Effect of Oppression in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a self-told story about a woman who approaches insanity. The story examines the change in the protagonist's character over three months of her seclusion in a room with yellow wallpaper and examines how she deals with her "disease." Since the story is written from a feminist perspective, it becomes evident that the story focuses on the effect of the society's structure on women and how society's values destruct women's individuality. In "Yellow Wallpaper," heroine's attempt to free her own individuality leads to mental breakdown.
Right from the beginning of the story, it becomes clear that the protagonist has no voice. Her husband is very controlling and oppressive since she has to ask him for permission to do anything. He prohibits her of writing and seeing people she loves, assuming he is the only one who knows what's best for her. The fact that he's a physician emphasizes that he is a man in power and that it would be impossible for the narrator to object to the treatment he prescribed her. Moreover, she doesn't try to disobey him, but rather she hides her true feelings inside and suppresses her emotions around him, so he wouldn't send her away for more serious treatment.
Even though her husband treats her with what seem at first as love, it becomes clear she is nothing more to him than a piece of property. Every time he talks to her, he asks her to get better for his sake and the children's, and only after mentions hers interests. He doesn't think that she has any normal human feelings or worries and attributes her behavior to minor nervous depression. He doesn't see her true suffering since he believes "there is no reason to suffer" (574). He could never understand that a woman can be unsatisfied with the role imposed on her by society. Even though the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than John's theory, she is too scared to voice her opinion.
From being secluded in the room for three months, heroine starts slowly to realize that her depression is caused by oppression of her husband. She recognizes that she gets "unreasonably angry with John sometimes" and later wishes he would get his own room (573).
First, the narrator also known as Jane is sick and her husband John does not believe that. Her husband does not know that so what he does is look her in a room. Which doesn’t work it just makes her even more sick and crazy. He doesn’t try to do anything to help her. All John can think of is lock her in a room. The narrator’s husband is a physician as well as her brother. They say that if
She makes herself believe that as a “physician” he knows what’s best for her and, therefore, acts passively, letting John control her even though she gets “unreasonably angry with” him (Gilman40). Writing in her journal is the only thing that keeps her sane; yet John takes that away from her: “I must put this away-he hates to have me write” (Gilman 41). The narrator yearns to confess to John how she really feels, but she prefers to keep her feelings bottled up: “I think sometimes that if I were to write a little it would relieve the pressure of ideas and rest me” (Gilman 42). Instead, she is passive and hides her emotions. “I cry at nothing and cry most of the time.
She had to do what he said not what she wanted. “If a physician of high standing, and one 's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?”( Gilman) She felt alone and misunderstood especially by her husband. He would treat her as a little girl he would call her “little goose, dear, darling” he would even carry her upstairs and read her a story until she would fall asleep. He made a schedule for her for every hour of the day and he had someone watching her all day while he was away. John seem like a sweet caring man but I think he was just doing all this to keep her under control. The house where he took her is like a jail because it has barred windows, her room was upstairs with a gate on top of the stairs, the bed is bolted to the floor. Living in a place like this made it difficult to escape. She did not wanted to be in the room he chose for her because she did not like it. She wanted to be in another room downstairs and he would not allow her to be in the room she wanted to be in. By John treating her this way he was not helping with her mental state because he was forcing her to be somewhere were she did not wanted to be. John did not see how his wife was struggling and felt trap inside of
Women's roles within society have changed drastically throughout history. Today, women assume relative equality in society with men; women have the right to vote, own property, get divorced, and hold the same jobs, among other things. Prior to 1919, however, women were dominated by the largely misogynistic society that existed in the United States; women did not have the right to vote and were not regarded as equal to men in marriage or otherwise (“woman suffrage”). The late nineteenth century in the United States was also a time when society viewed individuals with mental illnesses as “a threat to public safety” (Holtzman). Therefore, “people with mental illness were cared for by family members, who quietly attended to their needs in rural areas” (Holtzman). These are the conditions the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was living within.
Women's Subordination in The Yellow Wallpaper. "The Yellow Wallpaper," written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study of insanity. It is a bitter story of a young woman driven to insanity by a "loving" husband-doctor, who imposes Mitchell's "rest cure." "1 This short story vividly reflects a woman in torment. This story starts out with a hysterical woman who is overprotected by her "loving" husband, John.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria.
The narrator is trying to get better from her illness but her husband “He laughs at me so about this wallpaper” (515). He puts her down and her insecurities do not make it any better. She is treated like a child. John says to his wife “What is it little girl” (518)? Since he is taking care of her she must obey him “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word”. The narrator thinks John is the reason why she cannot get better because he wants her to stay in a room instead of communicating with the world and working outside the house.
The woman suffers from depression and is prescribed a rest cure. John believes that she is not sick, but she is just fatigued and needs some rest. John took her to a summer home and placed her in a room upstairs. He then instructs her to rest and not to do any writing. John's views as a doctor forbid any type of activity, even writing, for he feels it will only worsen her already fragile condition. The woman believes she would feel better if she could write: "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (470). The woman did not like the room that John put her in: "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it" (470).
