Paula Treichler

Treichler, Paula A. “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in “The Yellow Wallpaper”” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 3.1/2 (1984): 61-77. JSTOR. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.

Paula Treichler, a Professor of Women’s studies and Gender and African studies at Illinois universality through her article analyzes “The Yellow Wallpaper” in a feminist point of view as an account of “economic and social conditions that drive the narrator-and possibly all women- to madness (page 64).” This article also raises two vital issues for the Gilman’s story readers and in particular for the feminist critics: Initially, through the author discussion of the diagnosis, she to a greater extent works towards the definition of the patriarchal discourse; secondly, through the author’s close reading of the account, she has been able to show the problems associated with the wallpaper’s image hence calling into question the notion held by women’s discourse. Treichler explains the Yellow paper as a symbol that has implications for the position of the narrator within the spectrum of the patriarchal society. The author explores the verity that from the start when the woman was diagnosed by the doctor as having as slight hysterical tendency and temporary depression; the women does not believe that this is true(p. 61). Treichler continuous and state that the women suggests the diagnosis through undermining her conviction that the condition is real and serious and might, in fact, be the reason as to why she does feel well. the author progress to talk about what is the real meaning of a medical diagnosis and how the women changes herself so as to reinforces the terms of the expert diagnosis from her husband. This source integrates wide array of evidence within the text.

Through the article, Treichler offers one of the premier thorough and close readings of a short story that has for long attracted interests from feminists read and employed by historians, psychologists, literary critics and sociologists. The author provides at once a close reading and challenging thesis through which any person interested in the issue of the patriarchal structures and oppression of women can start and understand the discussion.