Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Thesis: The Narrator, who consistently seeks freedom of speech and expression, does not possess the ability to become independent due to the underlying bias of a patriarchal society in which she is entrapped by her significant other.

The arabesque pattern of the yellow wallpaper in the novel symbolizes both a barrier, where the male-dominated society entraps the narrator’s creativity, as well as the many societal roles that women are supposed to take on that provided no end or shelter for the narrator’s mental health.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, patriarchy is defined as the “predominance of men in positions of power and influence in society, with cultural values and norms favoring men.” This social structure in particular was prevalent during Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s time and played a large role in her involvement with feminism and women’s rights. Along with the patriarchal influences, Gilman provides an autobiographical basis upon which she built the framework for “The Yellow Wallpaper” as she was forced to undergo the dreaded “Rest Cure” depicted in the short story. Through the eyes of the narrator, Gilman provides illumination regarding the role of women imposed by the patriarchal society of the 19th Century and the implications of such

Central to the story is the wallpaper itself. It is within the wallpaper that the narrator finds her hidden self and her eventual damnation/freedom. Her obsession with the paper begins subtly and then consumes both the narrator and the story. Once settled in the long-empty “ancestral estate,” a typical gothic setting, the narrator is dismayed to learn that her husband has chosen the top-floor nursery room for her. The room is papered in horrible yellow wallpaper, the design of which “commit[s] every artistic sin”(426). The design begins to fascinate the narrator and she

"The story was wrenched out of Gilman 's own life, and is unique in the

The narrator is portraying a woman who is looked down upon because of her mental illness, but women at the time were often seen as childish or too emotional. “Then he took me in his arms called me a blessed little goose,” (Gilman 5). The narrator’s husband, John, treats her almost like a father would treat a daughter. The narrator is belittled because of her inability to act like women at the time were expected to. “Victorian values stressed that women were to behave demurely and remain with in the domestic sphere,” (Wilson 6). During the 19th century, women were expected to simply care for the children and clean the house. Most of the time, women who aspired to do more than that were not considered respectable wives. “Because the narrator is completely dependent on her husband and is allowed no other role than to be a wife and a mother, she represents the secondary status of women during the 19th century,” (Wilson 5).

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator uses the psychological gothic genre to present the portrayal of women, women faced in a marriage, within the time frame of the 1890s. Women were seen as the “shadow” as men dominated society. This is presented throughout the book as many readers first interpitation

The author describes the narrator’s use of the wallpaper to illustrate the discrimination against women. She explains the narrator's thoughts about her husband's behavior towards her. The author describe how the narrator displays her husband’s behavior towards her as sexist until the very end when the

Despite living in a confined room, the narrator of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” finds a way to break free, become an entirely new person, and explore the evils and unfairness holding her back in society. This demonstrates that those who are oppressed can overcome their oppressors but cannot belong in the same structure after realizing the negative impact on not only themselves, but also on society as a whole. The narrator is forced to suppress her true feelings until she violently overcomes her unjust treatment and cannot return to the compromised structure. Her treatment is directly affiliated with her femininity and she chooses to abandon all aspects of her gender, gender roles, and expectations to lose her past self and reject the patriarchal influences on society.

treats her like a child and just like a child she is kept in this

Because the story is written in diary format, we feel especially close to this woman. We are in touch with her innermost thoughts. The dominance of her husband, and her reaction to it, is reflected throughout the story. The narrator is continually submissive, bowing to her husband's wishes, even though she is unhappy and depressed. Her husband has adopted the

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman's journey into madness and shows the control and attacks on women during the 1800s. The narrator in the story is very symbolic for all women during the time and also a prisoner of the confining society. During the late 1800s, men were privileged enough to receive an education and were the only ones who could hold jobs and make all the decisions. Women were seen as a lower class and were expected to bear children, stay at home, and do want they were told. Since men dominated over women, it would be presumed that the narrator’s husband, John, would have control over the narrator.

People who are insane don’t usually wake up being that way one day. There has to be a reason behind their mental disorder, whether it was caused by an accident, a traumatic event, a genetic mutation, or etc. The wife in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, originally suffered some form of depression, which she is treated with by the Rest Cure. The Rest Cure was supposed to cure her condition; however, the treatment practiced on her does the opposite of its purpose. The treatment she went through caused her to lose her mind completely and go insane because she was forced to stay in a room (by herself), her husband treated her indifferently, and she wasn’t allowed to use her mind creatively.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a gothic fiction short story that includes feminist perspectives. According to one scholar, the story “is used to remind contemporary readers of the enduring import of the feminist struggle against patriarchal domination” (Haney-Peritz 114). The unnamed narrator is stuck in “a colonial mansion” that she describes as “a haunted house” (Gilman 468). The setting is a big house with only her and her husband, John, living in it. She is stuck in the big mansion because John, who is also her physician, says she has a “temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 468). As part of her treatment she is told to rest until she feels better. John and her brother says she is “absolutely

The role of women in society has been controversial for centuries if they should just stay at home, pursue a job, or have a greater purpose in society, but why not let women take the decision on what they want to do? In the 20th century during the World Wars, the relevance of women in society became more apparent and as a result suffrage movements and other gender equality movements took place. A famous advocate for women's right was Margaret Fuller who a wrote a book called Women in the Nineteenth Century is quoted as "What woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely, and unimpeded to unfold such powers as were given her when we left our common home." which stresses the importance of letting women do what they want and not be chained from the equal opportunities given to everyone by God.