Oppressing Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

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The wallpaper in The Yellow Wallpaper represents the societal barriers oppressing women. In the beginning, the narrator, Jane, is very skeptical of the wallpaper but does not question it, thus emphasizing how she is trapped by this oppression. However, as the story progresses, she starts to become more intrigued by it. The wallpaper runs parallel to Jane’s life. The more she observes the patterns, the more she acknowledges that in order to seek liberation, she must resist these restrictions placed by the patriarchal society. The passage starts off by stating, “John had to stay in town overnight, and won’t be out until this evening,” (Gilman 802). John is allowed to go out into the public and live a normal life. However, Jane is kept isolated …show more content…

The woman’s movement when the moonlight hits illustrates Jane’s actions. Throughout the story, Jane states how she rests during the day, mostly because her husband directs her to do so. However, during the night is when she starts to “crawl around.” This ultimately means she is analyzing her life such as her illness, her relationship with John, and more specifically, these societal values that are oppressing her. By using the words “poor” and “crawl” to describe the woman behind the wall, it portrays how the woman is so powerless and vulnerable to these societal …show more content…

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

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    "The Yellow Wallpaper" motivated the female mind of creativity and mental strength through a patriarchal order of created gender roles and male power during the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. While John represented characteristics of a typical male of his time, the yellow wallpaper represented a controlling patriarchal society; a sin of inequality that a righteous traitor needed to challenge and win. As the wallpaper deteriorates, so does the suppressing effect that male hierarchy imposed on women. Male belief in their own hierarchy was not deteriorating. Females began to think out of line, be aware of their suppression, and fight patriarchal rule. The progression of the yellow wallpaper and the narrator, through out the story, leads to a small win over John. This clearly represents and motivates the first steps of a feminist movement into the twentieth century.

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