Given these turbulent hormonal shifts, it would be “abnormal” for most women not to experience some changes in feeling states shortly following childbirth. Commonly called the “maternity blues,” “postpartum blues,” or “baby blues”, women who gave birth recently are said to be hormonally stressed and they can suffer a period of depression usually lasting for a couple of days. Unlike women today who are given more freedom to become self-actualized individuals, women in the 19 th century have not yet attained the same status as they have today and the wallpaper evokes her being caught up, beyond resistance, in her role as a wife and mother during those times.Īt present, it has been already scientifically discussed that many, perhaps even most, new mothers experience mood changes, periods of tearfulness, and irritability following the birth of a child. Aside from the postpartum depression she is battling with, the yellow wallpaper in this story serves as a symbol of a feminist oppression experienced by most women during her time, as she feels that her creativity has been limited by the mores of society in the 19 th century. Doing a balancing act of being a mother and wife is sometimes too much too handle for a woman, what more if she is being prevented from expressing herself through writing? This is exactly what the unnamed woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (2002) is experiencing in the story. Being a wife and a mother at the same time can bestow a lot of stress to a woman who is just starting up to fill those shoes.
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