Literary Analysis of Female oppression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” The story is Gilman’s way of throwing off the restraints of the patriarchal society so that she can do what she loves, to write and advocate for women’s rights. In her story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman challenges the roles of women in this time period; such as viewing women as children, as prisoners, as domestic house slaves, their sanity and the dangers of being the quintessential passive, submissive woman. Gilman embraces as a writer that there is more to her as a person than that of what has been shoved on her by society. She embraces feminism which by definition is the belief that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities. The time period in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written, it was during the Victorian time period where a man’s word was law. It was a very patriarchal society where a family, community, or society is based on a system governed by men. Where men were the sole bread winners and forward thinkers. A woman’s role and identity in …show more content…
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is told that she cannot have the more adult room downstairs that opens up into the garden but that the nursery upstairs would better suite her so that she could be monitored at all times(Gilman 474). When she protests, begs to see her cousins and begins to cry he calls her “A blessed little goose” and carries her back upstairs and reads to her until she clams down just like one would do to a child only to further solidify his views of his wife’s condition is due to the fact that she is a woman and not due to her depression. As for her prescribed treatment she is not permitted to leave the confines of the house, while her husband has all the freedoms of a man to come and go as he pleases. He sometimes stays gone all night leaving her alone with this yellow wall
Gilman is an author whose writing is based on individuals making up America's collective identity. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is from the vantage points of being a woman, at a time when women were not supposed to have individual thoughts and personalities. At this time in history, the social roles of women were very well-defined: mothers and caretakers of the family, prim and proper creatures that were pleasant to look at, seen but not heard, and irrational and emotional. The identity of women were presupposed on them by men. At the time this story was written, social criticisms were on the rise and writers had more of an outlet to express themselves. Women's suffrage provided by many female writers, such as Gilman, the means to air the wrongs against women.
The setting of these two stories emphasize, on visually showing us how the main characters are based around trying to find freedom despite the physical, mental and emotional effects of living in confinement. While on the other hand, dealing with Psychology’s ugly present day behavior showing dystopia of societies views of women during the time period they lived.
The Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a “rest cure”. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageous imaginations towards the wallpaper. Gilman’s story depicts women’s struggle of independence and individuality at the rise of feminism, as well as a reflection of her own life and experiences.
Due to my further analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper” beyond the theme of madness, I was able to clearly and thoroughly madness even more. One of the things that allowed me to understand how madness was presented in the story was how the narrator was led into madness. To get to this, I had to look at some of the other things in the story. For example, the narrator decent into madness was very much connected to how gender was presented. During the Victorian era women faced many challenges which included gender inequality. In the short story, the narrator was physically and mentally drained of living the life of the dutiful housewife. Because of her condition, her husband, a physician, saw it fit to confine her to a room taking away any form of creativity from her by banning her to write. “I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to...
This confinement Gilman uncovers through writing the short story is what tends to lead to the mental health issues of the women like Jane and Gilman herself. More importantly, the literary work The Yellow Wallpaper becomes a symbol of meaning for the women living during the time because women reading the short story can relate to each other. Moreover, some describe The Yellow Wallpaper by replying, “It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (Why
...own destruction” (Welter 66). While Gilman’s narrator did not have all the pillars of true womanhood within her, people who enforced and succumbed to the pressures of the pillars surrounded her. Seeing these people around her, and the lives they lived did nothing for her. She did not want to be imprisoned to her home, acting as a servant tending to her family. She did not want to be reformed to become the ideal woman enveloped in Jennie and Mary. Pulling down the wallpaper challenged the patriarchal ideologies of society showing that women can move beyond the constructions of true womanhood. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates and simultaneously challenges the ideals of true womanhood depicted by Barbara Welter in “the Cult of True Womanhood” with her ultimate outcome being the opportunity and possibility for the end of oppression of women.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be perceived in a few different ways. Greg Johnson wrote an article describing his own perception of what he believed the short story meant. In doing so, it can be noticed that his writing aligns well with what can be perceived from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story. The narrator Jane, experiences many things throughout Gilman’s story, which Johnson describes thoroughly. It is because of these descriptive points that allow Johnsons article to be a convincing argument. The main ideas that Johnson depicts that are supported and I agree with from the story include Janes developing imaginative insight, her husband and sister-in-law’s belief on domestic control, and her gained power through unconsciousness.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
By using the narrator’s mental illness and utter disgust of the wallpaper, Gilman showed her displeasure with the conventional nineteenth-century marriage and the gender subordination that came with it. By using the narrator as a medium, Gilman tried to explain the need of social change of thinking toward women and their gender roles. Writing this story herself seems to coincide with the narrator finally breaking free of her gender role by killing her husband and continuing to tear down the bars of the gender subordination.
