A Liberating Trap

Perkins Gilman

"It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls." (Perkins Gilman, p. 834)





This is a simple description of the appearance of the room the heroine and her husband have rented for the summer, as well as her assessment of the room. What is evident in the quote is that she doesn't like the room they've rented, but, subtextually, there is a hint that there is something more sinister about the room - or clues that it may not be a dilapidated nursery at all, but a room used to house mentally disturbed people. There are also hints that she may have been led to believe that it was a nursery by the managers of the house and her husband.

I picked this quote because it speaks to the physical appearance of the room, the relationship it has with the woman in the story and the physiological implications of the room as a symbol. I am struggling with figuring out what the "room" symbolizes in literature by women authors. In Virgina Wolf's A Room of One's Own and Professions for Women it is a symbol of liberation - a necessity and right that belongs to women who want to practice their craft. In Doris Lessing's To Room Nineteen, the room is a combination of freedom and entrapment, in that it is the only place Susan (the protagonist) is able to regain her autonomy, but in that sense, the true and happy her is sequestered to this small, cheap, shabby hotel room where she ultimately kills herself.

What's up with all the room stuff?! Why does it play such a central roll in these works by these famous women authors? It's also interesting to note, that their life times overlap - this makes me think that the whole "neurasthenia" diagnosis has a role in it, though I don't know enough about it to make a definite assertion for that being the case. In all of these works, a theme of depression can be found and it is dominant in To Room Nineteen and The Yellow Wallpaper. It would seem that depression then as well as now is generally dismissed and misunderstood. The room makes a good symbol for depression - an entity that envelops the individual suffering from it, becoming a barrier to the outside world.
The room also stands in as a symbol of society and rights. In The Yellow Wallpaper the room is the only place where the narrator is able to exercise her will, however encumbered it is by the intrusion of others. The room is a symbol of the narrator's subordination to her husband. He picked the room, he keeps her in the room, he enters and exits the room at his discretion. In the quote above, the narrator notes the windows have been bared - she assumes for the children's safety, but the reader is able to pick up on clues that the bars may be just for her and that they never have been for children, especially in light of the rings embeded in the walls.
The room also stands a symbol for the freedoms and rights of women. The room, being hers, is hers to do with as she pleases and more than that, she has a right to it. In A Room of One's Own and Professions for Women Virgina Wolf demands a room for women, but is that all we get? Just a "room"? What's worse is that there is a need to fight for that room. Men have the world at their disposal and all women want is a room of their own. Personally, I want a bit more than that.
This is where The Yellow Wallpaper stands out. It explores the binding and oppression of that room. What happens when women are granted the room, but also confined to it? I'm still thinking about it.