Charlotte Perkins Gilman's If I Were A Man

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Recommended: Woman oppresion in literature

I am analyzing Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story titled "If I Were a Man" in order to prove the reasons of this female oppression to be the prejudices deeply ingrained in the minds of men viewing women as the weaker gender (something to be controlled)- the author displays this through the theme of the story being women becoming puppets under the desires of men. The first hint at the reasons for this injustice to women that we receive is the narrator's description of the "true woman". The narrator states, "She was a beautiful instance of what could be called a "true woman." Little, of course, no true woman may be big. Pretty, of course- no true woman could possibly be plain. Whimsical, capricious, charming, changeable, devoted to pretty …show more content…

women are pretty much people, seems to me. I know they dress like fools- but who's to blame for that? We invent all those idiotic hats of theirs, and design all their crazy fashions, and, what's more, if a woman is courageous enough to wear common-sense clothes- and shoes- which of us wants to dance with her? Yes, we blame them for grafting on us, but are we willing to let our wives work? We are not. It hurts our pride, that is all. We are always criticizing them for making mercenary marriages, but what do we call a girl who marries a chump with no money? A fool, and they know it" (487-488). As a man, her opinion was much more viable, and thus she was able to convey it without much opposition. She brings up many valid points that these actions of the women which men so often criticized were a direct effect of what the men wanted them to be. She exposed these men as hypocrites- insulting women for their attire and attitude, but never pausing to realize that this was exactly what they wanted in a woman. This supports the comment I made about women of the time being puppets- and rightfully so- because if they did not conform to the desires of men, they would have no

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