Susan B Anthony The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

Susan B. Anthony, a woman’s rights pioneer, once said, “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done” (“Women’s Voices Magazine”). Women’s rights is a hot button issue in the United States today, and it has been debated for years. In the late 1800’s an individual named Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote literature to try and paint a picture in the audience’s mind that gender inferiority is both unjust and horrific. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman makes the ultimate argument that women should not be seen as subordinate to men, but as equal.

In one portion of Gilman’s story, the narrator describes an act of treatment that her husband and physician had implemented.

It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don’t sleep. And that cultivates deceit, for I don’t tell them I’m awake-oh, no!” (Gilman). The narrator’s husband John is depicted as superior to the narrator in someway. He essentially created a “habit” for the woman, and she basically had no say over it. In order to rebel against her husband’s act, she chose not to sleep and express her own sense of self-worth and individuality. The next portion of the description talks about how she does not tell “them” that she is actually a week. Gilman’s language choice is clever and helps exemplify her argument in a couple of ways. In one sense, the “them” is referring to her husband, the male superior figure in her life. He decides all of the wife’s life choices. She is trying to show that although her husband might think that he has complete control over the affairs of the woman, in actuality she is depicting civil disobedience towards his actions. On the other end of the spectrum, “them” could be referring to the

When the narrator got up in the middle of the night to see if the yellow wallpaper was moving John said to her, “What is it, little girl?” he said. “Don’t go walking about like that—you’ll get cold” (Gillman). Throughout the entire story, the woman or her husband never reveals her name. The woman is referred to names that carry a subordinate connotation, such as “little girl.” All sense of individuality and self worth is taken way from the narrator when her name is never revealed to the audience. Furthermore, John continues to belittle his wife by giving her the command to not walk around at night. Although the John thinks in his mind that he is looking out for the best interest of his wife, in actuality, he is taking away his wife’s abilities to make choices for herself. There is a possibility that John’s controlling personality is one of the factors that led to his wife’s psychosis. Such a controlling life style more than likely limited the narrator’s ability to live any life outside of the home. Towards the end of the story, the narrator exclaims, “"I 've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane” (Gilman). The woman had escaped her gender role as being subservient to men, and is possible that the narrator’s real name is Jane. If this is true, then she had relinquished that identity associated with the struggles that she had during her relationship with John. Her