The Role Of Women In Charlotte Gilman's The Wallpaper

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The Wallpaper Liberation Throughout the nineteenth century, women were considered as the woman of the house. With this title, women were expected to take care of the children, clean the house, and complete chores around the house. Women were not allowed to have jobs and do what they wanted to. Most writers during this time period were men. One of the most famous female authors during the nineteenth century was Charlotte Gilman. Her most famous and controversial short story was “The Yellow Wall-paper”. Charlotte Gilman wrote this short story to change the view on the roles of women in the nineteenth century by using the wallpaper as the oppression of society and the narrator as women mentally breaking away from their roles during this time period. The narrator, throughout the story, progressively breaks away from the role of women during the nineteenth century by doing things that women were not supposed to do. Women were considered as the ones who must stay home and take care of the children. Gilman shows this aspect of a women’s role by having the narrator live in a room that is supposed to be a nursery. (1661) John and his sister, Jennie represent society during this time. During the story the narrator is constantly writing when no one is around because it is frowned upon for women to write. “There comes John, and I must put this away-he …show more content…

Gilman shows the consequences of previous women that have tried to change the roles of women in this paragraph, “And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through the pattern-it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!” (Gilman

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