It is commonly understood that creative pieces overflow with symbolism and commentary. However, a lesser known tool of creativity is the uncanny. The uncanny and its relatives drive many emotional impulses in gothic works; they are the true dominators of catharsis. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the pages exude examples of the abject, the uncanny, and estrangement.

          The abject concerns itself with the ugly side of nature; it takes the form of death, decay, and defilement. Furthermore, it also confronts the perversion of nature, more so than the uncanny because it does not shy away from literal horror. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman primarily utilizes abjection in her description of the wall. “The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others,” (Gilman 649). In this sentence, the abject is quite clear; Gilman uses adjectives such as repellant, sickly, and unclean. The most elementary definition of the abject deals with disgust. In “Approaching Abjection,” abjection is first defined as “the repugnance, the retching that thrusts me to the side and turns me away from defilement, sewage, and muck,” (Kristeva 2). The narrator in Gilman’s story is, at first, absolutely horrified by the state of the wallpaper in the nursery. She consistently repeats that the nursery would be all right if not for the revolting paper. Her feelings toward it go further than loathing. It physically nauseates her. This is due to, in part, the pattern of the wallpaper, which reminds the narrator of a fungus, “an interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions,” (Gilman 653). Along with the pattern, the wallpaper exudes a certain smell. The smell is described as a yellow smell, as if it matches the hideousness of the pattern. The narrator comes to the conclusion that the smell is not bad, simply peculiar, but terrible in the rain. The smell of a stale, damp, antique store comes to mind, one that has not been active for years. Perhaps, the smell resembles decay, which would be very abject, indeed.

            Along with the concept of disgust, the abject finds a way to pervert the most basic of items. Abjection warps reality to the point of interfering with life. “It is not the lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, order,” (Kristeva 4).  Not only is the narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper weird, it is disturbing. It is abject. One would not presume that wallpaper would be so intriguing, however, the narrator becomes absolutely captivated with it. Therefore, it consumes her every waking hour, including at night when she is supposed to be asleep. “I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can’t do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once,” (Gilman 654). The narrator perpetuates the abject by allowing herself to fall deeper into her fixation. “The one by whom the abject exists is thus a deject who places, separates, situates, and therefore strays instead of getting his bearings,” (Kristeva 8). Throughout the story, the narrator’s husband has this idea that confining her to the nursery will allow her to rest and heal. However, the narrator instead exiles herself from her surroundings, including her family, and continues to disconnect from reality. It is this scenario that proves to be more effectively abject than the smaller descriptive details of the wallpaper itself.

          “The Yellow Wallpaper” could be considered an uncanny piece, by Sigmund Freud’s definition. In his work titled “The Uncanny”, he states that “the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar,” (Freud 220). In plain language, it is the uncomfortable feeling that results from uncertainty. To accomplish discomfort in a piece of writing, one takes liberties with gothic locations, defamiliarization, liminal spaces, borders, doubles, and repetition. “The Yellow Wallpaper” exhibits several of these throughout the story. The most obvious use of the uncanny is the description of the house. The house is “a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house… but that would be asking too much of fate,” (Gilman 647). It has barred windows in the nursery, which is described as atrocious, as if a nursery could be so terrible. The wallpaper, as ugly as it is, is also torn and patchy. The bed in which the narrator resides is nailed to the floor, something that is very odd. Gilman also creates an uncanny feeling in her use of repetition throughout the story. Freud states “this phenomenon [repetition] does undoubtedly, subject to certain conditions and combined with certain circumstances, arouse an uncanny feeling which, furthermore, recalls the sense of helplessness,” (Freud 237). In the first two pages of her story, Gilman repeats the phrase three times, “what is one to do?” The narrator is essential concluding that she is powerless in her position, resigned to going along with whatever her husband desires. About halfway through the story, Gilman inserts the word “creep.” Throughout the remainder, that word, or some derivative of it, pops back up, especially when she is describing the woman from the wallpaper creeping throughout the grounds and when she writes about herself creeping around the nursery room at the end. These instances of repetition, along with the abjection of the wallpaper, come together to provide an all too uncomfortable sensation.

