The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Recommended: Roles of women in society in America

From the beginning of time in America women have been expected to speak when spoken to and obey the men in their lives. This thinking is especially true in the time period in which The Yellow Wallpaper was written. In 1892, women were silent and stayed at home. When a woman could not fulfill her roles, she was deemed crazy. The main character in this short story is said to be taking a period of bed rest in order to help cure her mind. The author of this short story, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, went through a similar diagnosis when she experienced post-partum depression and refused to hold her baby. It is unclear exactly why the protagonist is sent away, but it is clear that she does not agree with the way she is being treated. The narrator’s …show more content…

The yellow wallpaper in her cell along with her husband represent the suffocating hold that the patriarchy has on women, and in the end how it will be taken down. The yellow wallpaper’s strong tones of feminism and women empowerment shine through in its depiction of the yellow wallpaper in the story. The main character in her first encounter with the wall paper is disgusted by it. This disgust only grows throughout out the short story, even when she has become comfortable in the room excluding the wall paper. She describes the patterned wallpaper as flamboyant when …show more content…

When he is in the room, she somewhat transforms into a perfect housewife. She speaks to him with such care almost as if she is speaking with a child. John is a complete contrast to the narrator’s actions. He maintains his devout love of reason and fact even though he is watching his wife grow more and more insane. He is so confident in himself, he continuingly assures her that she is getting better against her own pleads (398). John’s normalcy is also intertwined with the patriarchy. At the time the idea of men over women was normal to the outside world. This also shows another reason why she attempts to act “better” when he is around. Her tone becomes more upbeat no matter her current situation. She still wants to be let out of her prison and the only way to accomplish that is to have John believe that she is better. She is not consciously making this personality change; it is something that has been conditioned within her for her entire life. In the first two paragraphs her describing the home seems to mimic a way a housewife would give a tour of her home to her guests. John brings out another side in her even when she doesn’t realize it. In the last scene she addresses him in such an eerily nice manner that the reader sees it as being condescending. At the point after she had successfully torn down the wall paper, her attempt at putting up a front to John during her current hysteria creates a different

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