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Analytical Paper
The Influence of the Society on Physical and Psychological Human State in The
Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Homage to Isaac Bashevis Singer by
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Nadzeya Lazarev
Doctor Kate Falvey
ENG 3404 – 1277: Literature of Illness and Care
30 April 2012
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The Influence of the Society on Physical and Psychological Human State
In the stories The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Homage to
Isaac Bashevis Singer by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, the protagonists have become the
victims of their inharmonious and neglectful society which restrains their lives physically and
psychologically. Every time an individual does something, do we always think about what
drives our behavior? Some people’s behavior may be the result of their internal power of
personal values and beliefs: they do what they want to do. Other people may only believe
that their power is internal, but in reality, it is influenced by external power: their actions are
adjusted by somebody or something existing apart from their mind. Others realize that they
have no inner power over their actions: their thoughts, choices, and doings are under outer
control. This external power can be the norms, rules, values, and beliefs of the society.
In Gilman’s story and Fromberg Schaeffer’s story, the protagonists are the women
who being influenced by social circumstances undergo their individual transformation
throughout the story. Gilman uses the narrative perspective to demonstrate the transformation
of a woman without a name. The woman is just a wife of a physician John who has never
called his wife by her name. John addresses his wife in the following way: “my dear,” “a
blessed little goose,” “little girl,” and “my darling” (Gilman). The author emphasizes that the
woman does not have a name since she represents every woman of the then male-dominant
society. Fromberg Schaeffer employs the third person’s perspective to show the
transformation of the main character Mrs. Klopstock. Mrs. Klopstock is a sixty-year-old
woman who lives separately from her middle-aged daughter and whose the only companion
is a neighbor who “sat in her [Mrs. Klopstock’] living room all day long” because there is a
television and that neighbor is “addicted to many programs” (Schaeffer 70).
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There is no doubt that Gilman’s narrator and Mrs. Klopstock do not possess mutual
relationships in their family; therefore, the authenticity of their family is doubted. However,
the society where they live recognizes this kind of family as normal. Thus, the question arises
how normal the society is, and the answer will be not at all.
Having a family, Gilman’s and Fromberg Schaeffer’s protagonists still feel alone.
The family loves them and cares for them, but they feel like no one truly cares about the
deeper things inside them. The connection among family members is lost. Gilman’s and
Fromberg Schaeffer’s women cannot share their true feelings, thoughts, and emotions with
their family since they do not receive a feedback response. For example, in The Yellow
Wallpaper, the narrator approaches her husband to talk frankly about her healing process, but
she “began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me [the narrator] with such
a stern, reproachful look that I [the narrator] could not say another word” (Gilman). In
Homage to Isaac Bashevis Singer, the dialogue between Mrs. Klopstock and her daughter
Elsa also reflects lack of harmony. During a phone call, the daughter talks in short about her
mother’s recovery progress: “That’s progress,’ said her daughter in a bored voice,” - and
indefinitely about her next visit: “When are you coming?’ she [Mrs. Klopstock] asked her
daughter. Her daughter was vague” (Schaeffer 76). Since the daughter perceives her mother
as to be as “crazy as a bedbug,” so the daughter does not see her mother at all (Schaeffer 77).
The families of Gilman’s narrator and Mrs. Klopstock listen or at least pretends to listens, but
do not hear and understand.
Losing the true connection with the family, the main characters have become
deprived of the vital human need for bonding and companionship. Burning with the desire to
write in hope that it “would relieve the press of ideas and rest me [the narrator]”, Gilman’s
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narrator becomes tired and discovers that “it is so discouraging not to have any advice and
companionship about my work” (Gilman). By the fourth week of the hospital stay, Mrs.
Klopstock “knew she was losing interest in life”, as a consequence, “she no longer answered
the phone” since “there was no one to whom she could talk” (Schaeffer 74). But what about
her daughter? Why does Mrs. Klopstock not want to talk to her during the hardest time? The
daughter is her closest, but the most distant relative; Elsa exists in Mrs. Klopstock’ life, but is
not willing to contribute to Mrs. Klopstock’s health and well-being.
Gilman’s narrator and Mrs. Klopstock are confined in order to treat their illness in an
environment against their will. As The Yellow Wallpaper was written in the late 19th century,
Gilman’s narrator can be a good example of submissive wife who has less independence and
control in her family, and whose role is to care for children and a husband. However, these
norms in the society lead an individual to harm. Being obedient to her husband, Gilman’s
narrator spends her “rest cure” period in a room, which she does not like, to treat her
condition diagnosed as “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency” by her
husband (Gilman). Even though she prefers another room that “opened on the piazza and had
roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings,” but John insists
that she stays in the room with the yellow wallpaper that arouses the feelings of irritation and
horror from his wife (Gilman). The narrator’s environment is under the control of her
husband: he decides who will visit her and whom she will visit, what, when and how she will
or will not do something. For example, the narrator is “forbidden to work,” even though she
disagrees and “believed that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her]
good” (Gilman). The narrator is not allowed to visit or invite Cousin Henry and Julia because
these people are perceived as “stimulating people” by John (Gilman). Since the narrator has
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no power to stand up and give voice to her ideas, she is losing more of her strength: “half the
time now I [the narrator] am awfully lazy, and lie down ever so much” (Gilman). The
prolonged confinement in the room with the yellow wallpaper causes not improvements, but
deterioration in the narrator’s mental health.
In Homage to Isaac Bashevis Singer, due to the prolonged high fever of 103 degrees,
Mrs. Klopstock is admitted to the hospital, although she wants to stay home assuring that
“she could shake it off at home” and “could take her aspirins herself” (Schaeffer 70).
