The Yellow Wallpaper Gender Theory Essay

Gender Theory of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

"The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story often regarded as a feminist classic. Because of this, critics tend to analyze the text through the perspective of a gender theorist. This critical lens is additionally relevant in that, it helps to exhibit examples of subtle misogyny that was common in the time the work was written, while at the same time showing how it was still very feminist for its time period. Specifically, one can find that the unnamed narrator of the short story succumbs to madness as a result of being too heavily oppressed by the patriarchal society in which she resides. One can also find that the author intended to make a feminist statement in writing "The

One critic interprets the short story as a woman going insane from internalized incest instead. "As the apparent dualism of “a physician … and one’s own husband” was resolved into a single person, the physician-husband, so the dualism of John and brother is resolved for the heroine into the husband-brother. By marrying John she can unconsciously satisfy incestuous desire."(Veeder). While this is a somewhat feasible inference to make, it is rendered invalid when one considers this a mere coincidence within the protagonist's life and a purposeful parallel made by the author to further the idea of a world where one is completely controlled by a patriarchy. In addition to this, her brother is not mentioned again after this one instance, so it is unlikely that he was intended to be anything other than another male to hover over the life of the