The Different Perspectives on Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" serves as a semi-autobiographical short story that deals with the struggles of postpartum psychosis and its' repercussions as witnessed through the story's unnamed female narrator. By analyzing, Gilman’s approach to exploring the concept of social conventions and patriarchal oppression. Gilman's story can be analyzed in depth as both being an anti-feminist and feminist piece of literature. These aspects include the narrator's husband treatment towards her individuality, her fascination with the yellow wallpaper and her eventual fulfillment of independence.
At the beginning of the story, readers are introduced to the narrator who is suffering from postpartum depression while receiving medical attention from her physician husband, John. As the story progresses, Gilman illustrates the male dominated society through which it was customary for the men to assume authority whereas the women were expected to respect his charge in return. As shown, John often infantilizes the narrator by calling her his "blessed little goose" (599). This emphasizes that John's anti-feminist beliefs are discern as he seizes command by neglecting to treat his wife as an equal partner and overlooks her opinions as being invaluable. Nonetheless, the narrator contently accepts John's pet names while simultaneously embracing her designated role in society: "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that" (597) in marriage. This suggests that the narrator is not seeking more in the relationship than what is expected and has come to accept his treatment as the norm in a marriage.
John's patriarchal oppression continues as he bluntly rejects to comply with the narrator's request of repapering the nurs...

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... Gilman’s highlights the significance of liberation from the narrow societal roles that identified the women during the era through which women were customarily oppressed of their capabilities of understanding their self-worth and personal independence. Duration the story, the narrator experiences a gradual transformation and by the end she has an epiphany of her husband’s oppression and authority over every aspect of her life. As the narrator progressively spirals into madness, her perceptions on the society’s values change in favour of the feminist views. As a result, these driving forces motive the narrator to free herself from her husband and the society’s confinements. By identifying herself with the woman behind in the wallpaper, the narrator eventually employs the wallpaper as her instrument in the pursuit of her freedom of reasons and rights in the society.

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