            The double is probably the most disconcerting and widely used method of horror. In countless horror movies and TV shows, twins are used to increase the spook factor. Furthermore, there are uses of doppelgangers and mirrors to play with the concept of the double. In a subtler way, Gilman provides the double in her story. Toward the middle of the story, the narrator concludes that she sees a woman in the wallpaper. She also writes that she sees similar women creeping about outside, in the gardens. Thus, there is a duplication of a single image. At the end of the story, the narrator alludes to the fact that she is the woman in the wallpaper. “I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did… I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard,” (Gilman 656). This is supremely uncanny, as it throws off all previous notions and interpretations of the story. The question of what exactly contributes to the wallpaper’s uncanniness is left open: is it haunted, is it imaginative, is it symbolic, or something more sinister?

           A key concept that coincides with the uncanny is estrangement, or defamiliarization. Estrangement is typically associated with an image, describing it in a way that makes it unfamiliar. In Theory of Prose, Victor Shklovsky writes that estrangement serves to “allow us to perceive the object in a special way, in short, to lead us to a ‘vision’ of this object rather than mere ‘recognition,’” (Shklovsky 10). Characterizing an object in an unfamiliar way leads to feelings of discomfort, as it places the reader in a new situation. Gilman uses defamiliarization in its primary sense throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” in her descriptions of spaces. For instance, early on, the narrator is writing about the house and the grounds. She mentions greenhouses; however, they are broken. This is concerning because greenhouses are supposed to be places of growth and life. Their brokenness could be alluding to the fragility of the narrator’s mental state, or to the haunted aspect of the mansion. Later in the story, Gilman once again illustrates the wallpaper to the readers using adjectives that are usually reserved for describing people. “The color is… unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing,” (Gilman 653). The adjectives make sense; but, they are rarely used in such a way, which makes them unfamiliar.

            The idea of estrangement actually goes deeper than the descriptions in the story. In the years that this story was initially circulating, women were property to be owned. Thus, the discussion of the narrator’s relationship with her husband, John, would be nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, in modern society, this story speaks loudly of the defamiliarization of marriage. In an article titled “Haunted House/Haunted Heroine: Female Gothic Closets in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’,” the author states “Gilman’s story nonetheless foregrounds the terror women continued to associate with their vulnerability in love and marriage,” (Davison 56). Marriage is now seen as an equal partnership between two individuals. But this could not be more untrue for Gilman’s piece. In the story, the narrator is constantly undermined by John. He speaks to her over and over as if she is a child with whims that she should not act on because they will only progress her nervousness. “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him,” (Gilman 649). The narrator is clearly suffering from a mental illness of some sort, whether that be depression or anxiety or some other diagnosis. From a modern perspective, her husband should support her and acknowledge her pain. This is not the case in the story, as John laughs at her and, eventually, the narrator grows fearful of him. Furthermore, in “Haunted House/Haunted Heroine,” Davison points out that the bed, which is nailed to the floor, is also representative of the oppressive marriage. It is unmovable, and it is the last remaining object in the nursery. That bed is the only thing standing in the narrator’s way to the solving the mystery of the wallpaper. In other words, her marriage is holding her back, preventing her from fulfilling her needs, wants, and desires. That could not be stranger to today’s readers because they expect the opposite. Thus, the uncanniness is increased.

           Charlotte Perkins Gilman utilizes the tools of abjection, uncanniness, and defamiliarization in her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” These tools, among others, create the perfect atmosphere for pushing boundaries. Creative works are centered on going against what is typical, inventing new realities and a new normal. Perhaps the way to do that is to approach it backward, upside down, or just completely twisted. It is only to be expected that, in order to be original, one must find different ways of making a statement that resounds throughout the years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Davison, Margaret Carol. “Haunted House/Haunted Heroine: Female Gothic Closets in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Routledge Taylor              and Francis Group, vol. 33, 2004, pp. 47-75.

Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works, vol. 17, 1919, pp. 219-252.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature for Composition: Reading and Writing Arguments about Essays, Fiction,              Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 8th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 765-75.            Print.

Kristeva, Julia. “Approaching Abjection.” Powers of Horror. Columbia University Press, 1982.

Shklovsky, Victor. “Art as Device”. Theory of Prose. Kalkey Archive Press, 1991. Print.

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