Essay On Oppression Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

The stories “Shouldn't I Feel Pretty?” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” feature dynamic protagonists who undergo character development that reveals the consequences of oppression caused by societal standards. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s gradual change of mental state proves how she is subject to oppression by her husband John, whose thinking is aligned to society’s traditional ideologies. When the narrator claims to suffer from postpartum depression, John dismisses her and argues “that there is nothing the matter with [her] but temporary nervous depression-- a slight hysterical tendency” (331). He concludes that the best treatment for his wife is for her to be “absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until [she is] well again” (332). By looking

Since society dictates that women are weak and irrational, John sees the narrator that way and misinterprets her illness. Also, by examining the authoritative way John treats the narrator, the readers obtain a better understanding of their relationship as husband and wife. In their marriage, John makes decisions on the narrator’s behalf while she is expected to be submissive. Society’s representation of women is so ingrained in John’s mind that he fails to see his wife as his equal, but instead as a weaker counterpart who is in need of a man’s wisdom and counsel. John’s narrow-minded thinking affects the narrator by giving her feelings of defeat and powerlessness. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. John’s decision to stick to his prejudiced thinking and to treat the narrator using this ‘rest cure’ leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her damaged mental state is evident when she says, “All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths shriek with derision!”