The Yellow Wallpaper Feminism

Charlotte Perkins Gilman first handily witnessed the need for Feminism in a male dominated so society. Gilman, like many other women was forced to live uphold certain standards. She was lumped in with the stereotypical category of simply being a woman. In the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates the way women are treated in society , the effect that stereotypes and standards can have on a person and points out the divide in culture through her main character the narrator,John’s wife, and the yellow wallpaper.

In the story he is the first character and one of the only characters called by name is John. John is the narrator’s husband, but the narrator’s name is never really told. The story doesn’t reveal much about John except that “ John is a Physician” (Gilman 1). The name John usually can represent an unknown man. In the story, John is only known for really how he treats the narrator, his wife, and his profession. His wife however is not even known by a name. Gilman shows the divide in genders. There is less known for John’s character, yet he is the one with the

name. Gilman points out how there was a divide in society and men, even without a true name are still known by something. Women however are not known by their names like the narrator was in the story she was only known by being John’s wife.
During the day, John controlled what the narrator did. She was forced to live up to John’s standard. John tells her “ that she must take her of herself for his sake”(4) not for her own well being. John belittles her by calling her “little blessed goose” (2) and “little girl”(5) She mainly sleeps during the day and roams during the night when John is asleep. When it is night women are not held to any standards or responsibilities. That is when the narrator feels the most free. At night “ I kept still and watched the the moonlight on the undulating wall-paper…” (5) this begins to show her nightly fascination. At night when she is free and comes to realization that she is living under false pretences like when she see women living behind bars in the wall paper.
Yellow is normally a color that relates to something good or a realization of something like a bright idea.

Gilman actually denies the first relation of yellow being a color relating to goodness. She says things such as “the color is replent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by sunlight.” (2). Gilman uses the narrator to say “ They must have had perseverance as well as hatred” toward the wall paper meaning it was absolutely terrible. The yellow wallpaper stood for the divide in society. The woman trapped in the woman was a symbol for all woman inducing the narrator being trapped within the standards. The narrator begins to this divide at the end and take ownership instead of doing something because “ John says“ (4) The narrator tears down the wall paper at the end of the story also tearing down the gender divide between her and

John.
In the end we see the narrator lose all sanity. The narrator begins to see a woman in the Wallpaper. Throughout the story she had live up to whatever John said but at the very end John is no longer conscious. The narrator literally loses the thing or person she was living for and without that she becomes insane. She wanted to break free from the bonds or stereotypes and standards yet in the process loses her sanity trying to escape. In the story Gilman point out the flaws in what a male dominated world is like. She also shows what effect stereotyping and forcing someone to live a certain way can do to their lives.