Women have always struggled to gain attention from men as well as equality with them. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has a dominant theme of feminine oppression. It is a symbolic work of literature because women in the era in which this story was published were treated in much the same way as the narrator was on a daily basis. Male dictatorship over women is rampant within the illness and treatment of the unnamed narrator, the characters in the story, and the many symbols that serve to confine the main character. They all work fluidly together to create a more tangible conclusion. A stand had to be made in order for women to achieve equality with men. Standing up to a man, however, was not permissible in nineteenth century America. This story epitomizes women slowly gaining trust and appreciation, even understanding. Now obsolete, the rest cure, was an infamous panacea for any psychological illness one could dream up. While some men were subjected to the treatment, it was women who were mainly victimized by this so called cure that entailed "seclusion, massage, immobility, and overfeeding" (Wagner-Martin.) This solution implies that someone suffering from mental anxiety would recover after being imprisoned to a bed for several months with very little association from friends or family. Not being able to come and go or converse freely with the outside world would be difficult enough, but these individuals were "absolutely forbidden to "work"(Gilman 71.) This meant that any classification of creativity or mental strain was prohibited. The limitations put on the narrators imagination, by her husband, drove her into the depths of insanity, rather than pulling her out. Forced to the brink of stagnant hibernation,... ... middle of paper ... ... and the Politics of Color in America." Feminist Studies 15.3 (Fall 1989): 415-441. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 201. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. Feldstein, Richard. "Reader, Text, and Ambiguous Referentiality in 'The Yellow Wall-Paper.'." The Captive Imagination: A Casebook on "The Yellow Wallpaper". Ed. Catherine Golden. New York: Feminist Press, 1992. 307-318. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 201. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. Scott, Firor Anne. The Southern Lady From Pedestal to Politics 1830-1930. Virginia: Free University Press of Virginia, 1995. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 2011. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Language of Literature. Ed. Arthur N. Applebee. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2006. 766-78. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 2011. Print.
Kivo, Carol, ed. The Harcourt Brace Casebook Series in Literature: "The Yellow Wallpaper." Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1997.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.
During that time, Mental illness and depression was not generally understood. Outspoken women were diagnosed with "hysteria" and put on bed rest. The woman gradually goes insane when she is put on bed rest for all hours of everyday. It is a criticism of a medical practice that was created solely for women, which is one reason for it being considered a feminist story. She was thought to be delicate and predisposed to emotional outbreaks. The story explains that the bed rest and the views that supplement such a practice, is what makes women
Throughout time and literature, the male supremacy and oppression of women have been the topic of many literary debates and creative writings. Feminist theorists are and have always been on a perpetual literary high; women writers such as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in 1979 and Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 wrote about the oppression of women and the liberation that they were adamant about receiving. This spark for freedom in a patriarchal society drove Charlotte Perkins Gilman to write her infamous short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” In writing this story, Gilman depicts an oppressed woman taken from society and condemned to an oppressive treatment that paralyses her as a human; the distributer of this treatment is the capitalist patriarchy.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is set in the countryside, miles away from the nearest village, in a summer home. Surrounded by hedges, a garden, and servants’ quarters, the setting provides a serene but confined feel to the story. The setting gives off a feel of tranquility but later on is discovered
Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The story and its writer: An introduction to short fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 340-351.
Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature a World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Ed. David Pike, and Ana Acosta. New York: Longman, 2011. 543-51. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 354-65. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 2011. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction To Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th Ed. New York, Norton, 1998. 2: 630-642.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman's descent into madness as a result of the "rest and ignore the problem cure" that is frequently prescribed to cure hysteria and nervous conditions in women. More importantly, the story is about control and attacks the role of women in society. The narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told. Since men are privileged enough to have education, they hold jobs and make all the decisions. Thus, women are cast into the prison of acquiescence because they live in a world dominated by men. Since men suppress women, John, the narrator's husband, is presumed to have control over the protagonist. Gilman, however, suggests otherwise. She implies that it is a combination of society's control as well as the woman's personal weakness that contribute to the suppression of women. These two factors result in the woman's inability to make her own decisions and voice opposition to men.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper" The Harbrace Anthology of Literature. Ed. Jon C. Scott, Raymond E. Jones, and Rick Bowers. Canada: Nelson Thomas Learning, 2002. 902-913.