Mentality On Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman grew up in the late 1800’s when America experienced major social changes. After the freedom of the slaves, segregation began and the country took on more problems. Even as the abolitionists worked towards equality between races, many women wanted those same rights for themselves. Many of the abolitionists were women. Gilman was inspired by women like Susan B. Anthony to make her writing reflect on the times. She compared her personal experiences with the plight of women to paint a picture of how great the future could be. Gilman wanted to show men what they were doing wrong while she helped women become individuals ready to hold their own in society. Gilman was a product of a single parent home. Her father abandoned In this story, a woman experiencing post-partum depression is locked into her child’s nursery, alone, for her own good. Her brother along with her husband, a doctor, have decided she is suffering from “nervous depression” and the summer home she talks about so beautifully at the beginning of the story becomes a prison. Over the course of the story the audience watches the protagonist descend into real madness. She believes there are women trapped in the wallpaper and transitions from trying to save them by tearing the wallpaper down to becoming one of them by crawling around on the floor. The story is disturbing but it shows the success of mental oppression. The main character is treated like a child until she is left with no choice to becomes one Jane, or the protagonist, never has a chance to defend herself. She never has a chance to explain how she felt after childbirth. Once they lock her in the nursery, her fate is sealed by the two reasonable and knowledgeable men in her life. Marion’s husband views her as property and even goes on to live in the house without her for months, certain that she will come back to him. Even when he goes to retrieve her, he blames Gerta for his failed marriage when he barely remembers what she looks

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