Her story focused on a woman named Jane who couldn’t make their own decisions and the males overlooked them. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was a story about a lady who was forced to live by other decisions and rule of her husband. “My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.” (376) Jane’s husband and her brother never took her ideas very seriously, and laughed on her feelings and ideas. She always felt suffocated in a room with yellow wallpapers because no one appreciated her ideas, which forced her to become, useless and imprisoned in her own home. When Jane requested her husband to change the wallpaper of the room, he rejected her ideas and wished to keep her imprisoned in the room with small windows. The condition of Jane in the story represents the current situation of women in society, they have rights but they are not being listened to. In (DATE) Heather Savigny wrote “Feminisms In News”, the article presented similar ideas as in Gilman’s story. “As with other political movements, it has its detractors, and feminism is often blamed for much that is wrong with our society.” (Heather Savigny) Among all other things, feminism is also important in society but women get blamed for everything wrong. Now-a-days women take same jobs as men, but they don’t get the respect they deserve. The article presented a very clear idea of how women don’t get compensated in the society although they challenge themselves to take same level jobs that men do in the society. Nowadays women are becoming more independent; they have the potential to manage their families by themselves. This proves that women are growing in the society and have a surpassing future. In (Date) Philips Frisk wrote, “The narrative voice tells us that she has a big nose and fat legs, something she is cruelly reminded of by her peers at the onset of puberty.” (Philips Frisk) Just like the small girl in
Women have been mistreated, enchained and dominated by men for most part of the human history. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there was great inequality between the social and economic conditions of men and women (Pearson Education). The battle for women's emancipation, however, had started in 1848 by the first women's rights convention, which was led by some remarkable and brave women (Pearson Education). One of the most notable feminists of that period was the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was also one of the most influential feminists who felt strongly about and spoke frequently on the nineteenth-century lives for women. Her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" characterizes the condition of women of the nineteenth century through the main character’s life and actions in the text. It is considered to be one of the most influential pieces because of its realism and prime examples of treatment of women in that time. This essay analyzes issues the protagonist goes through while she is trying to break the element of barter from her marriage and love with her husband. This relationship status was very common between nineteenth-century women and their husbands.
During the Victorian Era and late 1800’s, the conventional norms of society prevented women from ever attaining true independence and freedom. This was a direct result of the expectations that women were supposed to fulfill their household duties and devote their live towards their family, which prohibited them from achieving bliss and self-happiness. Subsequently, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote her sensational short story, ”The Yellow Wallpaper,” in 1983 and illustrates a couple in which the power is unequally divided; the husband is a doctor and he makes all the decisions in the household. For instance, the wife is supposedly suffering from a “temporary nervous depression” is prescribed by her husband to stay in a secluded room and is forbidden
...power struggle. The Yellow Wallpaper has profound symbolism that transcends from Gilman’s personal life. The dominance of John’s over the wife’s is a clear reflection of the dominant differences between men and women in the past. Through the interaction between the characters, and the wife’s inner thoughts, one can say that the women during the time period had very little or no freedom of speech. As well, the confined surroundings around the wife represent how oppressed and imprisoned women were physically and mentally. Gilman’s feminist writing of The Yellow Wallpaper gained her a little bit of that power and freedom she so desired. Gender roles and power differences must be removed from the social order for women to ever be free and equal to those of men—only then will social harmony prosper.
Traditionally, men have held the power in society. Women have been treated as a second class of citizens with neither the legal rights nor the respect of their male counterparts. Culture has contributed to these gender roles by conditioning women to accept their subordinate status while encouraging young men to lead and control. Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts one women’s struggle against the traditional female role into which society attempts to force her and the societal reaction to this act.
In conclusion, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a powerful short story that explores the ideas of female oppression. The speaker of this story longed to be freed from the constraints of living in a male-dominated society, and she symbolically found her freedom in the tearing down of the wallpaper. Gilman uses the story to urge society to take a reflective look at how women are treated and to inspire her fellow women to break free of the stifling gender roles that have placed upon