Feminist Oppression In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

yellow wallpaper feminism theory

Women have always struggled to gain attention from men as well as equality with them. Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has a theme of feminine oppression. It is a work of literature that shows many of us how women were treated 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 Jane the characters in the story, and the many symbols that serve to confine the main character. 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

She recognizes that she gets "unreasonably angry with John sometimes" and later wishes he would get his own room. She dreads him coming home because she enjoys exploring the wallpaper and wants to free the woman imprisoned behind it, which symbolizes her own individuality. The narrator feels trapped by both her husband and surroundings, it is clear to assume that the woman she sees behind the wallpaper is a symbol of herself. In The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman seems to go out of her way to express the symbolic relationship between the real and wallpaper woman. Much like the protagonist, the wallpaper woman is described as “all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern — it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads”. The many heads can be seen as a symbol of all the things the woman wants to do, she wishes she could write and have guests over and go outside to surround herself with her friends but she can’t and instead, the woman in the wallpaper has all these “heads” or ideas of what she wants to do. Alternately, these heads could also represent the many male influences who are constantly interfering with her sense of freedom, most notably her husband. Her hatred of the wallpaper symbolizes her hatred of her oppressive marriage and her role in society. She criticizes women 's role in the world, when she notes that John 's sister wouldn 't want to be any more than a housekeeper. She recognizes that her only present purpose is "to dress and entertain, and order things”. All of these things increasingly affects herk mentally and emotionally and slowly leads to her becoming