Feminist “Usher”: Domestic Horror in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Abstract

One of the recurring claims about Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is that it bears certain unmistakable likenesses to some of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Over the last 20 years, several critics have explored this significant literary relationship by reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” in light of tales such as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” (Golden, Sourcebook 28). Furthermore, many of Gilman’s earliest readers believed “The Yellow Wallpaper” to be an explicit extension of Poe’s interest in themes like madness, horror, and suspense. All of these approaches share the assumption that Gilman’s relationship to Poe is clear and obvious. Gilman herself clearly articulates her long-term interest in Poe not only in the many passages of her diary, but also in the section on Poe in her “Studies in Style.” While critics rightly point to Poe’s overall influence on Gilman, they typically overlook one of the most significant literary connections between them—the relationship between “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Although we do not wish to dismiss other readings that compare Poe and Gilman, we want to emphasize “Usher’s” unique significance for reading “The Yellow Wallpaper,” particularly because of its shared interest in women and madness.