Hills Like White Elephants Feminist Analysis

Romance, most women want the fairy tale. Man, and woman meet, man sweeps woman off her feet, they fall madly in love, they get married, and then they live happily ever after. However, the saying of happily ever after is questionable in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. In both stories the women are in one sided relationships where the men tend to dictate what the women will do and how they will feel, which in turn creates conflict in the relationships. Hemingway and Gilman use a similar portrayal of the women being oppressed and who give into the demands of their men at the expense of their own happiness, however Hemingway’s male character appears to be more loving and affectionate and the female tends to be a little more outspoken while Gilman’s male character is more of a dictator and the female quieter.

Traditionally, men have held the power in society. Women have been treated as a second class of citizens with neither the legal rights nor the respect of their male counterparts. Culture has contributed to these gender roles by conditioning women to accept their subordinate status while encouraging young men to lead and control. Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts one women’s struggle against the traditional female role into which society attempts to force her and the societal reaction

control over his wife is typical of the control most men had over women in the

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Emily Dickenson’s “I’m Ceded—I’ve Stopped Being Theirs” are both narratives that tell the stories of two mentally unstable women; the works show two ways women in their situations were viewed at the time. One’s issues were cast under the rug and ignored to be bottled up for an explosion later on in the story; the other’s experiences led her to claim independence from those around her who held her back. While each of these female authors creates a protagonist who is followed by a shadow of male oppression, the ways in which they react to it differ.

The empowerment and the continual push for equal status for women has become widely popular and successful in recent history. Women have stepped out of traditional roles of the housewife, the mother and the submissive doormat to more assertive natures. Many controversial issues surround women’s crusade of freedoms including the widely debated right to choose what she does with her body, referring to an abortion. In 1927 Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story titled, “Hills Like White Elephants” that expressed a feminist movement focusing on this issue. Through the character’s development and ability to come to her own decision despite her boyfriend’s constant pressure suggests a shift towards a powerful feminist theme in a society dominated by men. The story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” reflects how men and women are compared with power and dominance regarding their stereotypical behavior in relation to gender norms; however, this story portrays how a woman steps out of the expectations and takes a stance for what she wants.

The fight for Sanity in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The theme of a woman’s role in “The Yellow Wallpaper” has been raised by authors not once in the context of freedom and limitations. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” explores the way a woman can suffer when her potential and natural power is repressed by social conventions and the institution of marriage. By means of setting, symbolism, irony and character development the author exposes her message about how female nature is destroyed by the cruel machine that wants to subdue her.

The romantic literature of the early 19th century contained a certain symbolism for the corruption of woman’s values and place in society. Ernest Hemingway, author of “Hills Like White Elephants,” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author “The Yellow Wallpaper,” wrote stories in an era where the vulnerability of women was amplified and taken advantage by the household male. Both authors wrote of women who experienced women suffrage before a feminist movement began, forcing them to live in a gender critic world. Not only do Hemingway and Perkins Gilman write of gender criticism but they also write in a manner that allows you to presume what the conclusion will be. Seemingly alike in plenty ways, Perkins Gilman ultimately provides an ending while Gilman leaves us on a cliffhanger.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a staple of late nineteenth-century feminism, as well as a psychological horror that views the relationship between husband and wife as domestic and active, which kept women as second class citizens. The patriarchy was adamant about keeping women at childlike states, which would only keep them from further progressing as intelligent people who are capable of facilitating relationships with their artistic careers. Men were capable of keeping their wives downtrodden by denying them the freedom of self-expression, such as John to the narrator Gilman presents throughout her story. The narrator is constantly told not to do anything that would make her illness worse, while simultaneously not being believed to be ill at all by her physician husband, John.

