Ambiguity In Yasunari Kawabata's Sleeping Habit

Love is one of the most indescribable concepts that exist in one’s life experiences. Some argue that love is one of the most important things to have in life, which can shape and mold one’s interpretation of the world. Others may claim that love is an illusion, which serves as a distraction preventing individuals from being enlightened. The interpretation of love could be ambiguous, but the important thing is that love is very powerful and can severely affect an individual’s behavior, expectations in life, and sole responsibilities. Many writers have written about the power of love. Some of these works include, “The Love Suicides at Amijima”, “Death Constant Beyond Love”, and “Gilgamesh”. The most distinctive and comprehensive story involving

It is like a bad dream” (Gilman 294). As this sentence continues, the physical abuse in it gradually gets worse, representing the the constant damage society does to female role. Even if women attempted to get up from a hit, society will just hit back harder. Comparing it to a bad dream, Gilman implies that this pattern is never-ending. For the narrator, it felt like an eternity imprisoned in her bedroom with nothing to think about except for the yellow wallpaper. Through the use of figurative language, Gilman enhances the desire to break free of confinement. Gilbar and Gubar comment upon the story: “this paper surrounds the narrator like an inexplicable text, censorious and overwhelming as her physician husband, haunting as the “hereditary estates” in which she is trying to survive”(Gilbar and Guban 125). Gilbar and Gubar uses similes to say that the paper is incapable of being explained, especially towards the narrator. However, because it is very difficult to explain, it gives the narrator and opportunity to work her brain and figure it out herself. The narrator’s husband is described as “censorious” and “overwhelming” which also describes men’s role and power, very critical and overpowering. Because her husband resembles men in societal norms, the narrator is forced to bend to his every will. One of which being to stay confined in her bedroom with no work

Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper depression invisible to her husband, which is also her doctor, who believes he knows what is best for her. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness. Everyday she keeps looking at the torn yellow wallpaper. While there, she is forbidden to write in her journal, as it indulges her imagination, which is not in accordance with her husband's wishes. Despite this, the narrator makes entries in the journal whenever she has the opportunity. Through these entries we learn of her obsession with the wallpaper in her bedroom. She is enthralled with it and studies the paper for hours. She thinks she sees a woman trapped behind the pattern in the paper. The story reaches its climax when her husband must force his way into the bedroom, only to find that his wife has pulled the paper off the wall and is crawling around the perimeter of the room.

When one feels protects in life, one cannot experience the benefits within life. For instance, Olive and Sarah Ann’s father holds both of them back from the opportunities in life. This is illustrated when Olive’s future husband, Mr. Dixon asks her, “Why do you wear your hair like that? You ought to shake it loose around your shoulders”. He surprises why Olive all the time makes braids in her hair instead of letting it loose or free. Mr. Dixon attempts to figure out why Olive allows her father to hold her back, much like the braids in her hair. This statement is motive because Olive starts to question her father about  confinement at home due to a man. Mr. Dixon Uses her hair as a metaphor, by his questioning, that without her job at the post office, she should give a look more in her life. By making braids and keeping her hair open, author tries to illustrate that she is a bit confused whether or not to stay at home which is like a prison by conforming her father’s rules or just get away from here and make her

The hand is personified in the story; “The hand, disturbed by a bad dream, appeared to respond to this startling discovery, this disgust. It regroups its forces, open wide, and splayed its tendons, lumps, and red fur like battle dress, then slowly drawing itself in again, grabbed a fistful of the sheet, dug into it with its curved fingers, and squeezed, squeezed with the methodical pleasure of a strangler.” From this description, the reader can visualize the violent nature that the hand has. In the quote, the hand is described as using its forces, having red fur that resembles battle dress, and digging into sheets. In addition, at the very end of the section the comparison of the hand squeezing the sheets to “the methodical pleasure of a strangler” is a very violent description and gives the reader a aggressive visual of the movements. Not only by the description of the hand’s visual appearance but also by the description of each aggressive fear evoking movement seem to cause the wife to fear the hand. (relates to feeling about

Forced to lie in bed all day and take it easy, the narrator becomes obsessed by the wallpaper and is drawn into trying to interpret it. She imagines a woman trapped within the paper. The narrator decides to strip off all of the wallpaper in her room, this is the moment of ultimate rebellion for the protagonist, and she is taking action towards independence. When John comes home to find the door locked, he begins freaking out. When he finally gets into the bedroom the narrator’s actions are so extraordinary and shocking that her husband faints. Through everything that is going on the narrator keeps creeping around the room in circles stripping all of the wallpaper off to free the woman that is trapped within.

With good intentions, John controls his wife's life and makes all decisions for her, whether she agrees with them or not. His wife is full aware of the restrictions that her husband has imposed on her, but she is recessive to his control and often agrees with him. However, she fails to see “signs of her confinement: the bars at the window, the gate at the top of the stairs, steel rings on the walls, and the nailed-down bestead” (Korb). Because she is unable to escape from the isolation that her husband has kept her in, the woman seeks relief from the yellow wallpaper and she creates an imaginary relationship it. In fact, the worst thing her husband should not of done is give his unstable wife an object that is not appealing to focus on. In doing so, he has given her an opportunity to let her mind wonder and create objects that no one else sees. John, however, does not give any thought to this because after all, he thinks he knows what is best for his wife.

