Throughout the nineteenth century the roles played in culture and society by men and women started to change. Women began achieving rights that allowed them to further their education and careers outside of the home. Even though these rights began to form, men were still considered superior to women. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” there is a prominent theme of men controlling women. The two most active characters, John and his wife, demonstrate the relationship between a man and a woman in this time period. Women in this era had just begun to secure some freedom from their typical cultural expectations. They were expected to take care of the children, cook, clean, sew and be presentable to society. As jobs were made available to women, only a low percentage of these women started to work outside of the home. This means that many women had chosen to stay inside the home to remain in the role of “house keeper”. Even though the woman attained some freedom they were still considered inferior to men. Men still had the most authority in the household and …show more content…
Due to the narrators condition she is “forbidden to “work” until…” (Gilman 478) she is well. She is a writer but she is not allowed to do what she loves because of the medical regimen her husband put her on. This regimen was known as the “rest cure” (Mays 478) created by Silas Weir Mitchell. The “rest cure” included a regimen of “enforced bedrest, seclusion and overfeeding” (Stiles 32). The creator of this cure, Mitchell, had another cure for men called the “west cure” (Stiles 32). The “west cure” had activities such as hunting and cattle roping. Mitchell displays through these two cures, the difference between men and women. Women get the regimen of staying in the home and doing as little work as possible, whereas men had to go outside of the home and do “manly”
... The women had no choice but to go along with the men’s choices. Nineteenth century women did not have much of a role in society, and it was meant to stay that way. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is classified as a feminist text because it portrays the desire for women to escape the society that has neglected them for so many years. Works Cited Ford, Karen.
The medical profession’s godlike attitude in “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates this arrogance. The Rest cure that Dr. Weir Mitchell prescribed, which is mentioned in Gilman’s work, reflects men’s disparaging attitudes. His Rest cure calls for complete rest, coerced feeding and isolation. Mitchell, a neurosurgeon specializing in women’s nervous ailments, expounded upon his belief for women’s nervous conditions when he said,
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s bodies of work, Gilman highlights scenarios exploring traditional interrelations between man and woman while subtexting the necessity for a reevaluation of the paradigms governing these relations. In both of Gilman’s short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Turned”, women are victimized, subjected and mistreated. Men controlled and enslaved their wives because they saw them as their property. A marriage was male-dominated and women’s lives were dedicated to welfare of home and family in perseverance of social stability. Women are expected to always be cheerful and good-humored. Respectively, the narrator and Mrs. Marroner are subjugated by their husbands in a society in which a relationship dominated by the male is expected.
In the 1800’s, women lived under men’s rules and ideologies and were forced to conform to the social “norms” of the time. To women, these rules seemed normal as they were used to them. In the story, Jane is put in a nursery because she is said to be sick and
In the nineteenth century men and women were subjects of patriarchal societies and as such fit into the particular gender associated roles. Men were considered to be in control and were often professionals. Women, on the other hand, were supposed to be pious and domestic—the “hostage in the home” (Welter 43). Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “the Yellow Wallpaper” and Barbara Welter’s “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860” reflect the suppressed life that American women were forced to live. Gilman’s narrator suffers from the patriarchal construct of her society but in the end shows that the cult of true womanhood can be broken through. While the narrator’s intense imagination would have allowed her to excel in writing being subject to the cult of true womanhood subdued her potential causing her to revolt against society. Gilman illustrates the oppression of women in society through the characters of the narrator, her husband John, John’s sister Jennie, the nanny Mary and, of course, the woman in the wallpaper.
During the late 1800’s, the oppression of women was far too common, and while some women accepted this inequality, others realized the injustice and made the first steps to exposing the ugly truth and creating the society in which we live today: where single-sex dominance is frowned upon and equality is fought for publically and proudly. The author of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gillman, was one of these strong-headed women who, despite living amongst a society who knew no different, believed that a woman should be permitted to live her life alongside her husband-or alone if so chose- instead of under his reproachful stare and dominating thumb. She voiced this through the overwhelming symbolism threaded throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” choosing both animate and inanimate characters to each symbolically represent a piece of the oppression system.
