The Feminist View of the Yellow Wallpaper
The yellow wallpaper is a story about John and his wife who he keeps locked up due to her "nervous condition" of anxiety. John diagnoses her as sick and has his own remedy to cure her. His remedy s to keep her inside and deterring her from almost all activities. She is not allowed to write, make decisions on her own, or interact with the outside world. John claims that her condition is improving but she knows that it is not. She eats almost nothing all day and when it is suppertime she eats a normal meal. John sees this and proclaims her appetite is improving. Later in the story, the woman creates something of an imaginary friend trapped behind the horrible looking yellow wallpaper in the room, which her and john sleep. She watches this woman and in the end tries to free her by tearing down all the nasty looking wallpaper.
I think that a theme behind this story is the feminist views of the time. This woman is pretty much held captive by John, his sister and the housekeeper. This is shown when she says, "He is very careful loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction" (p. 12). She tries to make light of the situation by explaining how much John loves and cares about her but every time she tries to say something nice, it comes out making the situation seem worse. "It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so." (p 23). "One expects that in marriage" (p. 9). This highlights the point that one should not be suffering in marriage because marriage is supposed to be symbolic of the love between two people allowing them to morally bear children. The woman remains nameless to show that there is no specific name,...
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...ecause john stifles her writing and creativity, the narrator begins trying to make some sense of the wallpaper. She begins creeping, as the woman appears to be doing. She replaces her feeling of being watched and studies it coming to the conclusion that the woman is trapped. She levels with the woman because she is trapped behind bars(on her windows), while the figure is trapped behind the wretched designs. At the end of the story when she completes her removing of the wallpaper it seems as if she believes she has freed herself from John saying, "I've got out at last in spite of you and Jane (p. 36). It is not known who Jane is but it could be her name. This would mean she has driven herself to the point where she is so mad that she now believes she is the woman from the wallpaper. She could also be referring to the housekeeper, or someone not mentioned.
Throughout history women have been inferior to men. A woman in a patriarchal society had no opinion of value and was dependent upon man from birth to death both financially and emotionally. Both Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" show the repression of women, women as a lesser entity, and further the defiance of societal norms as feministic characters.
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 Yellow Wallpaper is a story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Although the work is short, it is one of the most interesting works in existence. Gilman uses literary techniques very well. The symbolism of The Yellow Wallpaper, can be seen and employed after some thought and make sense immediately. The views and ideals of society are often found in literary works. Whether the author is trying to show the ills of society of merely telling a story, culture is woven onto the words. The relationship between the narrator and her husband would be disagreeable to a modern woman's relationship. Today, most women crave equality with their partner. The reader never learns the name of the narrator, perhaps to give the illusion that she could be any woman. On the very fist page of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Gilman illustrates the male dominated society and relationship. It was customary for men to assume that their gender knew what, when, how, and why to do things. John, the narrator's husband, is a prominent doctor and both his and his wife's words and actions reflect the aforementioned stereotype: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage," (9). This statement illustrates the blatant sexism of society at the time. John does not believe that his wife is sick, while she is really suffering from post-partum depression. He neglects to listen to his wife in regard to her thoughts, feelings, and health through this thought pattern. According to him, there is not anything wrong with his wife except for temporary nerve issues, which should not be serious.
"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 which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a woman living in the nineteenth century who suffers from postpartum depression. The true meaning implicit in Charlotte's story goes beyond a simple psychological speculation. The story consists of a series of cleverly constructed short paragraphs, in which the author illustrates, through the unnamed protagonist's experiences, the possible outcome of women's acceptance of men's supposed intellectual superiority. The rigid social norms of the nineteenth century, characterized by oppression and discrimination against women, are supposedly among the causes of the protagonist's depression. However, it is her husband's tyrannical attitude what ultimately worsened her emotional problems to the point of insanity.
