Charlotte Perkin's Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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Recommended: Women's rights in 19th century England

During and before the 1800s women had little to no rights. They were not allowed to vote, most did not have much of an education, they were suppose to stay home and take care of the children and home. Also, they could not own property under their name, their fathers owned it until they got married and then their new husband obtained the property once they were married (Gender Issues and Sexuality). By the end of the 1800s the women were tired of not getting the same rights as men and decided to fight for equality (Women Rights).
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story The Yellow Wallpaper demonstrates how women in the late 1800s felt trapped to their husbands, how men typically thought less of women, and how men made the house hold decisions.
Before the women’s rights movement got started in the late 1800s woman had little rights causing them to feel trapped to men. One of the reasons that women would sometimes feel trapped to men is because women at the time could not own their own land, and society looked at them as either their father’s belonging or when they got married they belonged to their husband. Women wanted to be able to own their own land and to be able to form their own identity by what they have accomplished in life (Gender Issues and Sexuality). Since the fathers or husbands “owned” the women of that time this could sometimes make the women feel trapped. For example, in the story The Yellow Wallpaper when the narrator sees that there is a women trapped in the wallpaper and says ‘the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out’ this symbolizing that the women is trapped by her husband and can not get out. Towards the end of the story the narrator says “to jump out the window would ...

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...t trapped to men, how men thought less of women and how men made all the families decisions and the women had no say in them.

Work cited

"Introduction to Women's Rights Movement." Gender Issues and Sexuality: Essential Primary Sources. Ed. K. Lee Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, and Adrienne Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 65. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

"Introduction to Women's Rights: Contemporary Issues Companion." Women's Rights. Ed. Shasta Gaughen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Contemporary Issues Companion. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

"Women’s Rights." Gale Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Donna Batten. 3rd ed. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 434-435. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

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