist style, some of the works more pointillist than others, Van Gogh's works all seem to have a unique touch of expressionism to them - his style was very distinct and uniquely his own.
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One of Vincen't most famous paintings, and a personal favorite of mine: "Starry Night".
He never achieved commercial success during his lifetime, most of which was lived in poverty, and he was often severely depressed, leading to self-mutilation and eventually suicide at age thirty-seven. Despite the fact that his life was cut short far too early, he left behind the rich legacy of many deeply emotive paintings and these poignant letters....more
Disturbometer: 8 out of 10. One of the entries in my "Most disturbing stories" list.
Since this is already a well-known story that most of my friends haDisturbometer: 8 out of 10. One of the entries in my "Most disturbing stories" list.
Since this is already a well-known story that most of my friends have read, I’m not going to worry about spoilers and this will be more a discussion than a “review�.
‘The Yellow Wallpaper� as a story is certainly disturbing in its own right, but is even more disturbing when viewed within its frame of the ignorance of mental health concerns extant in the late Victorian era. This ignorance, coupled with the systemic subjugation of women (especially the notion that women were too weak to handle any kind of intellectual stimuli or effort) exacerbated the woman in the story’s descent into madness. Tracing the progress of the gradual disintegration of a human mind over time is by itself extremely uncomfortable, but the reasons behind the protagonist’s “madness� and her society’s views on mental health adds an additional layer of concern.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman used to be a well-known name in intellectual circles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She was a prominent sociologist and feminist, who had published works on sociology, economics and other subjects � her most famous non-fiction work being Women and Economics. She also wrote the famous �The Herland Trilogy: Moving the Mountain, Herland, with Her in Ourland� trilogy of novels in which she argues for a more equal role for women in work and society in general.
But Gilman was a deeply flawed person. Criticized for her racism and her seeming rejection of the maternal role in society, Gilman also suffered from mental illness, possibly something as innocuous as peripartum depression, but at the time (1892), any woman who didn’t conform to societal norms, was diagnosed as having “hysteria� or “neurasthenia�. (Note that ‘hysteria� was a condition reserved exclusively for women. No man was ever pronounced as ‘hysterical� � just think of the word, and you immediately assume its origin to be female. )
Gilman had had a particularly difficult childhood. Her father abandoned the family shortly after her birth, an event which severely scarred both herself and her mother. Her mother never stopped longing for her departed husband, and subconsciously punished Charlotte by making a decision never to show her any love or affection, on the surface with the excuse of not wanting her to get used to love, since in the mother’s eyes, love and affection was a thing to be lost later in life, and it was apparently better not to “spoil� a child into expecting love or affection in life. Due to a dependency on extended family members, the little family consisting of Gilman, her mother and her brother, lived in poverty and moved often, thereby adding the deprivation of comfort and security to the lack of affection that Gilman already suffered.
The mother’s attempted prophylaxis against “wanting love� had not worked on Charlotte, though. Instead it left her even more needy for love, but so scarred that she couldn’t adjust to the idea of having a normal loving family, which was in her worldview as a young woman, the only ‘ticket� for love. Love and affection was not attainable if you did not marry and have children, and Charlotte badly needed affection, so she did marry and fell pregnant.
But once Charlotte's daughter Katherine was born, it created severe cognitive dissonance, because wasn’t this the exact-same situation that Charlotte’s mother had gotten herself into � a situation which had destroyed not only the mother’s life, but the life of Charlotte, her child, as well? Once Charlotte’s mother had given birth to her, their lives fell apart, and due to her mother’s continued love for her father, the father was not seen as the villain in the story, but was doing what (from Charlotte's skewed viewpoint), fathers do when mothers have babies. They leave, and everything falls apart. Pretty confusing for poor Charlotte as a child, and a source of suppressed anxiety and confusion for the now adult Charlotte, triggering anxiety and depression to an unbearable degree.
Eventually Charlotte, just like her father had done with his family, left her first husband, and left her daughter, Katherine, in the care of one of her friends who was later to become her first husband's wife. Yes, I know that's a bit confusing. Basically it was one big mess. Bottom line was that motherhood really didn't agree with Charlotte.
Be that as it may, it’s very likely that Charlotte clinically suffered from peripartum depression after the birth of her daughter Katherine. According to the American Psychiatric Association, about one in seven women experience peripartum depression, which is a condition far worse than just the “baby blues.� Baby blues may include crying for no reason, irritability, restlessness, and anxiety, which resolves by itself after a week or two.
Peripartum depression can last for months, and can include symptoms such as: feeling sad or having a depressed mood; loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed; changes in appetite; trouble sleeping or sleeping too much; loss of energy or increased fatigue, increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech; feeling worthless or guilty; difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions; thoughts of death or suicide; crying for “no reason�; lack of interest in the baby, not feeling bonded to the baby, or feeling very anxious about/around the baby; feelings of being a bad mother; fear of harming the baby or oneself, as well as suffering from anxiety.
The real Charlotte, the author, experienced most of these symptoms after having her baby, but was diagnosed as having “neurasthenia�. I must say, that before reading any background at all on Charlotte Perkins Gilman, purely while reading the Yellow Wallpaper story, I was already reminded of Virginia Woolf; I had read before how Virginia was treated for her depression and anxiety (also called hysteria and neurasthenia, as in Gilman’s case) with “the rest cure�, which seemed awfully similar to what the protagonist in the story was being subjected to by her physician husband.
