More handpicked essays just for you.
“Feminism and Gender Roles in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper
Feminist breakdown of the yellow wallpaper characters
The role of women in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Movement for Women's Rights Inside "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Women have been mistreated, enchained and dominated by men for most part of the human history. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there was great inequality between the social and economic conditions of men and women (Pearson Education). The battle for women's emancipation, however, had started in 1848 by the first women's rights convention, which was led by some remarkable and brave women (Pearson Education). One of the most notable feminists of that period was the writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was also one of the most influential feminists who felt strongly about and spoke frequently on the nineteenth-century lives for women. Her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" characterizes the condition of women of the nineteenth century through the main character’s life and actions in the text. It is considered to be one of the most influential pieces because of its realism and prime examples of treatment of women in that time. This essay analyzes issues the protagonist goes through while she is trying to break the element of barter from her marriage and love with her husband. This relationship status was very common between nineteenth-century women and their husbands. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman presents the behavior of society of the time. The protagonist is suppressed by her husband, John, and her brother, though they both mean well. The way she is treated by her husband and her brother is not outwardly “mean” because they never deal with her in anger, but the way that they suppress her by not letting her express her feelings or do what she wants, is still abuse. Even though, the way that they are treating her is wrong, it does not seem wrong because they both act gentle and kind towards her and make her think that they really do care about her. Throughout the story, the protagonist states her intentions to herself, but then does not act upon them because of her husband. This is further shown when she speaks of her husband and her brother, who "is also of higher standing," (Gilman 317) showing the high ranking of men in society. They keep her from doing the things she wants because they believe it is best for her to rest. She disagrees. "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (Gilman 317). On p... ... middle of paper ... ...ble to see that it actually incorporates themes of women’s rights. Gilman mainly used the setting to support her themes. This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasing large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more then a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century. Works Cited Eichelberger, Clayton. American Literary Realism 1870-1910. Vol. 8, issue 1. University of Texas, 1975. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper" (p.316-327). Literature: Reading and Writing With Critical Strategies. Ed. Steven Lynn. University of South Carolina, 2004 Pearson Education. Infoplease. Almanacs: “Key Events in Women’s Rights Movement” 2005 31 March 2005 Wohlpart, Jim. American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper.”” 1997. Florida Gulf Coast University
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.
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.
The ideas expressed by Gilman are femininity, socialization, individuality and freedom in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman uses these ideas to help readers understand what women lost during the 1900’s. She also let her readers understand how her character Jane escaped the wrath of her husband. She uses her own mind over the matter. She expresses these ideas in the form of the character Jane. Gilman uses an assortment of ways to convey how women and men of the 1900’s have rules pertaining to their marriages. Women are the homemakers while the husbands are the breadwinners. Men treated women as objects, as a result not giving them their own sound mind.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s bodies of work, Gilman highlights scenarios exploring traditional interrelations between man and woman while subtexting the necessity for a reevaluation of the paradigms governing these relations. In both of Gilman’s short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Turned”, women are victimized, subjected and mistreated. Men controlled and enslaved their wives because they saw them as their property. A marriage was male-dominated and women’s lives were dedicated to welfare of home and family in perseverance of social stability. Women are expected to always be cheerful and good-humored. Respectively, the narrator and Mrs. Marroner are subjugated by their husbands in a society in which a relationship dominated by the male is expected.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy. New York: Longman, 1999. 469-481.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is set in the 18th century, and this specific time era helps substantiate Gilman’s view. During the 18th century women did not have a lot of rights and were often considered a lesser being to man. Women often had their opinions
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction To Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th Ed. New York, Norton, 1998. 2: 630-642.
---. "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper". Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction. Ed. Denise D Knight. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1997. 106-107.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” explores the restricted societal roles of both Jane and John. Gilman, a strong supporter of women’s rights, focuses on her account with depression through this story (Hill 150). Traditionally, the man must take care of the woman both financially and emotionally while the woman’s role remains at home. Society tends to trap man and woman and prevent them from developing emotionally and intellectually. Although Gilman focuses on the hardships of the woman, she also examines the role of the man in society. Repression generated by social gender roles hinders men and women from acquiring self-individuation.
Thomas, Deborah. "The Changing Role of Womanhood: From True Woman to New Woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”." Gilman, "Yellow Wallpaper" Florida Gulf Coast University, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Women have struggled for decades to carve out their place in society, but before they could do that they were tasked with standing their ground in their own marriages. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a journalist, feminist and women’s rights activist who used her writing to shed light on women’s unequal status in the institution of marriage. In Gilman’s time it was a social norm that women were concerned only with the domestic trappings of the marriage, while the husband took the active role. In Gilman’s most famous short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman uses a captivating plot, the symbolism of some frustrating wallpaper, and an overall theme of the importance of self expression to articulate the sometimes harmful aspects of a woman’s place
In the short stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of an Hour” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin, the authors illustrate the burden women have to carry during the Victorian time. During this period, men believe that their wives should not have the power to make their own decisions. Instead, men often treat their spouse as a child; therefore, they unintentionally take over their wives’ lives. The two authors have a similar feminist idea that women should control their own lives even while keeping family roles.
According to The Norton Anthropology of American Literature, " Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived her life, for the most part, on the margins of a society whose economic assumptions about and social definitions of women she vigorously repudiated" (Gilman 790). "The Yellow Wallpaper" has to some extent an amount of relation to Gilman 's life with embellishments related to the issue of men supremacy over woman and women trying to live up to their social expectation with their wife- mother role. Although there is a slight relation between Gilman and the main character, we cannot assume the unnamed character is Gilman herself. Critic Ann J. Lane commented that Gilman offered "vivid dramatization of the social ills that result from a competitive economic system in which women are subordinate to men and accept their subornation" (Gilman 791). Gilman was successful in implying her beliefs on this issue through the anonymous character from her short story "The Yellow
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman dating back to the late 19th century, and is regarded as one of the most important early works of American feminist literature....
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is clearly linked to the theme of diverse voices. In the earlies of American history, gender was afar to be equivalent; men were superior to women in any matter. Obedience and submission to men was undoubtedly an undesired action for women. John; the narrator’s husband is an example of how men treated their wives at that time. However, I believe that the latter was not aggressive nor violent, but he overly cared about his wife’s sickness when he locked her in the room. Thus, the narrator writes from her own individual experience and delivers a message that men’s supremacy over women is surely depressing. No matter how true love is, dominance would always break it. In the following paragraphs, I will analyze the story by stating some of the symbols of gender inequality, and examine the meaning of the yellow wallpaper.