The narrator finally achieves an authoritative position in her marriage, with John unconscious and her creative imagination finally free of all restraints. Her continual “creeping” over his prone body serves as a repeated emphasis of this liberation, almost as if the narrator chooses to climb over him to highlight his inferiority over and over again” (Harrison). John was a weak person, Jane suffered from a nervous disorder which was made way worse by the feelings of being trapped in a room. The setting of the nursery room with barred windows in a colonial mansion provides an image of the loneliness and seclusion she experienced. Periods of time can lead to insanity. Maybe her illness wasn’t that bad but he made it worse on her part because he was a sick husband. Some critics have argued “Is the narrator really liberated? We’re inclined towards saying “no”, given that she’s still creeping around the room and that her psyche is broken”
This story demonstrates a prime example of a patriarchal society in which the degree of influence by Dr. John in the decisions of the marriage, which ends up in his wife’s dementia. In the story right after Jane gave birth to her child she gets into a deep depression so her husband and her brother, two respected physicians ordered her rest. The house where they live is away from town and she only had contact with her husband and her nurse. "[The house] is quite alone standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people." Gilman, Charlotte
In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator and her husband John have gone to a secluded estate, which they are renting for the summer. John a Doctor wanted her to rest as much as possible by following Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's “Rest Cure”. He also picked the room, which is an airy room on the top floor; she would have preferred the small pretty room on the ground floor, but he did not take her opinion due to he was the physician and knew best. The narrator does as she is told even if she is not found of the estate and the room she would be staying at. She has to rest all day long and personally disagree with what she has to do; she would rather spend her time writing, but her husband and other family members think it is not a good idea. She also described the house in her journal, as mostly positive, but some disturbing elements such as the wallpaper; she also becomes better at hiding her journal from John to continue writing. She complains about Johns controlling ways and how he discourages her from fantasizing of people walking the walkways. She has a wonderful time during the fourth of July with her family, then here obsession grows with the sub-pattern of the wallpaper; John started to think her conditions is improving, but she is sleeping less and less. The sub-pattern sees a woman creeping around and shaking the bars and sh...
This quote represents her uniting with the woman in the wallpaper and fighting these ideas of female oppression that the wallpaper symbolizes. Since the woman in the wallpaper also metaphorically represents Jane, the two finally working together to tear down these barriers, confirms how Jane is coming to terms with her internal emotions and attempting to seek liberation. Jane and the woman in the wallpaper working together also demonstrates that women need to unite in attempts to fight against these societal standards oppressing women in order to make a change. Overall, by ripping off the wallpaper, Jane becomes free from these societal gender norms in a distorted sort of
In “the Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman used that the first feminist wave, which was the period that she raised up, for the background. Especially, she used the men’s power in the book when she started to telling the story:
When comparing the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Betty Friedan, and Bell Hooks, I assert that both Gilman and Friedan stress that college educated, white upper- and middle-class women should have the incentive to fight against and alter the rigid boundaries of marriage; however, Hooks in her piece From Margin to Center argues that Friedan and other feminist writers during the second wave had written or spoke shortsightedly, failing to regard women of other races and classes who face the most sexist oppression.
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.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman who is trapped in a room covered in yellow wallpaper. The story is one that is perplexing in that the narrator is arguably both the protagonist as well as the antagonist. In the story, the woman, who is the main character, struggles with herself indirectly which results in her descent into madness. The main conflicts transpires between the narrator and her husband John who uses his power as a highly recognize male physician to control his wife by placing limitations on her, forcing her to behave as a sick woman. Hence he forced himself as the superior in their marriage and relationship being the sole decision make. Therefore it can be said what occurred externally resulted in the central conflict of” “The Yellow Wallpaper being internal. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a symbol of authenticy. Hence she internalizes her frustrations rather then openly discussing them.
As Virginia Wolfe once stated, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” ( ). The word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. Females can be seen as lowly and cheap, regal and sophisticated, or weak and underutilized. It has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society, to gain the rights they deserve. In the late 1800’s a new writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman questioned society’s views on the idea of being female and tried to make them understand that females are a force to be reckoned with and not a doormat for men to step on. She would not stand to be labeled anonymous.
The Victorian period in American history spawned a certain view of women that in many ways has become a central part of gender myths still alive today, although in a diluted way.