Reflections on Occurrences and Caring

I thought at first that my favorite reading from this week would be An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. I liked it mainly because of how accurate it was and chilling in its unexpected conclusion. It felt raw, and I like those raw portrayals of life from that era. I also like movies that are similar, but I really liked The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman most. 

I think it is often the case that the “weak” receive rough treatment even if unintentional. Even when we are trying to be kind, we overdo our care for others by overprotection. Sometimes care and compassion are also superficial means of control. Freud developed the oedipal complex as the underlying reason why family members might compete for attention. That doesn’t come in to play in Gilman’s short story, but superficial care and overdone compassion does. The husband’s love is misguided and superficial because he doesn’t truly see his wife’s needs. She is expressing them, and he is dismissing them. 

She feels overly protected. I think many women from that era would relate to that. I remember that my own wife felt shut in during the Covid epidemic. She couldn’t work, and she couldn’t see her friends and family, and it drove her to tears on several occasions. I was not the cause of that, but I can see first-hand, how being shut in leads to psychological trauma for some people more than others. 

But the unnamed wife in The Yellow Wallpaper is experiencing more than “cabin fever.” Perhaps the husband, who was a doctor, had antiquated presumptions about what was best. Perhaps, he felt that his wife’s hysteria, which in the past was associated with women because the word itself comes from a Greek word that indicates “uterus,” and was a feminine trait that required isolation and “dead time.” I can say with some experience dealing with mental illness myself, that the best thing for me oftentimes was to get out and go to work and see people. I can’t imagine experiencing the misplaced and overprotection of past misconceptions. 

For that reason, I do believe that the writing of Gilman in this short story is highly relatable to perhaps more than women, but also to other persons from that era who were “treated” for psychological issues. I find it fascinating and a relief to be alive when we are now. I also feel that women’s rights and privileges are far better now than previously. 

I could attempt to get into all the underlying existential components of her situation and thoughts as she realizes the woman behind the wallpaper is herself. I think that someone else could do a fascinating job of that, but I personally see the raw pain of living in a time when superstitious people and medical doctors thought they knew what was best but were severely ignorant. And people experience overprotection today, and men and women still come into conflict and misunderstanding. It is a common belief that self-actualization and authenticity is the evolving sense of freedom that we all seek. And I do feel that we all seek that on some level. Gilman also does a great justice to that sense of human nature.