
The Criterion: An International Journal in English
Comparative Literature
The Hysteric's Cage: A Psychological Analysis of Domestic Space in Three Texts- Mrs Dalloway, The Yellow Wallpaper and Sons and Lovers
Abstract
There is a significant conceptual change in contemporary English fiction of domestic space. The house that used to be viewed as a source of comfort, moral stability and emotional stability, is becoming increasingly viewed as a source of psychological repression and a prison. This paper will discuss how the house space becomes a psychological prison in three major works of the contemporary era: Sons and Lovers (1913) by D. H. Lawrence, Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf, and The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. By relying on feminist, psychoanalytic, and spatial concepts, the paper argues that the home is the key ideological device that contemporary novelists use to restrict personal freedom, enforce gender norms and increase emotional conflict. The paper describes the effects of domestic surroundings on the inner consciousness, and result in identity fragmentation, emotional dependency, and repression via extensive text analysis. To depict domestic confinement as an internalization, and not as a mere physical limitation, such narrative art devices as a stream of consciousness, interior monologue, symbolism of rooms, and psychological realism are required. Gilman symbolizes domestic restriction as outward and harsh, Woolf demonstrates psychologically restricted by societal veil, and Lawrence demonstrates emotionally restricted by togetherness. They both confront the traditional idea of the house as a place of escape by transforming domestic space into a symbol of contemporary interests in alienation, gendered power, and the fractured self
Keywords
Domestic Space, Psychological Prison, Modern English Novel, Gender, Alienation, Identity
How to Cite
Dimple Malik. “The Hysteric's Cage: A Psychological Analysis of Domestic Space in Three Texts- Mrs Dalloway, The Yellow Wallpaper and Sons and Lovers.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 1, Feb. 2026, pp. 603-616. ISSN: 0976-8165.
