Oppression and Repression in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator’s oppression and repression are strictly based on gender role and marriage. The women we see in the story are meant to find fulfillment in the home, while her physician husband has trapped her in the room all day and give her little contact with the outside world. It shows disrespect for women in marriage. Maybe if her physician husband understands her more, she might get better. By using perspective, setting and irony Gilman paints a picture of how many women are imprisoned by masculine authorities also realistic picture of the problem in human societies, gender role and marriage of African-Americans in Civil War Medicine.

From the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions that her husband do not understand what she wants and takes her opinions seriously. The narrator states in the sentences, “No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I have to live in this room long” (Gilman 298). She says that the children hated this room and if she has to stay in this room, she has to hate it too. On the next few sentences, the narrator point of the sentence that her husband says "You know the place is doing you good," he said, "and really, dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months' rental" (Gilman 299). He says that the room is making her feel better even the children and her hate this room. He does not care to renovate the house that only stay for a three months. Moreover, he thinks that it will cost a lot of money to renovate the house and after something changed it would be other objects whole house, but the truly is because he might not care what she really wants and the situation of her marriage. He declin...

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...is wife think for herself. Most of the time when she asks John for anything or tries to tell him anything, he always ignores her. As a result, it becomes clear that the narrator’s unhappiness seems directly linked to the fact that she is being treated like a child when her husband has confined her to upstairs bedroom which is a nursery room and is not allowed to leave her cage. Even though this story was written 120 years ago, but it is still apparent in today’s society. The household runs by a husband who is supporting the household financially, which leaves woman to follow the husband’s lead where the man of the house is always right. From this story, her husband’s treatment suffers mental ill to her because of the yellow wallpaper in her room, attitudes towards how she should be treated. He makes her unhappy and never tries to understand what she wants to do.

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