Changing Rooms!

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an early twentieth century American writer, novelist, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer, was a woman out of time. Her short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' explores the trauma of her own bout of mental illness and subsequent misguided medical treatment. Her struggle to change both the hideous wallpaper and the treatment that was meted out to her, disguised as care, by the patriarchal medical profession personified by her husband, very nearly caused her to become incurably insane.

Her sister-in-law modelled the ideal of womanhood: "A perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper....I really believe she thinks that writing makes me sick," who is totally in thrall to both brother and brother-in-law, is patronised by them, and so given a lowly place in society. Nevertheless, it was a place, and one that she wouldn't have had without them. Gilman, however, attempts to write without anyone knowing, as being unable to write means submitting to a smothering authority. The effort of being sly or else being met with heavy opposition drains her. All overt opposition slowly saps the energy of any recipient, leaving them exhausted and unable to fight. She cannot change the writing on her walls by her own efforts, so she is left in the uncomfortable situation of having only the old wallpaper to read, finding it repellent and revolting.

This story is about the changing role of womanhood and one woman's struggle to be free. It is, however, the perfect metaphor for the struggle to change the writing on our own walls, or be destined to read the old writing that has been put there by: parents, teachers, newspapers, television, cinema and religion that no longer serves any purpose but to keep us in step with the comfort zones of those that have decorated our walls with their worn out truths. We know by looking at our lives that there is something very wrong, but have we the courage to look and change?

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