Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And The Bell Jar

Even though “The Yellow Wallpaper” and The Bell Jar were published over seventy years apart from each other, they have a plethora of similar themes and issues they discuss. A distinct claim the two women discuss at length is gender roles. During both author’s times, women were expected to obey and submit to the will of their husbands and other men in their lives. This proved to be difficult for Gilman especially when her husband and her male doctor both recommended that restreatment she detested so greatly (Dyer). The expectations for wives only add on when they became mothers. After both of the women’s births, they experienced postpartum depression and yearned to escape through writing. “The Yellow Wallpaper” examines the concept of writing as a way to release pain and lessen trials. The successes of their writing brought great joy to both Gilman and Plath. Gilman used her fame to speak out and the “well-known author and was invited to speak regularly on the subject of women’s rights and economic independence” which brought her happiness and purpose in life (“Bed Rest”). For Plath, the success of her novel freed

Writing in a fit of emotion, she completed the entire 6,000 word work in just two days (“Bed Rest”). The author wrote later that she had sent a copy to the doctor who “nearly drove [her] mad. He never acknowledged it.” She continues writing, revealing the true purpose of her most well known work, “ But the best result is this. Many years later I was told that the great specialist had admitted to friends of his that he had altered his treatment of neurasthenia since reading The Yellow Wallpaper. It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (Gilman). Her real triumph was in changing the mental health system and finally holding the men who hurt her accountable: her doctor for the treatment, and her husband for the