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How is society reflected in literature
Scholarly article about charlotte perkins gilman
How is society reflected in literature
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‘If the woman in the wallpaper is a symbol of the narrator, then the wallpaper is a symbol for the restricting patriarchy of Gilman’s society’ Using ideas from the critical anthology to support your argument, to what extent do you agree? Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the symbol of the wallpaper throughout her novel in order to represent the constraining patriarchal society in which both she and the narrator lived within. The woman in the wallpaper is used by Gilman to not only represent Gilman herself, but to represent all women in the late 1800s who were marginalised by society and controlled by the phallocentric rules. For example, the use of the rest cure created by Dr Weir for post-natal depression. Through her own personal experience …show more content…
This causes a reversal in gender roles when her husband faints following the realisation of his wife’s mental state and she walks over him ‘I had to creep over him every time’. In addition to showing physical power it also shows power within the relationship, as previously John walked over her metaphorically. Her empowerment is caused when the narrator believes that she has escaped from the wallpaper and also begins to see other women escaping the entrapment of the wallpaper ‘I wonder if they all came out of the wallpaper as I did’ which is a symbol of breaking free from societies trap and treatment. This may be viewed as a gain of power and the narrator, representing women as a whole, finally becoming proactive. However, this could also indicate failure for women as it shows that women can be driven insane by men before they realise the mistreatment in which they have suffered. This shows that in a normal mental state oppressed women are not pro-active and often never attempt to change the way in which the power is distributed. As suggested by Bertens, female independence gets a strong negative connation ¸ which was often seen in the late 1800s, this indicates to the audience the reason for John’s loss in power and the reason behind the narrator being able to ‘step over …show more content…
Gilman depicts society at the time as phallocentric and one in which there is an uneven distribution of power. She represents this society through the use of the wallpaper and the woman trapped within. She supports this representation through her own personal endeavours against the male centred civilisation and her experience of the rest cure. Through the writing of this text, Gilman was able to create a record for women in the 1800s that experienced the same alienation and marginalisation as the narrator. However, this record was also created for future readers in order for them to be able to gain an understanding of the change in distribution of power between the genders and the construct of a patriarchal society since the
John comes home to discover his wife circling the room removing the wallpaper. John faints at the sight of his, clearly, insane wife. It is notably; interesting that Gilman has John faint. Other literally works of that time often describe females fainting. It was a stereotypical “female” behavior. As John’s unconscious body lay on the floor, the narrator is forced “to creep over him every time” (Gilman. 803) She is quite, literally stepping over John and all his patriarchal ideals; as a woman she has finally freed herself. She explains at the end that she came out of the paper (Gilman. 803).
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.
An allegory of several dimensions, Gilman presents a message, in the sublime, that the peculiarities and attributes of women collectively are subsequently imposed on women individually. Therefore, as an individual Gilman’s character is being treated by her physician-husband as an hysteric personality with no real cause for her illness. “You see, he does not believe that I am sick! And what can one do?” (Gilman, 1771) Perhaps the allegory represents a writing of personal struggle with the constraints of a psychologically abusive husband and her own biological depression. Instead of viewing Gilman as marginally insane, as both the writer and the character, she becomes verily ingenious. Her brilliance is expressed in the transfer of her characteristics by personifying the wallpaper. As wallpaper usually hides an unsightly wall, the wallpaper in Gilman’s story conceals and then reveals sordid personal circumstances.
“The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out.” The woman had started seeing another female in the wallpaper, imprisoned behind bars and shaking the paper to be freed. The wallpaper began depreciating, and so did the conquering influence that male hierarchy forced on women. Women arose to reason out of line, be conscious of their overthrow, and conflict patriarchal statute. The development of the yellow wallpaper and the narrator, within the story, indicates to a triumph over John.
Born in 1860, Gilman’s life, according to our textbook, was not one of convention or stability. Uncommon at the time, her parents divorced when she was nine. She herself was divorced after a ten-year marriage in 1884 that almost drove her insane. This marriage produced the semi- autobiographical work entitled, The Yellow Wall-Paper. Truly a feminist in the purest definition of the word, always active and enjoying whatever passions of life she chose. She even chose the way she left this life in 1935.