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which many times led to their confinement. The short story illustrates male superiority and the restriction of a woman’s choice regarding her own life. The author’s diction created a horrific and creepy tone to illustrate the supernatural elements that serve as metaphors to disguise the true meaning of the story. Through the use of imagery, the reader can see that the narrator is living within a social class, so even though the author is trying to create a universal voice for all women that have been similar situations, it is not possible. This is not possible because there are many
Learning of her nervous condition, known today as anxiety, and depression leads her to seek help. Seeing that her husband is a doctor, he happens to know that rest is the perfect cure. Not only that, he also knows what is favorable, along with what is unfavorable for her condition. John as a high standing physician of his time warns his wife, the narrator, that talking about it will affect her condition. Keeping in her thoughts along with her feelings cannot be healthy. "Repression cannot be healthful and as the protagonist grows quieter, she is becoming more and more mad" (Wagner-Martin 291). Her husband does mean well. He loves her, but he is overbearing. John feels the need to be in control of everything she does to make sure her condition does not worsen. To him, he believes that talking about her illness will cause it to worsen. Nevertheless, he does not want that. To combat that, he enforces that she does not talk about it. Although bottling up feelings can cause explosive consequences when done for an extended period of time. She has been in that house for three months, so the whole time she was getting restless.
The narrator struggled with her self-identity primarily due to her unequal relationship with her husband John unequal relationship. Their disproportionate relationship is a picture of the larger gender inequality in society. John’s patronizing and fatherly behavior toward his wife seems to not be due to her illness. He outright dismisses her opinions and her “flights of fancy” with equal aloofness, while he depreciates her creative impulses. The narrator reveals how restrained she is when she says: “There comes John, and I must put this away,-he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 309). She is a grown woman, and she is not allowed to express her thoughts even on paper. John speaks of her as he would a child, calling her his “little girl” and saying of her, “bless her little heart!” (Gilman 314). John dominates her judgments on the best course of treatment for herself, forcing her to live in a house she despises, in a room she loathes, and in a remote environment which
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman is about a woman suffering from mental illness that came about after her baby. Her husband, John, who is a doctor, calls it nervous depression. The couple is staying in a mansion for three months due to the narrator needing to be bed rested. Within this mansion, John makes his wife stay in one of the rooms upstairs that is covered in an ugly, yellow wallpaper; John makes all the decisions for him and the Narrator. The Narrator completely hates the room because of the wallpaper. Soon, the Narrator becomes obsessed with the wallpaper, especially the pattern of the wallpaper, and that their is a woman trapped within the wallpaper. The obsession continues to grow through out the story until the Narrator
Gilman shows through this theme that when one is forced to stay mentally inactive can only lead to mental self-destruction. The narrator is forced into a room and told to be passive, she is not allowed to have visitors, or write, or do much at all besides sleep. Her husband believes that a resting cure will rid her of her “slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 478). Without the means to express herself or exercise her mind in anyway the narrator begins to delve deeper and deeper into her fantasies. The narrator begins to keep a secret journal, about which she states “And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way - it is such a relief” (Gilman 483)! John tells his wife that she must control her imagination, lest it run away with her. In this way John has asserted full and complete dominance over his wife. The narrator, though an equal adult to her husband, is reduced to an infancy. In this state the narrator begins her slow descent into hysteria, for in her effort to understand herself she fully and completely loses herself.
Since society dictates that women are weak and irrational, John sees the narrator that way and misinterprets her illness. Also, by examining the authoritative way John treats the narrator, the readers obtain a better understanding of their relationship as husband and wife. In their marriage, John makes decisions on the narrator’s behalf while she is expected to be submissive. Society’s representation of women is so ingrained in John’s mind that he fails to see his wife as his equal, but instead as a weaker counterpart who is in need of a man’s wisdom and counsel. John’s narrow-minded thinking affects the narrator by giving her feelings of defeat and powerlessness. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. John’s decision to stick to his prejudiced thinking and to treat the narrator using this ‘rest cure’ leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her damaged mental state is evident when she says, “All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths shriek with derision!”
Even when a summer in the country and weeks of bed-rest don't help, her husband refuses to accept that she may have a real problem. Throughout the story there are examples of the dominant-submissive relationship. She is virtually imprisoned in her bedroom, supposedly to allow her to rest and recover her health. She is forbidden to work, "So I...am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again." She is not even supposed to write: "There comes John, and I must put this away - he hates to have me write a work." She has no say in the location or décor of the room she is virtually imprisoned in. "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted...but John would not hear of it." Another factor is being forbidden to have visitors: "It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work...but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now." Probably in large part because of her oppression, she continues to decline. "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in the mind so!" Here she is expressing her feelings for the room that she has been forced to live in, as it grows on her. At this point it becomes quite apparent, to the reader, that she is not getting any better. In later lines she talks of herself laying on the bed and trying to follow the lines to their destinations, wherever they might lead.