Defense Mechanisms In The Yellow Wallpaper

The mind is a fascinating aspect of humankind. It allows people to problem solve in ways that other organisms cannot. Sometimes, however, the mind works against humans without their knowledge. People unconsciously use defense mechanisms to deal with stress and anxiety. The characters in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter all use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from stressors in their environments.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is told in stream of consciousness style by a woman who is writing diary entry style updates on her experience with the rest cure, a common prescription for the postpartum depression she experiences after the birth of her child. Throughout the story, it becomes obvious that she is using multiple defense mechanisms to deal with her forced isolation. The room with the awful yellow wallpaper once belonged to a boys’ school. In one of her later entries, she notices that the

She initially tells the young doctor: “Get along now, take your schoolbooks and go. There’s nothing wrong with me” (Porter 673). Denial is one of the first stages of the acceptance of death. It is described as “an ego fight/flight defense against the harness of realities of dying” (Stillion & Attig 7). By denying the fact that it’s her time to pass on, she doesn’t have to try to grasp the complex concept of mortality. It’s hard to accept the fact that one isn’t going to live forever. Although Granny is saying she’s fine, she clearly isn’t. Moments after she proclaims that there isn’t anything wrong with her, Porter writes that “her bones felt loose, and floated around in her skin, and Doctor Harry floated like a balloon around the foot of her bed” (Porter 673). Granny is hallucinating, and probably floating in and out of