What Is Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaper

1345 Words3 Pages

As Virginia Wolfe once stated, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” ( ). The word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. Females can be seen as lowly and cheap, regal and sophisticated, or weak and underutilized. It has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society, to gain the rights they deserve. In the late 1800’s a new writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman questioned society’s views on the idea of being female and tried to make them understand that females are a force to be reckoned with and not a doormat for men to step on. She would not stand to be labeled anonymous. That is not to say that Gilman did not have issues with being a female throughout her life. At a young age, Gilman witnessed …show more content…

Gilman has stated in multiple papers that the main reason for her writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” was to shed light on her awful experience with this ‘rest cure’. However, she also managed to inject her own feminist agenda into the piece. Charlotte Perkins Gilman chose to include certain subtle, but alarming details regarding the narrator’s life as a representation of how women were treated at the time. She wants us to understand why the narrator ends up being driven to madness, or in her case, freedom. There are untold layers to this truly simple, short story just like there were many layers to Gilman …show more content…

Firstly, the majority of the characters in this piece are males, while the minority, female characters playing weak and submissive roles. For example, Ford wrote, “John is identified in relation to the patriarchy first and in relation to his wife only afterwards: he is ‘a physician of high standing and one’s own husband’. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the physician is the quintessential man, and his talk, therefore, is the epitome of male discourse” ( ). Gilman obviously shows us how society viewed the man, but also how she viewed the man. Not only was John the patriarchal figure, but he also was the ‘voice of reason’ that stunted the imagination and expressivity of his wife. This ‘voice of reason’ would make him the foil for Gilman’s narrator because she is the voice of insanity. Therefore holding true that the men hold the power, just like the gender roles have always allowed for it to

Show More
Related

  • A Feminist in Action in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1794 Words  | 4 Pages

    "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.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1449 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the reader is treated to an intimate portrait of developing insanity. At the same time, the story's first person narrator provides insight into the social attitudes of the story's late Victorian time period. The story sets up a sense of gradually increasing distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which suggests that gender roles were strictly defined; however, as the story is just one representation of the time period, the examination of other sources is necessary to better understand the nature of American attitudes in the late 1800s. Specifically, this essay will analyze the representation of women's roles in "The Yellow Wallpaper" alongside two other texts produced during this time period, in the effort to discover whether Gilman's depiction of women accurately reflects the society that produced it.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Summary

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    She analyzes the significant languages, images, and symbols used in the text. After Barbara analyzed the short story, it basically pinpoints that Gilman’s was trying to make a feminist statement. Suess also goes into details about the representation of patriarchy in society and she tied it to text. The article showed that a form of patriarchy is introduced in the story, and that Gilman used John to represent a patriarchy and society. Barbara stated that in the story, John is a clear representation law, order, and reality. The article revealed that John 's suppression of Jane 's efforts to gain control of her own life through her choice of medicine and the opportunity to write reflects the more general oppression of Jane, as a woman and as a mentally ill person. I believe this article would be beneficial for my research paper because it goes into details about the story and talks about specific symbols used in the text that point towards my theory of how Gilman is making a feminist statement in the

    Read More

  • The Movement for Women's Rights Inside The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1638 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Feminism, Insanity or Both

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    Haney-Peritz states this manuscript has become a model for feminist writers looking at it through a modern day perspective. The story based on the author’s real life experience draws readers to her cause of the women’s movement (114). Gilman accomplishes the portrayal of a dominated woman by her oppressive husband giving the long-awaited voice to women everywhere.

    Read More

  • The Deeper Meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kessler, Carol Parley. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860 -1935." Modem American Women Writers. Ed. Elaine Showalter, et al. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991. 155 -169.

    Read More

  • Suppression of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Charlotte (Anna) Perkins (Stetson) Gilman.” Feminist Writers. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014

    Read More

  • Cult Of Domesticity By Deborah Tanmen Summary

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the end of her essay, Deborah Tanmen states that “some days you just want to get dressed and go about your business. But if you’re a woman, you can’t, because there is no unmarked woman”. I disagree with Deborah I just don’t think that woman aren’t the only ones marked by society men are also marked by society. The people are shaping a world in where men and woman are sharing common activities, views, possessions, and much more.

    Read More

  • A Woman without a Voice

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” voices the struggle of an unnamed woman who loses her identity and mind. The narrator is oppressed by her husband who suppresses her voice, independence, and actions in an attempt to cure her worsening hysteria. The conflict between the two arises as the narrator attempts to break free of her submissive role and find her voice.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy and the Yellow Wallpaper

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    "The Yellow Wallpaper" motivated the female mind of creativity and mental strength through a patriarchal order of created gender roles and male power during the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. While John represented characteristics of a typical male of his time, the yellow wallpaper represented a controlling patriarchal society; a sin of inequality that a righteous traitor needed to challenge and win. As the wallpaper deteriorates, so does the suppressing effect that male hierarchy imposed on women. Male belief in their own hierarchy was not deteriorating. Females began to think out of line, be aware of their suppression, and fight patriarchal rule. The progression of the yellow wallpaper and the narrator, through out the story, leads to a small win over John. This clearly represents and motivates the first steps of a feminist movement into the twentieth century.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gilman gives several examples of men’s roles according to society. For instance, the narrator states, “ My brother is also a physician and of high standing and he says the same thing”(648). The role of men represented authority and women were expected to respect that. The man needed to be able to work, provide for his family and essentially be in complete control of everything. In addition, one can also see that Jane’s husband took that role seriously when she describes how, “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction”(Gilman 648).This demonstrates how controlling John was to Jane and that she could not even make her own decisions even if Jane thought it was because he cared for her. A woman’s role was also clear, it was for her to stick to society’s expectations, failure to do so would lead them to be looked down on by society. Gilman used repetition, “what is one to do?”(648) to emphasize that a woman had to take orders and obey. The narrator realizes that she is not executing here role. She reports, “There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me !... She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession”(Gilman 650). The narrator knew she wanted something more than to follow the typical stereotypes of these times, “perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper” and like the women in the wallpaper wanted to escape she did too but could not. **add more about the executing gender roles relates to

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper Feminist Criticism

    374 Words  | 1 Pages

    In addition, a significant theme displayed in the short story is oppression and the gender roles. This is shown in the analysis “The Yellow Wallpaper Feminist Criticism” by Andrew Wentworth. In this analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper, both John and the narrator are criticized. This is shown in the short story because John is criticized to treat the narrator as an inferior. The narrator is criticized to be a normal women in society who can’t talk back /oppose to her husband until she loses her sanity and goes mad. This shows some examples of how John and the narrator are criticized. While speaking on the topic of role of women in the society, Wentworth states “John is a textbook example of a dominating spouse, a husband who holds absolute control

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Feminism In 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    John is society’s greatest example of a dominant spouse who holds absolute control over his wife. The narrator writes how “John laughs at [her], of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 1). This depicts how men such as John viewed their wives opinions or ideas as laughable, never taking them seriously because they are just “little girl[s]” (9). The narrator is also supposed to trust that her husband/doctor is always correct and that whatever she feels is wrong is nothing but a misdiagnosis on her part, since she is not to be trusted with such matters, such as medicine. For example, the narrator makes mention of taking “phosphates or phosphites” (1), but yet again the reader can see here how women are overlooked when it comes to education, or in this case the ideas of science and medicine because it is not a woman’s job, but rather a man’s. In this aspect of how women are treated, the reader notices how minimal the respect is for women –– it is non existent –– because women are seen as take care of the house and nothing more, since men believe women cannot amount to anything

    Read More

More about What Is Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaper

Open Document