This paper analyses Charlotte Gilman’s short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, drawing on feminist theories of the body that state that the body both reflects and resists gendered norms and that bodily conditions such as neurosis—an outcome of repressed conflict—can be read as a form of protest. Set during the Victorian period, the story challenges a patriarchal structure through a convincing portrayal of the manipulation of women during this period and of the descent into insanity—an outcome of this manipulation. The strategies —both overt and covert, structural and stylistic—employed by Gilman increase the impact of the story. Her use of the journal form allows a subversive subtext, and ironical statement and powerful symbolism not only support the subtext, but also leave space—as does the ambivalent ending—for the reader’s imagination to play a role, inviting her/him to participate in the creation of the text.

Jyoti Nandan completed her PhD in Literature at the ANU and is former Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Language, Literature & Communication, University of Fiji. Currently she is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, ANU. Her major research interests include Women’s Writing (Victorian period; South Asian diaspora); Postcolonial Studies; Gender Studies. She is on the Advisory Boards of the European Centre for the International Study of Literatures in English and Indi@logs, Spanish Journal of India Studies.