How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Influence Her Work?

Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” to show how women undergo oppression by gender roles. Gilman does so by taking the reader through the terrors of one woman’s changes in mental state. The narrator in this story becomes so oppressed by her husband that she actually goes insane. The act of oppression is very obvious within the story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and shows how it changes one’s life forever.

The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.

In this article, Gilman states multiple reasons as to why she wrote the short story; however, she is clear to point out that the main reason was to, "save people from being driven crazy" (Gilman, 1913). According to Gilman, it did exactly that. I believe that when women in a similar situation as she had been in read the

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known as the first American writer who has feminist approach. Gilman criticises inequality between male and female during her life, hence it is mostly possible to see the traces of feminist approach in her works. She deals with the struggles and obstacles which women face in patriarchal society. Moreover, Gilman argues that marriages cause the subordination of women, because male is active, whereas female plays a domestic role in the marriage. Gilman also argues that the situation should change; therefore women are only able to accomplish full development of their identities. At this point, The Yellow Wallpaper is a crucial example that shows repressed woman’s awakening. It is a story of a woman who

Being secluded from the outside world, and having nothing to do made the home feel like a prison. The similarities between the main character of, “The Yellow Wall-paper” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman are uncanny. There is a lot of room for analysis within this story. Almost every line of this story can be picked apart to find hidden, yet important meanings.

The story is scattered with metaphors and allegories pertaining to the issue of female oppression and can be seen in the actions of the narrator and her husband in the story. During the story, the narrator is pressured by her husband and the doctors about her nervous condition, and agreed to the treatment, because that is what her husband would want. Gilman uses many typical characteristics of a woman in her story; innocent, loyal and obedient to her husband. Like many historical disputes of women writing, her husband bans her from writing, and even diagnoses her as ill to stop the writing. Phrases in the story also link

The narrator of Gilman’s story may be envious of Truth and her freedom in the sense of being able to work. Meanwhile, Truth is arguing she is a woman just as much as the white woman is, yet is treated drastically differently. While the white woman in Gilman’s story is forbidden to work because it has seemingly made her ill, Truth has been forced to live a life full of work.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860, in the city of Hartford, CT. She would later move to California. She would end her own life in 1935, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought for women’s rights and was an advocate of socialism. She wrote novels, poetry and short stories. She was a woman who was educated; her writing reflected her knowledge, relating to her strong thoughts on woman’s rights and independence and how women of Victorian times suffered from this lack of rights. In her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her views on feminism and how women are treated through characters who represent this treatment. The characters she uses help the reader really get drawn into her story;

Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her story, The Yellow Wallpaper, in order to demonstrate to readers of the 19th Century that the issues women possess are valid and deserve to be recognized as more than just simple hysteria. Charlotte also brought to light the severeness of mental illness and how it can develop quickly when emotions are neglected.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" depicts the narrator's mental struggle of being controlled and falsely diagnosed by her authoritarian husband. The story projects the struggle of women who were trying to discover their freedom of thinking in the late 1800's. Gilman takes a feminist standpoint on the way women were being treated in the late 1800's and the effect of the male dominance that was imposed on women during the era. Gilman's aspects of feminism show the way that women were captive and the unchallenged control that men had over them. "The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of the narrator's, a woman, struggles within the societal normality of a male dominated culture.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an author, but also a well known feminist who believed that "heterosexuality had become the means by which men subjected women through an economic dependency". (feminism 1) Throughout my research there is one word that best describes the era of a male dominated and controlled society, Patriarch! During this period of male dominance, Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" to prove a point and to "get Dr. Weir Mitchell to change his ways." (3). Gilman suffered from neurasthenic, melancholia, suicidal depression and after the birth of her child post partum depression. Gilman was a patient of Dr. Mitchell and was prescribed the "Rest Cure", which is to rest and never write again. Gilman follows the recommended prescription for a month but found it was weakening her intellect. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written during the time of a patriarchal society and the reader becomes witness to male dominance. The male dominance in "The Yellow Wallpaper" represses the narrator's ability to control her own mental health.

The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a perfect example of a story that needs to be re-analyzed from a feminist perspective. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in 1892 which was during the time period that feminists initially emerged and began fighting for women’s rights. This was also the time that women began trying to show their equality to men and proving that women could be just as useful outside the home as within. However, in literature, women were still being portrayed as weak, feeble-minded, and incapable of doing anything except for chores. Due to this information, “The Yellow Wallpaper” needs to be re-evaluated because of its set gender roles, its put-downs of women, and its blatant disregard

The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a perfect example of a story that needs to be reanalyzed from a feminist perspective. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in 1892 which was during the time period that feminists initially emerged and began fighting for women’s rights. This was also the time that women began trying to showing their equality to men and proving that women could be just as useful outside the home as within. However, in literature, women were still being portrayed as weak, feeble-minded, and incapable of doing anything except for chores. Due to this information, “The Yellow Wallpaper” needs to be re-evaluated because of its set gender roles, its put-downs of women, and its blatant disregard of the female brain.

“The Yellow Wall-Paper” is a short story that was published in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman’s ideas about equality for men and women are vividly present in the short story. She believed that women should be more equal economically, socially, and be able to have jobs and work outside of their home. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” focuses on how women were seen as home keepers and not able to work in the real world. Gilman expresses her ideas through this story by telling it as a first person experience.

Women all around the world are struggling with having a lack of equality with men. The story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by the Charlotte Perkins Gilman’ s is a feminist piece of literature. It connects to the personal experiences to other women across the world. For the author to write a feminist work, the story should challenge the gender oppression and include implications for social change. (Hart 45). By examining “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it shows the protagonist’s lack of authority and desire for freedom to the readers through a feminist lens. The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” realizes the struggle that women go through in order to seek freedom. The short story is based off the author’s own personal experience with society when it comes to feelings of male dominance and gender oppression. After Gilman’s marriage to her husband and birth of her daughter, she started to go in a deeply depressive state of mind. “The Yellow Wallpaper” writes fictional account of her own personal experience.