Feminist Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

The most prevalent and popular stereotype of the post World war II era in America is one filled with women abandoning their wartimes jobs and retreating into the home to fulfill their womanly duties. In Joanne Meyerowitz’s Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, she shows how far women departed from this one dimensional image. While Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is reflexive and focused on the mainstream, Meyerowitz’s analysis is a broader and more inclusive exploration of media, as she draws upon multiple sources. Although Friedan effectively unveiled the thought process and reasoning behind society's belief that the message of media was to make women think that their place was to be the happy housewife, Meyerowitz expanded her media archives and found a differing message in analyzing both female responses to media and exploring their stories.

The societal views of women writers based in the late 1800s to the mid 1900s influenced the way we now see men of this time period. Two of the short stories that show this are, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin. This compared to how a man writer like Richard Wright in “Long Black Song” show how women should act and be treated.

The Puritans were a religious group who left the Church of England because they wanted to have more freedom with their religion. They thought the Church of England was “too Catholic”. They believed the Bible and its rules were the number one thing to go by and that all humans were evil and had to overcome their sin. Women had to cover their whole bodies in clothing. They couldn’t show their ankles or wrists. They also had to wear their hair up and out of their face at all times, except if they were in a room alone with only their husband. They always were on one side of the church away from the men or in the back on the church. These women in the society that will be talked about have broken laws and have been misjudged.

Another story that deals with a woman’s role in society is “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Their role is often portrayed as being controlled by men because that’s what they were in the 19th century. This story takes place in the 19th century which just goes to show that nothing really changes. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a woman who is basically locked away in a house by her husband due to her “psychological” problems. She isn’t allowed to leave and she only has a small window with bars across it. When she look out the window she basically creeps around in order to blend in with society. She also doesn’t want to see the other women who have to do the same thing as her because she knows that those women are a reflection of her. This just goes to show that women are to move without being seen. They have to abide by their husband’s rules or any man’s rules for that matter. Men are very superior during this time and if women don’t follow, then it most likely wouldn’t end well. The woman’s role in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is to not bother her husband and keep quiet. The world isn’t supposed to know about her condition obviously, considering she can’t leave the house.

Most understand feminism as a movement that strides for political, economic, and social equality across gender lines. At its core, it is about dismantling oppression. Yet, everyone experiences oppression to a differing degree based on their social identities. To understand these differing forms of oppression and how they overlap, the idea of intersectionality must be added to feminism. But not too many people are familiar with what intersectional feminism is.

Women are often looked down upon or even portrayed as the weaker partner in a relationship or in society. However, there’s the idea of feminism: women having equal social, political, and economic power in relations to men. There are women who believe in equality between genders while there are those who are simply ashamed of their gender and in result try to take away others masculinity. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter includes an important feminist, who is characterized as a powerful female in literature with strong ideals based on feminism. In contrast, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest includes a female character who does not seek equality between her and the men in the mental hospital. Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter

“The Yellow Wallpaper”: The Epidemic of Female Oppression Neurasthenia is a medical condition characterized by lassitude, fatigue, headache, and irritability, associated chiefly with emotional disturbance. The disorder can cause tiredness, fatigue, and extreme stress or anxiety leading to oppression of a being. Oppression causes the separation of oneself from society due to large amounts of anxiety. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the protagonist is suffering from an illness that is said to be cured by her moving away from society and living in the country for a few months with her husband.

In “Who Is a Feminist Now?” Marissa Meltzer explores different female celebrities on their views of feminism. Meltzer starts off by asking Charlene Woodley’s , “whether or not she considers herself to be feminist.” To which she responded no , giving the reason that those who are feminist are taking the power away from the man. As the article progresses, Meltzer continues asking other female celebrities’ their opinion regarding whether or not they consider themselves to be feminist. As the article progresses Meltzer expresses her opinion on how different this generation is compared to those prior. Also stating that not all females see themselves as feminist due to the lack of knowledge regarding the topic. Meltzer continues by taking into

The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses aspects of the feminist theory to develop the plot as well as create an image of the time. The narrator lives in a patriarchal society where a man’s opinions are rarely, if ever questioned. Throughout the course of the story, the opinions of the narrator, a female, are not valued; men plan out every aspect of her life. The narrator is also treated as weaker than her male counterparts and is referred to using pet names, particularly those given to children. Finally, due to the previously mentioned components of her life, the narrator is confined to the attic of the mansion and it is likely that it is this confinement that drove her to insanity. The Yellow Wallpaper opposes feminist

The women of America have been fighting for equality for generations. Today, more men and women alike are participation in the feminist movement than ever before. Activists are still fighting to close the wage gap and end unrealistic societal expectations, among combating many other issues that the female population still faces. Though the fight is not over yet, society has come a long way. The feminist movement first sparked in the late 1840’s. Women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton served as trailblazers for the Women’s Suffrage movement. The early suffragettes set the stage for many more changes to come for American society (“United States Suffrage”). Among the women who did their part to gain equality were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Tillie Olsen, authors of the short stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “I Stand Here Ironing.” These works both act as semi-autobiographical documentations of the effects of patriarchal society on women’s mental, emotional and physical health. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “I Stand Here Ironing” were written more than sixty years apart, but in what ways do they relate? The narrators of both of these stories come from very different backgrounds, but despite their differing circumstances, they are both familiar with the oppression and hardship that women have faced throughout history.

Throughout history, society often places women inferior to men, causing women to be predisposed to obeying their husband without a second thought. However, when a woman begins to question the idea of loyalty and obedience, her eyes are often opened to the mold that she is encased in and becomes determined to break through and develop her self-potential. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main female character is put through a revelation that changes her life forever.

     In the late nineteenth century, after the American social and economic shift commonly referred to as the "Industrial Revolution" had changed the very fabric of American society, increased attention was paid to the psychological disorders that apparently had steamed up out of the new smokestacks and skyscrapers in urban populations (Bauer, 131).  These disorders were presumed to have been born out of the exhaustion and "wear and tear" of industrial society (Bauer, 131-132).  An obvious effect of these new disorders was a slew of physicians and psychiatrists advocating one sort of cure or another, although the "rest cure" popularized by the physician S. Weir Mitchell was the most

For centuries man has created this patriarchal society in which women have been treated as the lesser entity, having no sense of self-being or worth. These feelings led women to feel repressed in their everyday life. It was in the late nineteenth century when literary writers started to expose this female repression. Guy de Maupassant and Kate Chopin clearly express definitive examples of female repression in their stories, The Necklace and The Story of an Hour.

The yellow wallpaper is a story about John and his wife who he keeps locked up due to her "nervous condition" of anxiety. John diagnoses her as sick and has his own remedy to cure her. His remedy s to keep her inside and deterring her from almost all activities. She is not allowed to write, make decisions on her own, or interact with the outside world. John claims that her condition is improving but she knows that it is not. She eats almost nothing all day and when it is suppertime she eats a normal meal. John sees this and proclaims her appetite is improving. Later in the story, the woman creates something of an imaginary friend trapped behind the horrible looking yellow wallpaper in

I will address three topics that caught my attention in the video which are the empower of women, freedom and democracy, Arab Spring and the importance of religion.