Many critics question whether this story is meant as a personal documentation about Gilman or a reflection of women’s position in society in 1892. However, due to her creation of this unreliable narrator, it creates the allusion that this story has many meanings. The narrator generates the way we see John and the ironic theme of entrapment, through many different angles. The subject of the story changes from reality, to her obsession with the wallpaper and consumes the narrator’s tone and thoughts. The way Gilman used narration to manipulate the reader’s interpretation John and to convey the theme of entrapment makes this an effective piece of literature.
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.
Her tense mind is then further pushed towards insanity by her husband, John. As one of the few characters in the story, John plays a pivotal role in the regression of the narrator’s mind. Again, the narrator uses the wallpaper to convey her emotions. Just as the shapes in the wallpaper become clearer to the narrator, in her mind, she is having the epiphany that John is in control of her.
For example, moonlight is used as a symbol of time for women. During the daytime, the woman in the paper is stationary and stagnant, but, as moonlight begins to shine upon the wallpaper, the woman starts to move. Futhermore, the wallpaper itself is a symbol of women’s place in Victorian-era society. The wallpaper is a sickly yellow, which represents not only the narrators mental condition, but the condition of women’s rights during the time “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written. Also, it is of no coincidence that the woman behind the paper is trapped, this is an obvious use of symbolism to show the reader how women in Gilman’s time were trapped as such. One can look at the house itself as a symbol of women’s struggles by the way the narrator describes it “there are hedges and walls and gates that lock” making the house sound almost similar to a jail. John’s sister, Jennie, who acts as a housekeeper in the narrator’s home is also a symbol, she is symbolic of the woman who has accepted her place in society as a second class citizen. The narrator even claimed to have seen Jennie touching the wallpaper, saying“I caught Jennie with her hand on it once”, as if Jennie has accepted her role, but still deep down wishes she enjoyed the same rights and freedoms as men do (“Yellow”
... Through the concluding scenes where the narrator goes into her mental illness rebellion, Gilman encourages women to do what they can to stand up for themselves. Works Cited Mahin, Michael J. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper: "An Intertextual Comparison of the "Conventional" Connotations of Marriage and Propriety." Domestic Goddesses (1999) -. Web.
Although setting may seem deceivingly simple, it is the setting in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that gives Gilman the platform to convey these complex ideas. The description of the setting reveals that narrator’s inner psychology and allows the reader to examine the struggles the narrator faces with her husband and within. The yellow wallpaper, along with the rest of the room, illustrates the issues people faced being constrained with regards to marriage and treatment of the mentally ill. These ideas wouldn’t have reached the reader if the setting was not as developed as it
On my first reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", I found the short story extremely well done and the author, successful at getting her idea across. Gilman's use of imagery and symbolism only adds to the reality of the nameless main character's sheltered life and slow progression into insanity or some might say, out of insanity.
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.
...she stops caring what anyone thinks of her. She absolutely and unreservedly gives in lets her feelings be expressed. "Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. IT sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it." The narrator is finally doing what she wants and destroys what has been limiting her. People may contend that she has gone completely senseless, and advanced her illness, but maybe Gilman’s but I believe Gilman's intent her is to show a tribute to herself. The narrator tells her husband, "I've got out at last in spite of you and Jane. And I've pushed off most of the paper so you can't put me back.” At this time, John faints. “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” Now the woman who is creeping over him finally sees herself in control.
The adversity women endured in a patriarchal society during the nineteenth century gave birth to female feminism. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the leading feminist during that time. Gilman strived for the oppressed women during the “Victorian Age”, she dedicated her life to social reform believing ever women should have equality. She opened the door for every day women to become involved and to be the masters of their own destiny. The subjugation Gilman faced in the nineteenth century as well as her own experience with postpartum depression greatly influenced her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”