A note here on the effects of solitary confinement � which is basically what is being done to the protagonist: Over time, the stress of being isolated can cause a range of mental health problems. According to Dr. Sharon Shalev, who authored A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement in 2008, these problems may include: anxiety and stress, depression and hopelessness, anger, irritability, and hostility. panic attacks, worsened preexisting mental health issues, hypersensitivity to sounds and smells, problems with attention, concentration, and memory, hallucinations that affect all of the senses (like seeing moving and creeping things in wallpaper, when it is the only thing you have to look at, maybe?), paranoia, poor impulse control, social withdrawal, outbursts of violence, psychosis, fear of death, self-harm or suicide. Research indicates that both living alone and feelings of loneliness are strongly associated with suicide attempts and suicidal ideation.
Most studies focus on the psychological effects of solitary confinement. However, psychological trauma and loneliness can also lead to physical health problems. Studies indicate that social isolation increases the likelihood of death by 26�32%. According to Dr. Shalev’s book, the recorded physical health effects of solitary confinement include: chronic headaches, eyesight deterioration, digestive problems, dizziness, excessive sweating, fatigue and lethargy, genitourinary problems, heart palpitations, hypersensitivity to light and noise, loss of appetite, muscle and joint pain, sleep problems, trembling hands, weight loss. A lack of physical activity may also make it difficult to manage or prevent certain health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Not only does the husband subject the woman in the story to restrictions which would harm even a healthy person’s mental health, look at how he treats her mentally and emotionally: Firstly, he speaks to her in a highly patronizing manner - he infantilizes her by speaking to her exactly as if she were a three year old child:
“…when I came back John was awake. “What is it, little girl?� he said. “Don’t go walking about like that � you’ll get cold.� ...and a bit further on: � “Bless her little heart!� said he with a big hug, “she shall be as sick as she pleases! But now let’s improve the shining hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning!� …and further on: � “Really dear you are better!� “Better in body perhaps—� I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word. “My darling,� said he, “I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?� So of course I said no more on that score, and he went to sleep before long.
Notice also, that the narrator was forcibly placed in a children's nursery with bars on the windows - the husband insisted - just another symbol of how she is forced into a 'child-role'. Not only does John address his wife, the protagonist, with infantilizing epithets, but whenever she tells him anything, he always contradicts it. When she says she is feeling worse, he contradicts with the assurance that she is getting better. When she says she needs company or stimulation, he assures her that it would be bad for her.
Gilman herself said that she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as an admonishment to the neurologist Dr Silas Weir Mitchell who had recommended the “rest cure� and who had: “…sent me home with solemn advice to “live as domestic a life as far as possible,� to “have but two hours� intellectual life a day,� and “never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again� as long as I lived. This was in 1887. I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, and came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over. Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist’s advice to the winds and went to work again � work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite � ultimately recovering some measure of power. Being naturally moved to rejoicing by this narrow escape, I wrote The Yellow Wall Paper, with its embellishments and additions, to carry out the ideal (I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations) and sent a copy to the physician who so nearly drove me mad…�
Gilman appears to have been very “service�-oriented, and her intention of helping fellow suppressed and repressed women is hinted at in the story in an interesting way: Toward the end of the story, the protagonist starts to have visual hallucinations, and believes that she sees “a woman� trapped behind the bars of the wallpaper’s pattern. It’s not hard to deduce that she is seeing herself there, trapped as she is in a room with barred windows. But then, later on, it really becomes disconcerting, but what excellent metaphor the author employs:
“The front pattern DOES move � and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern � it strangles so; (the strictures of society) I think that is why it has so many heads. They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!�
It seems clear to me that at some point an aspect of the wallpaper pattern symbolizes all the restrictions placed upon the woman's freedom and activities. It represents the bars of a metaphorical prison cell, which is of course, why the woman in the story is so keen to pull the wallpaper off. And so Gilman herself pulled and pulled away at those strictures in society to help free the other women also stuck behind the imprisoning pattern of the wallpaper.
After reading up about Charlotte Gilman’s “rest cure� I scrounged around in my old Virginia Woolf notes, and found that “the rest cure� seemed to have become worse by the time poor Virginia was a recipient of it - and lo and behold, Charlotte's doctor is actually mentioned by name. I quote from a biography of Woolf Virginia Woolf by Hermoine Lee:
Woolf’s doctor (appropriately named ‘Savage�, ...more
This is a superbly crafted short story which has definitely raised Jackson's ability to create artful short fiction in my esteem. Reads as labyrinthinThis is a superbly crafted short story which has definitely raised Jackson's ability to create artful short fiction in my esteem. Reads as labyrinthine and playfully mystifying as anything by Borges, but more richly visual. At first glance it is light and beautiful, but also strange and puzzling, with darker tones forming and intruding more and more towards the end.
To give anything away about the story itself, would be a crime, as it is up to the reader to spot the subtle clues of things that "don't quite fit" strewn throughout. There's a lot of play with illusions of all kinds, as well as with the identities of the characters and even of the house itself.
Don't expect a "satisfying" resolution at the end if you like your stories pat and clear. It's as if the entire story is a kind of illusory chimera just just dancing at the edge of being grasped - like a language that you almost understand, a haunting melody that you can almost recognize, but not quite, never fully.
It is definitely a story I'd read again, (and perhaps again) to see if I can unravel anything more about it's mystifying puzzles - but in the end, a bit of mystery left unsolved can also be very satisfying in it's own right....more
Frida is absolutely an icon for boldness. Viva Frida Kahlo! Her art is incredibly frank, her statements painfully candid. Frida is a symbol of strengtFrida is absolutely an icon for boldness. Viva Frida Kahlo! Her art is incredibly frank, her statements painfully candid. Frida is a symbol of strength through vulnerability, for the suffering of humanity and the striving of humanity to break free from it's bonds....more
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