Treatment Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

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The main and most evident theme among many in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the treatment and status of women in society. The topic of women’s struggles and how it is portrayed in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is relevant to this literature course because various stories and discussions of said stories have been about the place of women in history and even modern times. Back in 1899 when “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written, women were not present in America’s workforce, barred from casting a ballot, and when married, husbands legally owned all of their property. In this essay, I will examine quotes and statements by the narrator, the relationship between the narrator and her husband John, and various symbols throughout the story to argue how they relate …show more content…

The relationship between the narrator and her husband, John is symbolic of women’s place in both society and the household. Back in the Victorian-era when “The Yellow Wallpaper” was wrote, and long before that, men were the nearly unchallenged head of the household. As the head of the household, the male would play the dominant role while the woman was supposed to be passive and submissive. There are various examples of the traditional gender roles of the past in “The Yellow Wallpaper” such as when John restricts the narrator from writing, traveling, and being in the company of other people (“Yellow” 1). An important element of the narrator and …show more content…

For example, moonlight is used as a symbol of time for women. During the daytime, the woman in the paper is stationary and stagnant, but, as moonlight begins to shine upon the wallpaper, the woman starts to move. Futhermore, the wallpaper itself is a symbol of women’s place in Victorian-era society. The wallpaper is a sickly yellow, which represents not only the narrators mental condition, but the condition of women’s rights during the time “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written. Also, it is of no coincidence that the woman behind the paper is trapped, this is an obvious use of symbolism to show the reader how women in Gilman’s time were trapped as such. One can look at the house itself as a symbol of women’s struggles by the way the narrator describes it “there are hedges and walls and gates that lock” making the house sound almost similar to a jail. John’s sister, Jennie, who acts as a housekeeper in the narrator’s home is also a symbol, she is symbolic of the woman who has accepted her place in society as a second class citizen. The narrator even claimed to have seen Jennie touching the wallpaper, saying“I caught Jennie with her hand on it once”, as if Jennie has accepted her role, but still deep down wishes she enjoyed the same rights and freedoms as men do (“Yellow”

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