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The role of women in the yellow wallpaper
Feminist studies on the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman
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Throughout the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we see a woman handicapped by depression and mental illness. We see how the narrator and John interact as husband and wife and as doctor and patient. From the surface, it seems as if John is a kind-hearted man wanting what is best for his wife, and willing to do whatever it takes to make her better again. But as the reader looks closer and the story progresses, John becomes more of a handicap to his wife than the illness itself. Gilman uses John's detriment to Charlotte as a way to describe the gender roles, professional and medial, in the nineteenth century. She uses this parallelism as a way to break the patriarchal society's oppression on women and the idea of women's only role being in the household.
John is a controlling man, believing he knows everything that is good for his wife. The narrator talks about how she "has a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me," this shows that John controls her every minute. He sets a time for her rest, her exercise, when she will eat, when she can read; he plans it all out for her (Gilman 4). This complete control parallels to the male population's idea that women of the time could not make wise simple decisions for themselves. Gilman takes John's schedule for Charlotte and uses it to represent men's desire for control over women as a way to help them with their mental fragility. Men of the time made the false assumption that women were unable to handle simple daily tasks. John believed his precise agenda for his wife would remove any unneeded stress on her by planning all her moves for her. This strict timeline shows her slow removal of choice over her life enforced by her husba...
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...treatment of mental illnesses and that their ways of treatment and cures were ineffective and often detriments to their patients. She shows Charlotte as a victim to the male idea that women were not competent nor capable. This piece shows the power of diagnosis and its empowerment of the male physician's voice and how it took over and disempowered the female patient's opinion and thoughts on her own treatment and life choices.
Works Cited
YILDIRIM, Aşkın Haluk. "The Woman Question And The Victorian Literature On Gender." Ekev Academic Review 16.52 (2012): 45-54. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 May 2014.
Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” The American Family in Social Historical Perspective. Ed. Michael Gordon. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1978. 373-392.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: Feminist, 1973. Web.
Ann Oakley’s “Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper” infers the myth that health is a medical product and that the inequalities between men and women are easily removed. It analyzes the differences between health, health care and medical care in the context of 'women and health', and of women as providers as well as users of these. Using the lessons of a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman called 'The Yellow Wallpaper', the article identifies and discusses the three most important unsolved problems of women and health as: production, reproduction and the medicalization of the psychological costs of women's situation in the form of mental illness. “Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper” then calls for recognition of health as a social product and for women to tell the truth about our own experiences, because these determine women's health. Lastly, the paper shows how women's health-giving role in reproduction and in ensuring family welfare holds the causes of women's ill-health within
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” has opened many people’s eyes since it was first published in 1892. In the beginning readers only acknowledged Gilman’s story as showing how women with mental illnesses were treated by physicians during the 1800’s. They overlooked the deeper meaning the text contained, and it was not until later that readers discovered it. Eventually, “The Yellow Wallpaper” became known as feminist literature. Gilman does a great job showing how women suffered from inadequate medical treatment, but above that she depicts how nineteenth century women were trapped in their roles in society and yearned to escape from being controlled by males.
Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her own life experience and illness that she went through and how women were treated during the 1800’s.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
... the liberation of women everywhere. One can easily recognize, however, that times were not always so generous as now, and different women found their own ways of dealing with their individual situations. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s character created a twisted image of the world in her mind, and eventually became mentally insane. While most cases were not so extreme, this character was imperative in creating a realization of such a serious situation.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates the issue of John’s control; over his wife as both husband and doctor by the inability to separate the doctor role from a husband role. In the beginning of the story the narrator says she “believes with congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good” (419). Gillman illustrates John as a person who does not realize his wife‘s health was based on the need to occupy her with something that is work relative and not forbid her to work .John shows that he does not care about her feelings as the role of husband role should be but rather takes his wife as his patient who is not physically we’’ to do work around the house. The narrator tells John that she wants the room repapered which at first he says yes, but later he says no because it would be worse for her as a “nervous patient” (421).John first demonstrates his husband role as a husband who is willing to please his wife but then plays back the role of her doctor by not letting her repaper the wall because it worsens her health. This shows that the i...
