Gender Roles During THe Nineteenth Century

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During the Nineteenth Century, the gender roles were greatly divided. Women were seen to have a completely differently status and nature from men. The stereotypical woman during this time-period was dependent, passive, domestic, and far weaker then a man. Men on the other hand, were far more dominant, dependent, controlling, ambitious and active. Men were the protectors and providers for the family. As if women weren’t already inferior enough to men, when they got married, essentially everything that was theirs was striped from them. What she once owned, was now her husbands, this included her savings, her land, her slaves, her freedom and especially her independence (Steele and Brislen). Women were expected to just do their household duties and be content with their lives and want nothing more. This lead wives to live in the shadows of their spouse. It is Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist writer of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century who illustrates the discord of the gender roles of this time-period. One of her most famed writings is “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In this short story, we read about a spouse who is totally dominated by her husband John, and we follow her while she is away rejuvenating herself from an illness. Feministic literature of this time, really focuses on the inferiority of women against men. Women were under tight jurisdiction and their behaviors were governed by laws that were strict and limited their lifestyles. They were essentially powerless and totally dependent on men. It was this that lead to Charlotte Gilman to examine and write about women’s rights, roles and what it would take to reach equality between genders. Gilman wrote in her “Women and Economics” that for women to gain equality with ... ... middle of paper ... ...ight, and when it became daylight the next day, her imagination played games with her. She imagined the walls laughing at her now. It’s almost like they were laughing that she attempted and even thought that it was possible to escape. When John finally returned to the house, he was caught by surprise when his wife had locked herself inside the room. This was her final attempt to get the woman to escape from behind the bars. John tried to get into the room, but his wife would not let him. She yelled, “I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" (Gilman 1128) This is when we, the readers can tell that she indeed, did see herself as the trapped woman behind the bars of the wallpaper. When she yelled that to her husband, it was as if she was finally freeing herself from his control and manipulation.

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