One Voice Elaine Hedges reads the story as “One of the rare pieces of literature we have by a nineteenth-century woman which directly confronts the sexual politics of the male-female, husband-wife relationship” (114). In Charlotte Perkins-Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” she portrays a woman in the nineteenth century struggling to cure her “temporary nervous depression” due to the immobility her husband puts on her. During this time period, many males thought of women as weak and helpless, which exemplifies why the husband dominates his wife’s thoughts and actions, and as a result, empowers himself. Because this story exists as the narrator’s diary, the reader can assimilate the secrecy the narrator had behind her husband and the severity of her loss of control. Using the feminist perspective, Gilman illustrates the embodiment of the struggles faced by women in seeking freedom of thought and action.
(311,315). Landow, George P. Biographical Fact and Fiction in “Aurora Leigh”. [Online] Available http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorianebb/ebbio.html Leighton, Angelia. British Women Writers. Chicago.
Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. 179-184. Lindberg, Laurie. "Wordsmith and Woman: Morag Gunn's Triumph Through Language." New Perspectives on Margaret Laurence: Poetic Narrative, Multiculturalism, and Feminism.
Furthermore, John continues to belittle his wife by giving her the command to not walk around at night. Although the John thinks in his mind that he is looking out for the best interest of his wife, in actuality, he is taking away his wife’s abilities to make choices for herself. There is a possibility that John’s controlling personality is one of the factors that led to his wife’s psychosis. Such a controlling life style more than likely limited the narrator’s ability to live any life outside of the home. Towards the end of the story, the narrator exclaims, “"I 've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane” (Gilman).
In addition to this, it was vivid from the story that the wife made conscious efforts to resist her husband but to no avail. Here is an extract from the story, “She turns her head away from him and struggles free from him a little. Not now, she says. Not tonight she says it boldly…” Considering this extract, Chibuzo viewed his wife as both weak and powerless woman who cannot defend her freedom as to when and when not to have sex. All this bores down to nature of institution, their patriarchal marriage, which marginalizes women unto the boundaries of equality.
Whereas the story criticizes the woman’s suppressed role in patriarchal society, later on it promotes the woman’s status by breaking the male hegemony at the end of the story. As feminist critics argues, the story tells a journey of a woman to break discriminations, and setting a social structure over the equal order. Works Cited Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
I begin with the analysis of the differences; these are the setting’s comparison as well as the social context’s one. I have chosen these two aspects since I consider that the social context was a key factor for the development of the feminist movement as well as the histor... ... middle of paper ... ...r. Some critics, and notably, Elaine Showalter points out that Ophelia has become the symbol of the distraught and hysterical woman in modern culture. Atwood's Lady Oracle is a feminist novel even only for the fact that its central theme is about the formation of gender identity. Joan writes and is written about; if Atwood writes about Joan's childhood experiences, about her interaction with male partners and other woman, then Joan writes about the precariousness of feminine subjectivity in a male-dominated world thanks to her character, Charlotte. All in all, I would like to conclude in saying that both literary works can be analyzed, interpreted and argued about from many perspectives; Hamlet, because of the play's dramatic structure and depth of characterization, and Lady Oralce, because of the complexity of the main character and the novel's form novelty.
"John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage." It was customary for men to assume that their gender knew what, when, how, and why to live. John, the narrator’s husband, is a prominent doctor, and both he and his wife’s words and actions reflect this stereotype of stature and authority. The aforementioned quote demonstrates the belittling of the narrator by her husband, and his lack of concern for her thoughts and opinion. The narrator’s husband, John, does not believe that she is sick, while she is really suffering from severe depression.
Women were regard as a second class of people. They had neither legal right nor respect from their male counterparts. When the narrator's husband, John, a physician, placed the narrator in the horrid room with yellow wallpaper, and bed-rested, he claimed that he knew what is best for his wife. The narrator had no choice but to obey her husband since her brother, who was a male physician, was convinced by her husband's theory. "So I take phosphates of phosphites-whichever it is-and tonics, and air and exercise, and journeys, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again" (pg277).
His presence throughout the tale provides for the narrator's motive. John refuses to accept her wife's condition; he does not believe that there is anything truly wrong with her. If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression, a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do? (246) The narrator is possessed by her hus... ... middle of paper ... ...ion. Sven Birkerts.