The Yellow Wallpaper from the Point of View of a Doctor's Wife "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story told from the first person point of view of a doctor's wife who has nervous condition. The first person standpoint gives the reader access only to the woman’s thoughts, and thus, is limited. The limited viewpoint of this story helps the reader to experience a feeling of isolation, just as the wife feels throughout the story. The point of view is also limited in that the story takes place in the present, and as a result the wife has no benefit of hindsight, and is never able to actually see that the men in her life are part of the reason she never gets well. This paper will discuss how Gilman’s choice of point of view helps communicate the central theme of the story- that women of the time were viewed as being subordinate to men.
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells her readers the story of a woman desperate to be free. Gilman’s use of symbolism is nothing short of brilliant in telling the story of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression and fighting her way through societies ideas of what a woman should be. When her husband, John, also known as her physician, tells her nothing is wrong with her mind, at first she believes him because she knows that society tells her she should. However, with her husband’s misdiagnosis, or attempt to keep his wife sane for the sake of their reputation, comes a short journey into madness for his wife, Jane. Jane’s downward spiral, as one may call it, turns out to be not so downward when the reader
In Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author takes the reader through the terrors of a woman’s psychosis. The story convey to understatements pertaining to feminism and individuality that at the time was only idealized. Gillman illustrates her chronological descent into insanity. The narrators husband John, who is also her physician diagnosed her with “nervous depression” and therefore ordered her to isolate until she recuperates. She is not only deprived of outside contact but also of her passion to write, since it could deteriorate her condition. The central conflict of the story is person versus society; the healthy part of her, in touch with herself clashing with her internalized thoughts of her society’s expectations. In a feminist point of view the central idea pertains to the social confinement that woman undergo due to their society.
In the 19th century, women had to accept their situation because they lived in a world dominated by men. In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman named Jane is suffering from postpartum depression. John, the husband of Jane is a doctor. In order to cure her illness, he tells Jane that they will go to a summer house. Once they arrive in the summer house, he orders her to stay in bed. At the beginning of the story, Jane was not sick as her husband said, all she had was postpartum depression. She was in a big house away from the others, unable to see or care for her child, in a room with ugly walls, windows with railings, without doing anything and alone, that led her to madness. Jane began to observe all objects in the room, specifically the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the way women were perceived in the 19th century by society. The illness of the narrator explains the problems of imprisonment, captivity and the lack of freedom that the women were going through in the period of the time. The yellow wallpaper acts as a metaphor of how Jane and the
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper we are introduced to characters that can be argued to be representational of society in the 19th century. The narrator, wife to a seemingly prominent doctor, gives us a vision into the alienation and loss of reality due to her lack of labor. I also contend however that this alienation can also be attributed to her infantilization by her husband, which she willingly accepts. "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage" (1). The narrator here realizes her place among the order of society and even notes that it is to be expected. She is aware of her understanding that things between she and her husband are not equal not only because he is a doctor but because he is a man, and her husband.
Immediately, in the story Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes a statement regarding the patriarchal society. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (75). So very early we notice the outlook the woman has on herself. As they arrive at the mansion, the purpose starts to unravel slowly. As John takes her to the “room” with the yellow wallpaper, we realize this is more of a trap rather than a getaway. We find out she is “sick” because her husband and brother, who are high standing physicians tell her so. The woman says that the she is forbidden to work yet right after that she states, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me no good” (76). Therefore, this shows that the woman has opinions and thinks there are better ways to cope with her “sickness” but yet she just accepts what her husband tells her and does not ask questions. So, I believe this a good example of how the patriarchal society has affected the woman and how she simply lives her everyday life. As the woman becomes more and more attached to the wallpaper in her room, “the wallpaper elicits from her voluntary compliance with her husband’s prescriptions” (Neely para 3). He then opposes her writing, refuses to let her see friends, and eventually refuses all communication with her
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
John, the narrator's husband, represents society at large. Like society, John controls and determines much of what his wife should or should not do, leaving his wife incapable of making her own decisions. John's domineering nature can be accredited to the fact that John is male and also a "physician of high standing" (1). John is "practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of thi...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, The Yellow Wallpaper, analyzes the issues that mentally ill women face, the feelings of isolation from your loved ones which can lead to disparity. In this time the piece was written in, women with mental illness were not believed to have actual illnesses. For example, “hysteria” is claimed to be a women’s illness, which trivializes the real suffering these women are facing. Perkins displays her case as an extended metaphor for male dominance, and that women need to be heard, which can be analyzed through both woman vs. society and woman vs. self.