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Maggie Richter Sally J. Hornback English L105 4-24-2014 Gender Roles According to Dictionary.com, theme is defined as a “main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work which may be stated directly or indirectly.” My idea of the meaning behind theme lies closely within this definition. To me, theme is the main memorandum or moral the reader will gained through reading and analyzing a story. The theme usually has a message or lesson behind it to provoke to the reader to question life. The theme could be very obvious or obscure, it just depends on how the author wants to communicate with his audience. After reading several pieces of literature in this class, the theme of “Gender Roles” really stood out to me. I especially found this theme pungent in The Yellow Wallpaper, A Doll’s House, and The Great Gatsby. Through character and diction, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman, has fully portrayed the theme of “Gender Roles.” The narrator’s confinement and repression is solely based upon her gender. She is constantly being undermined by her husband, John, who is a highly ranked physician. John is always telling her what and what not to do. The narrator is constantly begins sentences by saying “John says.” She once said, “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall” (Gilman, 613), showing us, the audience, that he is passive aggressive with her. Her husband won’t even let her write, saying that it’s detrimental to her health. John has respected job and his opinions dictate her life, while she and all woman will find their fulfillment at home, tucked away. The fact that the main character does not have a name is another example of gender roles that Gilman is hinting at. This reinf... ... middle of paper ... ...ws the tension between high and low class people and the extreme mistreatment of women. If the roles were flipped, the women would have been looked down at quite harshly. In all of these pieces of literature, the behavioral norms that are considered appropriate for men and women are tested. In The Yellow Wallpaper, a wife is pushed to insanity, in A Doll’s House, a housewife goes against expectation, in The Great Gatsby, male dominance is pushed to the extreme. Gender roles dictate men and women’s lives. The concept that you must live up to society’s expectations controls men and women’s thoughts and actions, and it must come to an end. All these authors captured a vital lesson to be learned: Men and woman should be treated equally. Work Cited Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.