The main and most evident theme among many in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the treatment and status of women in society. The topic of women’s struggles and how it is portrayed in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is relevant to this literature course because various stories and discussions of said stories have been about the place of women in history and even modern times. Back in 1899 when “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written, women were not present in America’s workforce, barred from casting a ballot, and when married, husbands legally owned all of their property. In this essay, I will examine quotes and statements by the narrator, the relationship between the narrator and her husband John, and various symbols throughout the story to argue how they relate
The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about control. In the time frame in which the story was written, the 1800’s, women were looked upon as having no effect on society other than bearing children, maintaining a clean house, and food on the table etc. etc. There was really no means for self expression as a woman, when men not only dominated society but the world. The story was written at a time when men held the jobs, knowledge, and society above their shoulders. The narrator on, "The Yellow Wallpaper" in being oppressed by her husband, John, even though many readers believe this story is about a woman who loses her mind, it is actually about a woman’s struggle to regain, something which she never had before, control of her life.
In the 19th century society was from different from what it is today. Women were not in the workforce, could not vote, or even have a say in anything. Women were not permitted to give evidence in court, nor, did they have the right to speak in public before an audience. When a woman married, her husband legally owned all she had (including her earnings, her clothes and jewelry, and her children). If he died, she was entitled to only a third of her husband’s estate. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change this. She wanted people to understand the plight of women in the 19th century. In her short story The Yellow Wallpaper she tries to convey this to the reader not just on a literal level, but through various symbols in the story. In The Yellow Wallpaper the author uses symbols to show restrictions on women, lack of public interaction, the struggle for equality, and the possibilities of the female sex during the 1800s.
The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives a brilliant description of the plight of the Victorian woman, and the mental agony that her and many other women were put through as "treatment" for depression when they found that they were not satisfied by the life they had been given.
Throughout the story, the protagonist states her intentions to herself, but then does not act upon them because of her husband. This is further shown when she speaks of her husband and her brother, who "is also of higher standing," (Gilman 317) showing the high ranking of men in society. They keep her from doing the things she wants because they believe it is best for her to rest. She disagrees with the adage. " Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (Gilman 317).
Immediately, in the story Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes a statement regarding the patriarchal society. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (75). So very early we notice the outlook the woman has on herself. As they arrive at the mansion, the purpose starts to unravel slowly. As John takes her to the “room” with the yellow wallpaper, we realize this is more of a trap rather than a getaway. We find out she is “sick” because her husband and brother, who are high standing physicians tell her so. The woman says that the she is forbidden to work yet right after that she states, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me no good” (76). Therefore, this shows that the woman has opinions and thinks there are better ways to cope with her “sickness” but yet she just accepts what her husband tells her and does not ask questions. So, I believe this a good example of how the patriarchal society has affected the woman and how she simply lives her everyday life. As the woman becomes more and more attached to the wallpaper in her room, “the wallpaper elicits from her voluntary compliance with her husband’s prescriptions” (Neely para 3). He then opposes her writing, refuses to let her see friends, and eventually refuses all communication with her
Traditionally, men have held the power in society. Women have been treated as a second class of citizens with neither the legal rights nor the respect of their male counterparts. Culture has contributed to these gender roles by conditioning women to accept their subordinate status while encouraging young men to lead and control. Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts one women’s struggle against the traditional female role into which society attempts to force her and the societal reaction to this act.
Gender roles seem to be as old as time and have undergone constant, but sometime subtle, revisions throughout generations. Gender roles can be defined as the expectations for the behaviors, duties and attitudes of male and female members of a society, by that society. The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a great example of this. There are clear divisions between genders. The story takes place in the late nineteenth century where a rigid distinction between the domestic role of women and the active working role of men exists (“Sparknotes”). The protagonist and female antagonists of the story exemplify the women of their time; trapped in a submissive, controlled, and isolated domestic sphere, where they are treated as fragile and unstable children while the men dominate the public working sphere.
Women's roles were confined to a small list of responsibilities. As a result, they were seen as a minority. Society convinced women that they weren't capable of performing any work outside of the home. They were to stay home to cook, clean, take care of the children, and any other aspect involving the home. This was their sole responsibility. There wasn't anything else they were allowed or expected to do. Unfortunately this frame of mind developed in women and until only recently has this mindset been challenged by the female gender.