Psychodrama and mental illness as resistance in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s the yellow wallpaper (1892)‎

Abstract EN

The yellow wallpaper (1892) deals with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s battle with psychiatric disorder, which seems to accompany her since childhood.

it sheds light on the social and historical context when mental disorders were used to resist oppression.

the novelette explores the effect of external factors on the progression of mental disorder.

the narrator gives the readers important clues about the origins and progression of her mental illness.

the novelette belongs to psychodrama-morenean therapeutic method used to treat psychiatric disorders-as it deals with the narrator’s experience with mental illness.

the writer makes use of morenean techniques throughout the novel such as spontaneity, surplus reality and catharsis.

spontaneity is an important technique, which is put into focus through the narrator’s use of unconventional structure and characters’ surprising reactions to the unexpected situations that take place throughout the story.

the narrator’s illusions represent the surplus reality she aspires to experience.

catharsis is experienced by the characters and the audience at the end of the play, when the narrator creeps over the body of her husband who fainted when he sees his wife’s descent into madness.

the novelette suggests that abiding by subjugating gender roles could lead the oppressed into madness.