The plot focuses on crossing boundaries. The two characters, The American and a woman nicknamed “Jig”, are constantly wavering middle grounds. It’s a story about communication and conversation. Though they are having a conversation the couple is not communicating. The story implements ambiguity and subtlety to discuss, though never clearly stated, an abortion. The couple arrives at a train station in Madrid. It is assumed only passing through, they decide to have a drink while they wait for the next train. The woman mentions the hills resembling white elephants and notices the infertile barren land in comparison to the green hills in the valley on the other side of the tracks. There is little conversation till the American man hints on an operation. There is

Many people know how it feels to be confined emotionally, but how many can say they have been confined physically, mentally, and socially? In a male dominated society women face many forms of oppression and often times are imprisoned by their expected roles. Women are expected to take on a submissive role and, due to a lack of educational opportunities, are left in a “state of perpetual childhood” (Mary Wollstonecraft). In the short story, “Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her personal experiences with confinement to highlight the struggles women face in their quest for freedom of thought. The story is set in the late nineteenth century and is narrated by an unnamed upper middle-class woman that recently gave birth and is suffering from what would be considered modern day postpartum disorder. Her husband John--also her physician--has rented a colonial estate for the summer where she will undergo “rest cure” treatment. The narrator is confined to a room with “hideous” yellow wallpaper, a nursery perhaps, and forbidden from engaging in any intellectual activities. The narrator rebels against these constraints and keeps a secret diary; it is through these readings that Gillman reveals the idea that when a woman is confined and oppressed, she may decline to the point of madness.

This story is about a verbal duel between an American man and a girl named Jig, over whether the girl will have an abortion or not. Jig is not willing to have the operation. She suspects that having the operation will not make things as they were before, and wants the man to agree on having a family. However, she also understands that her pregnancy has significantly changed the relationship. The American man on the other hand, is convincing jig to have the operation, giving lip service to the fact that the procedure is perfectly natural and he’ll still love her whether it has done or not.

I got to an important point in the story when the girl Jig wants to have the baby, but the American person is convincing her that he only wants her not anybody else. He also wants to continue the relationship as it was before. I think Jig will not do this abortion because in 1920’s in Madrid where they were going to have an abortion was illegal, dangerous, and socially unacceptable in the community. It seems like the setting of the story was Catholic and conservative. In 1920, abortion was illegal and it was condemned as a grave evil by the church.

He is referring to the abortion as a “an awfully simple operation”, the American guy is trying to convince his girlfriend that she has to abort the baby. He is stating that he does not want the baby in his life because it will be a distraction. In effect, will stop him to do that he wants. In contrast, the girl is being manipulated by the guy. She clearly does not want to have the abortion. She remains quiet and do not say anything. Meaning that she does not want to argue but she does not agree with him.

In the short story “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, the main character pretends that she is young naive and defenseless, but it is easy to see that “she is instead a feminist. The primary line of discussion is the female asking her beau, "What if we drink”. The male character requests drinks for them two, demonstrating his strength and the young lady asking her beau shows her accommodation. The young lady, Jig, further fortifies her latent nature by asking for authorization from her beau to attempt the beverage "Anis del Toro" took after by the entry: "We need two Anis del Toro". [Man] "With water?"

Generally, female characters in literature are often portrayed as socially suppressed and inferior to their male counterparts. Due to the oppressive time period in which most classic novels were produced, female inferiority is commonly accepted while the concept of social equality is usually rejected in fear of the potential loss of masculine power. As a result of lacking a prominent voice in society, some female characters begin to face an identity crisis, which eventually escalates into their endurance of social isolation. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Annie Proulx explore the consequences of feminine oppression through the development of their female characters, John’s wife and Ottaline, in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Bunchgrass Edge of the World respectively. Due to her husband’s unreasonable regulations regarding her alleged sickness, John’s wife’s freedom of expression is strongly limited. Despite her initial faith in her husband, the progression of John’s wife’s stay at the colonial mansion during their supposed vacation ultimately evokes John’s wife to question the intent of her husband’s actions. Similarly, Ottaline’s position as a young female character in a patriarchal ranch also socially limits her ability to dictate her own life. While her younger siblings abandon the restrictions of the family ranch, Ottaline remains on the property and serves as a disgrace to her parents. As a result of societal pressure, John’s wife and Ottaline gravitate towards the yellow