The Feminist Movement : The Yellow Wallpaper And I Stand Here Ironing Essay

Today women in developed countries enjoy many freedoms from social stigmas and oppressions in the work force, although, they are still not completely equal to their male counterpart. There are still women being paid less than men doing the same job and there is the idea that prices for female products are raised slightly higher than it is for men for the same products; however, this does not compare to the kind of oppression women went through in the 1890s. Charlotte Perkins Gilman embodied the oppression of females in the 1890s in her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which depicts a mother and wife going through postpartum depression while struggling with her male physicians and husband over her treatment plan. Critic Frances Baskerville sums Gilman’s intention for her story stating, “Her [Gilman’s] fiction was intended as a vehicle for her feminist and socialist themes, a means of persuading a general audience” (Baskerville line 2). Although one of the issues of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is dealing with postpartum depression, one of the main themes of the short story is female oppression and what everyday life was like for women in her time.

Did you know that discrimination can take many forms from race, gender, religion and sexuality and that “40% of Canadian workers experience bullying on a weekly basis” (Canadian Bullying Statistics)? One of the biggest example of discrimination is female oppression. Even today, women are perceived and shaped generally as fragile and caring. During the 1900’s, and many years before, women were oppressed; some were even hospitalized for wanting to expand their knowledge. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman, and the author herself, are great examples regarding the oppression of women by a patriarchal power structure during the 1900’s. Throughout the story, Gilman exemplifies the social struggle against male domination that woman faced through her personal experience, the characters in her story and the wallpaper as a symbol of the male authority.

During the 19th century men considered themselves to be the superior sex. Without a valid reason or explanation, men were the providers, the politicians, and the physicians. Men had the power. The power to make the rules and set the guidelines of how things were supposed to be done and women were expected to follow without question. The 19th century was also the start of the women’s activist movement, more and more women were starting to realize that they had a voice and they wanted to be heard. Women were gaining the courage to speak up against the wishes of men and set their own guidelines. To stand up and tell men that contrary to what they believe, they are not always right. Among these opinionated women was Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the author of many short stories and books on gender inequality. Gilman is most known for her Short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” published in 1892, where she writes about a wife and now a new mother suffering from depression. Through her work she reveals the strength and influence men had over women, the lack of knowledge pertaining to mental health and gender roles present during the 1800s.

In Charlotte Perkins “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which was published in 1892, the author explores the gender ideologies of the time period and how women were seen as inferior, resulting in unfair treatment in cases even involving their personal health. The main character, who is a woman named Jane, is led to insanity due to the unsuitable treatment received for her depression, but the insanity she goes into symbolizes a revelation. As she progresses into this insanity, the author ties in the discovery the main character makes of the hidden figure in the wallpaper to a woman making the discovery of how the oppressions and limitations women face must be challenged and changed in order to escape the lifestyle which keeps them imprisoned to the

“The Cult of Domesticity” was alive and well in the United States during the nineteenth century. Men were the leaders and breadwinners, while women were the homemakers and domesticates. Since women were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men, they were best suited to the domestic sphere (Hughes). It is against this backdrop that Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin write “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892) and “The Story of an Hour” (1894), respectively. Each story is an allegory that spotlights female oppression by patriarchal authority and the struggles of women to attain liberty from this oppression. Although these short stories share the same themes, they are told from different points of view. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is a narrative told from the first person point of view. “The Story of an Hour” is a short story told from a third person point of view. Both authors use space to depict the plight of a repressed wife’s conflict between self desires for freedom and society’s matronly expectations. Gilman and Chopin also use strong symbolism and irony to emphasize the social factors of the period that prevent the satisfaction of such desires for liberty by women.

One of the most distinguished authors of her time who continue to influence feminists of our current generation is Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She is best known for her fictionalized short story “The Yellow Wall-paper,” written in 1892 (“Charlotte” 484). The story examines the relationship between husbands and wives in a male dominant marriage and the social dependence women had on men. It also explores the lack of freedom and the repression women faced at that time (Novel, par.

Topics of great social impact have been dealt with in many different ways and in many different mediums. Beginning with the first women’s movement in the 1850’s, the role of women in society has been constantly written about, protested, and debated. Two women writers who have had the most impact in the on-going women’s movement are Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper are two of feminist literature’s cornerstones and have become prolific parts of American literature. Themes of entrapment by social dictates, circumstance, and the desire for personal independence reside within each work and bond the two together.

For centuries women have been overlooked by their male counterparts in society. They have been ignored, mistreated, and treated as second-class citizens by society. It seems to be never-ending, as women oppressed in their everyday lives in their homes, at work, and everywhere else in the world. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the wallpaper symbolically represents the oppression of women in society as it demonstrates its inescapability, its unsightliness, and the normalization of it.

Restriction causes pain, but freedom brings relief. Similarly, in the short story The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator is suffering from what her husband interprets to be temporary nervous depression. Although her husband John is a doctor, his methods to aid her prove to be insufficient and harmful. It is clear that he loves his wife and wants her health to improve but, his controlling ways are of no help. He believes that he knows best since he is the “doctor”, which only heightens his know it all character. Gender stratification is evident throughout the story, as one can see the power John has not because he is a doctor; because of his sex. John and the narrator’s relatives drive her to act in a manner out of the ordinary. John not only plays a major role in her life, but her well-being. The narrator’s problems are not only mental but social because her husband takes advantage of her being ill, her family is insensitive to her desires, as well as her husband’s ego blinds him from the real issue.

There are many key ideas that can be found in both the novels in how these women affect the storyline and what their roles are. Foremost is the concept of female sexuality and how it is portrayed in these two books. In this respect, we come to understand how gender

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, protagonist of the “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the author of the short story herself, details her experiences while locked away on bed rest by order of her doctor husband. Through these experiences, Gilman displays the struggles women face while seeking independence. While this short story has many psychological aspects, it also displays several feminist perspectives that speak for the female gender throughout the late 1800’s, as well as difficulties with a society ran by primarily males. This idea is evident through Gilman’s husband, John, the writings of Jane, the unnamed narrator, and the environment Gilman herself was placed within. Through these components, isolation of women and the power given off by the male gender is reflected.

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are both 19th century progressive short stories. Both of the stories tell the story of women trapped by the control of their husbands, and the adverse effects that are wrought upon them because of this bondage. In the late 1800s to early 1900s, women faced sexism brought upon them by their spouses and society. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman used their stories to promote social change by emphasizing ideas supporting women’s rights advocates, and using specific characters to represent different social issues in society.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story first published in 1892 that depicts a woman’s struggles against a heavily patriarchal society while dealing with post-partum depression. A feminist text generally points out deficiencies in society in regards to gender equality. This is seen throughout the story which makes it possible analyze the text with the use of feminist theory. The oppression that women endured during the 19th century is seen in this story through the actions of her husband as well as in the crumbling of the Narrators mental state.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut. Throughout her life, she claimed herself to be a feminist. “...a feminist, she encouraged women to gain economic independence.” (bio.) Charlotte was also a social activist, one who strives to change society and the improve the problems within it. Growing up was difficult, for, her father abandoned the family after discovering her mother was unable to bear any more children. This left her mother to have to raise two children on her own. With an unsteady home-life her education suffered tremendously. In continuation, she married her husband, Charles Stetson, in 1884. At one point during her marriage to Charles, she underwent

     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