Unconscious sexual drives are the most powerful behaviours of mankind. Libido, colloquially known as sex drive, drastically affects one’s thoughts and actions and leads to abnormal behavioural consequences. Guy de Maupassant’s “Was It a Dream?” is about a man who spends all his spare time mourning over his lover’s grave. The story reveals the adverse psychological relationship to sexuality, as the man’s actions are molded by his affection towards his lover. Hence, sexual drives lead to an unconscious mind and results in displacement of love as it is a powerful and pleasurable tool that all human beings desire.

However, due to the narrator’s “imaginative power and habit of story-making”, her husband tells her, “a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency, so I try.” (439). Being forbidden to have an imagination leaves the narrator emotionally distressed and irritated with feelings of oppression, but she ignores her husband’s ideas and occupies her imagination with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds the room, developing some sort of relationship with it that allows her to confess her suppressed feelings.

She has been trained to trust in her husband blindly and sees no other way. He calls her “little girl” (352) and “little goose” (349) and states “She will be as sick as she pleases!” (352) whenever she tries to express her issues. Instead of fighting for what she thinks will make her better she accepts it and keeps pushing her feelings aside, while he treats her like a child. We get an instant feel for her problem in the first page when she says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (pg 346). A woman shouldn’t expect her husband to laugh at her concerns. Even after briefly writing about her condition she remembers her husband telling her the very worst thing she can do is think about it and follows his instructions. This is when she begins to focus on the house instead of her problems and the obsession with the wallpaper starts. She has nothing else to think about alone in the home; they don’t even allow her to write, which she has to do in secret.

It not only threatens, but also breaks through. Betrayed by love once in her life, she nevertheless seeks it in the effort to fill the lonely void; thus, her promiscuity. But to adhere to her tradition and her sense of herself as a lady, she cannot face this sensual part of herself. She associates it with the animalism of Stanley's lovemaking and terms it “brutal desire”. She feels guilt and a sense of sin when she does surrender to it, and yet she does, out of intense loneliness. By viewing sensuality as brutal desire she is able to disassociate it from what she feels is her true self, but only at the price of an intense inner conflict. Since she cannot integrate these conflicting elements of desire and gentility, she tries to reject the one, desire, and live solely by the other. Desperately seeking a haven she looks increasingly to fantasy. Taking refuge in tinsel, fine clothes, and rhinestones, and the illusion that a beau is available whenever she wants him, she seeks tenderness and beauty in a world of her own making.

The narrator’s feelings of inferiority and powerlessness parallels the female figure she sees trapped behind the pattern in the wall-paper adorning her room. She gradually withdraws from both John and reality by locking herself in the room and ultimately merging with the figure. Through the changing image of the pattern from a “fait figure” (Gilman 46) to a “woman stooping” (Gilman 46) behind the paper and “shaking the bars” (Gilman 46) as if she wanted “to get out” (Gilman 46), we can see her becoming one with the figure: “I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper.”(51) Her collapse into madness as reflected in her behavior with the “bedstead [that] is fairly gnawed” (Gilman 51) and her “creeping all around” (Gilman 50) is a direct result of her passive submissiveness to John’s control of her life.

Throughout the beginning of the story, the wife continually references the things “John says” (844-5). That indicates to me that she is timid and perhaps frightened of him. “John says this,” and “John says that,” shows me that our narrator doesn’t feel permitted to have a thought that is her own. The story’s unilateral male, as well as unilateral female conversations are friendly and comfortable. However, male to female conversation in the writing is dominant, aggressive, assertive and sometimes dangerous. Female to male exchanges appear delicate, soft and understanding, always agreeing with the male perspective. I would consider women in this time period to be viewed as a pet or toy to the male, dominant figure in her life. The use of the words in this short is very important, and gives you the information to interpret the story. For instance, on page 845 it says, “It was a nursery first, then a playroom and gymnasium. I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children.” This discloses that our woman has post-partum depression. At the very least, she feels as if she is trapped or in an asylum within her own home. Perhaps this feeling of entrapment lends itself to driving her mad. It is no surprise that the woman feels trapped behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. Her days and nights are filled with constant repetition of the same nothingness. She is left with little to

The mood of the story shifted from nervous, anxious, hesitant even, to tense and secretive, and shifts again to paranoid and determination. Her anxiousness is evident whenever she talks to John. She always seems to think for lengthy time when attempting to express her concerns about her condition to him. The mood shift from anxious to secretive is clear when she writes “I had no intention of telling him it was BECAUSE of the wall-paper.” (9). She wants no one to figure out the affect the wallpaper has on her and she wants to be the only one to figure out its pattern. The final mood shift to determination is obvious when she writes “But I am here, and no person must touch this paper but me – not ALIVE!” (11). She is steadfast in attempting to free the woman from the wallpaper. She even goes as far as to lock herself in the room to make sure that she is not interrupted. The major conflicts of this story are the narrator versus John over the nature of her illness and its treatment and the narrator’s internal struggle to express herself and claim independence. During the entire story her and John’s views about her treatment conflict with each other, especially when it comes to her writing. He even makes her stay in the room upstairs instead of in a prettier room downstairs that she would prefer. She often keeps her views to herself or writes them down in

She conveys her desperate need for the male domination in her life !!, and this sets her aside form the