«The Yellow Wallpaper»: algunas consideraciones sobre el doble subjetivo femenino

Abstract

Of the many studies that address the contribution Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) made to feminism, hardly any consider the topic of the double beyond its classification as a symptom of mental disorder. This article looks into the treatment of feminine identity through the use of the double. Jourde and Tortonese’s approach (1996) allows for an essential distinction by proposing an interesting gender feature: the splitting of feminine characters usually takes place through external or objective Doppelganger. The subjective double is almost never embodied by women. The feminine subjective double is thus moved away from the canonical discourse on the exploration of modern identity. Therefore, the literary device is charged with the task of examining and producing its own identity: its voice cannot speak for the entirety of human concerns, only for itself as a woman.