Full review on: Flipping Through the Pages

The Yellow Wall-Paper is a short-story collection by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The first story is The Yellow Wall-Paper, because of which Charlotte Perkins Gilman is generally known for. And surely, after reading this, I can say that this story needs all the attention. This is a story about a woman in the Victorian era who was suffering from depression, after giving birth to her child and wasn’t given the proper medical attention. Those days a general physician was considered qualified enough to treat the depression and “rest cure” was said to be the possible solution. Her husband was a physician too and he confined her into a room having a yellow wallpaper. He though that she would be best cured if she would stay home doing nothing and interacting with no one. But, being trapped in her home all day with only that yellow wallpaper to see, she slowly starts getting mad.

This story seems normal in the beginning but near the end, I was really creeped out too and also started imagining that yellow wallpaper. This really shows how impactful the writing of the author is. This is also a feminist piece of literature that shows how much control men had over women and the medical profession in the 19th century. The end of the story is like an open interpretation. Different scholars have different views about that ending. Whatever the views are, it is really a moving and horrific tale of feminism and mental illness.

The second story is called The Rocking Chair which is a Gothic horror. This is a story about two friends, Maurice and Hal, who were looking for rooms to rent but halts in a shabby guesthouse, enchanted by a golden-haired girl sitting on a rocking chair. Soon the supernatural events starts happening. Both the men got transfixed by the golden-haired girl and wanted to meet her. They get obsessed with her and gradually destroys their own relationship after they accuse each other of rocking with her on the chair.

The pace of the story is definitely fast which doesn’t let you get bored till the end. However, I felt that the relationship of Maurice and Hal was little disintegrated and was bit abrupt. Though I predicted the end earlier, it was an interesting gothic horror tale.

The third story, Old Water, is not my favourite and I was a little confused about the ending. Old Water is a story about a mother, her daughter and a poet. The mother and daughter are like opposites. The mother is romantic, likes poetry and is cultured, whereas her daughter is athletic, doesn’t like poetry and is sensible. The mother was once married to a man with good job and prospects but she always desired for romantic passion. She wanted her daughter to give what she herself never had. So she tries to foist a young handsome poet to her daughter. Something supernatural happens by the end but the overall tone of the story is quite comic.

At the core, this story is about the mother-daughter relationship. It is about the love of a mother, doesn't matter how flawed it is. The story was a little tragic from the mother’s point-of-view. She wanted her daughter to have love, but her daughter doesn’t want the same. This explains the nature of love.

I would really recommend this story collection if you want to read something different. The Yellow wall-paper was my favourite and truly is a classic to remember. While The Rocking Chair was overall good, I found Old Water to be an average read.

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