Nonetheless, the doctor insists on the admission to the hospital, keeps Mrs. Klopstock there
without the ability to accurately diagnose and treat her, and, in eight weeks, sends her home
still with a fever. In the hospital, Mrs. Klopstock lives as if in a micro cosmos where the
control over her life and treatment belongs to heath care professionals, but not to her. She is
not the one who is able to participate in the decisions related to her health problems. She
suggests her real cause of the disease: “being upset could cause a fever,” “I don’t have it [an
infection of the heart valves]… It’s in my head” (Schaeffer 72), -- but nobody listens her
concerns about the disease. Moreover, being closed in the hospital where every patient is like
a prisoner who experiences neglectful and disrespectful attitudes from nurses (e.g., “the nurse
dragged Mrs. Smith from her bed and pushed her down on a chair,” “the nurse found no time
in which to help Mrs. Smith back to bed,” even though Mrs. Smith “was crying from
exhaustion”), she more and more is losing her mental and physical strength (Schaeffer 71).
Mrs. Klopstock is spending most of her day laying on a bed, and she “grew sicker and
sicker” (Schaeffer 75). The hospital does not do any good for her. She was supposed to feel
better there, but it makes her condition worse.
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Who has vested inalienable rights in these male doctors to take control of Gilman’s
narrator’s and Mrs. Klopstock’s lives when this control does more harm than good to these
women’s health? The society has. Since John is “a physician of high standing”, he wields
power over his wife’s personal life, health, and environment based on the norms and values
of the late 19th century American society (Gilman). When the narrator tries to explain her
health concerns, John declares that he is a doctor and he knows much better, instead of
carefully examining what is really going on with the healing process of his wife. Though he
ostensibly asks her questions (“Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?”), he
does not wait for an answer because he does not need it (Gilman). Like John in The Yellow
Wallpaper, the doctors in Homage to Isaac Bashevis Singer are not able to develop trust in
their patient, Mrs. Klopstock. The doctor insists: “You [Mrs. Klopstock] have to trust your
doctor” (Schaeffer 72), but Mrs. Klopstock is protesting against her treatment with the belief
that “the doctors were irresponsible” (Schaeffer 73). Her treatment is involuntary, her
environment is full of disrespectful attitudes and actions, but she cannot change it because
health care workers see it as the norm. Therefore, the hospital can serve as a mirror of the
society; the society dictates, the people follow without questioning whether their behavior is
reasonable and healthy.
Being so emotionally and physically restricted in their environment and life, Gilman’s
narrator and Mrs. Klopstock cannot just do nothing. They have the need of internal relief and
comforting. Both of them find their consolation in writing. Spending most of her days alone,
Gilman’s narrator writes secretly: “I don’t know why I should write this… But I must say
what I feel and think in some way – it is such a relief!” (Gilman) Being psychologically and
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physically exhausted after the hospital stay, Mrs. Klopstock regains her strength in writing
stories: “Writing gives me strength” (Schaeffer 77).
Being deficient in mutual human relationships, Gilman’s narrator and Mrs. Klopstock
are connected with something inanimate that changes their vision. The yellow wallpaper is an
object that plays an important role in the transformation and acquirement of new vision of
Gilman’s narrator. While she let the woman behind the wallpaper escape from the
surroundings by removing the old yellow wallpaper with “perplexing” pattern, she identified
herself with that woman as she released herself from her restrained male-dominant
environment (Gilman). The stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer not only have the power for Mrs.
Klopstock’s physical healing: “reading the stories lowered the temperature” (Schaeffer 76), -but also lead to cognitive changes, new perception, and discovering of herself. She discovers
that she is self-efficacious enough to regain control over herself, her attitudes and choices.
She would not become one of those who accepts the irrational norms and values of the
society that is sick in its roots. She understands that an individual possesses only one head
and one body, and the head cannot be just changed as in a doll since the head and the body
represents a whole of an individual. This new vision of Mrs. Klopstock is enforced by her
vivid dream about a doll whose head was full of crumbs and Mrs. Klopstock “couldn’t figure
out how to get the crumbs out of her [doll’s] hair” (Schaeffer 77). These crumbs represent
how a human mind can be filled with the stuff and the human does not have power to clear it
up.
At the end, enduring all burdens caused by the social systems, Gilman’s narrator and
Mrs. Klopstock come to some kind of resolution, but unresolved or incomplete ones because
of the social limitations. The slight feeling of depression of Gilman’s narrator transforms to
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mental breakdown and complete insanity. Gilman’s narrator “had to creep over him [her
husband] every time” because John has fainted after seeing his new wife (Gilman). Does it
mean that she is freed completely? What is in the future for her? How will her relationship
with the husband be affected? There is no clear answer. There are also many questions and
vague answers for Mrs. Klopstock and her family. After seeing a new mother, the daughter
Elsa experiences a vision of her mother merely for a second, but then rejects it. Elsa sees “a
white cloud of steam” that “rose in the air and hovered there” and feels “for a moment” that
“the room tilted and then it seemed to right itself” (Schaeffer 77). The daughter seems start
gaining the spiritual foundation with her mother; however, her doubts and views engendered
by the society do not allow opening herself.
Both Gilman’s narrator and Mrs. Klopstock have encountered changes in their lives
and turned to writing as a way of gaining strength and control; however, their family and the
society in general have not been ready for changes yet.
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Works Cited
Schaeffer, Susan Fromberg. “Homage to Isaac Bashevis Singer.” Imagine What It’s Like: A
Literature and Medicine Anthology. Ed. Ruth Nadelhaft and Victoria Bonebakker.
Hawai’i: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. 70-77. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Page by Page Books. Web. 20 Apr.
2012.