The Age Old Struggle

693 Words2 Pages

Women throughout history have always been subservient to men, starting with their fathers and ending with their husbands. They were essentially property to own and control as one liked and they could do nothing against it. It isn’t until fairly recently in our history that woman began to make a stand against this creating the feminist movement. With this movement came an avalanche of literature, music and more dedicated to feminism. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates woman’s struggle against their societal world throughout a male dominated society.
Gilman’s work draws forth, through experience some of the struggles women faced daily and demonstrates the battle for women’s free will. To entirely understand Gilman’s work one needs to know what feminism truly is, that it is about “...not only exposing but, more importantly, with electrifying myriad forms of women's oppression.” (Jean) Feminism has no secret agenda, it is meant to educate people on the struggles that many women face day-to-day at the hands of men. Gilman’s story demonstrates this element by having her main character subject to her husband's wishes no matter what. As the story progresses the reader sees the woman slowly lose her sanity but continuously obey her husband's orders to stay at the house. One gets a look into the troubled mind of a controlled woman; the desire to do something but a voice that tells them no, until they can no longer take it and causes them to go crazy. Their thirst for freedom caused them to do whatever they can to gain some form of control.
Early in history women were not allowed there own thought or belief if they went against what the main male figures in their lives believed. Gilman mentions this powerlessnes...

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