The Role Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

She has been trained to trust in her husband blindly and sees no other way. He calls her “little girl” (352) and “little goose” (349) and states “She will be as sick as she pleases!” (352) whenever she tries to express her issues. Instead of fighting for what she thinks will make her better she accepts it and keeps pushing her feelings aside, while he treats her like a child. We get an instant feel for her problem in the first page when she says, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (pg 346). A woman shouldn’t expect her husband to laugh at her concerns. Even after briefly writing about her condition she remembers her husband telling her the very worst thing she can do is think about it and follows his instructions. This is when she begins to focus on the house instead of her problems and the obsession with the wallpaper starts. She has nothing else to think about alone in the home; they don’t even allow her to write, which she has to do in secret.

First, the writings of her journal show that the narrator is not convinced with her “rest cure” treatment. Her writings depict that her husband, John, continuously belittles her condition and concerns while she knows that her illness is real and more severe than he

Although tender and caring, John played a significant role in causing the narrator’s descent into ‘madness’. By taking on the role of a physician and a husband, John symbolises the stronghold power men had over women in the past. Instead of respecting his wife’s request for some form of mental stimulation, John insists that she takes on the ‘rest’ treatment. The treatment only focuses on the physical condition of the patient, and not the emotional or mental

With John being a “physician of high standing” (Gilman), his role in the diagnosis of the narrator supports the claim of the stereotypical woman of the household being a “domestic slave” (Treichler) to the head of the household, who is stereotypically considered a man. John uses his medical diagnosis to exert control over his wife by telling her how she is to perceive, process, and act in her life. The female narrator, at first, is compliant with his orders. However, by her continuous action of writing in her journal, she defies John’s course of treatment. She must be sly about her writing for “John will not allow her to gain possession of her own language” (Suess). The narrator knows the circumstances of what writing in her journal entails, but to gain control of her own life is worth the cost so that her husband will no longer have control over her.

Although it has small interactions with some other peoples, we mainly see that he talks alone with her husband. John said that it must be in the room on the second floor, which must not write, you must not do much, and that must rest. There is much that John believes that he must do it. And if you are not agree, man of few reasons are enough to keep changing its idea. It is the power, no doubt. John also has a name which hardened to it. But with this common name, John can be any husband or doctor that is. Then it represents all men and makes us think that all men have this power. If he comes to the House, woman hides her diary, is still, and accept everything that John advised. When John speaks with his wife, as a baby trafficking. She wants to move into the room on the floor below, but John tells him no, and called him in diminutives as "a tontita" and "creature", or the English version "a blessed little goose" and "little girl". (Gilman) There is another part where John "took me in her arms, took me up, put me in bed and read me until I got tired head." (Gilman). Thus we see this way of talking about and care for the woman as if she were a little girl. It does not take seriously his wife. John is a doctor, and is similar to the neurologist who helped Gilman in his life - it says that a break is the best prescription for a weak

In a guise of a physician’s authority over his patient, John exercises patriarchal domination. He dominates the narrator both physically and mentally, by confining her to a prison like room and latter constraining her from writing. Every time he focuses that they came to that house merely on the narrator’s account so that she would get better soon. However, he doesn’t even let her talk about her anxieties and fears. She very disappointingly remarks that:

But the location is not necessarily as important as the time of which the story is set and that is in late 19th century America. A time when medicine was still rather coarse and unrefined with treatments coming from doctors who have never truly tested their theories. It is these kinds of treatments that John will administer to his wife without truly knowing what ails her causing her to spiral into a rather abnormal mental state. The late 19th century was still a time when woman had very little say in the world and were still considered inferior to men without the capacity for in-depth rational thought. While the wife knows she is sick and her husband’s treatments won’t help her she knows there is nothing she can say that will convince him

The wife is the main focus in this story and as the story continues she begins to realize that her sickness results from her controlling husband. She learns that John is crippling her health and understands his reasoning behind why he chose the “nursery” to place her in. The wife is a dynamic character who gains insight as the story progresses. In the beginning of the wife’s diagnosis, her husband forbids her from working until she is well again. The wife writes in her journal, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good” (489). This begins a trend of the wife’s disagreement with him. Instead of listening to John’s “professional” advice, she challenges his statement within the safety of her journal. The journal is a way to express herself freely, although John believes it does her more harm than good. The wife continues to write proclaiming “John would think it absurd. But I must say (write) what I feel and think in some way- it is such a relief” (494)!

As the story progresses, we see John is not straight up evil, and cares deeply for his wife but both of them are part of an unequal relationship where the protagonist cannot be taken seriously. There is also a sense of John treating her as an object, patient or someone he is not familiar with rather than someone he is married to. The last line of the story is very powerful, “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! “John indirectly destroys her with his “resting cure” treatment which is the last thing he wants as he displays his reaction by what seems as fainting and not waking up (dying but is not clear in the text).

Essay 1 When you think of stereotypes, what do you imagine or think of? Do you see a woman in the kitchen with an apron bringing her husband, as he walks in the door with a paycheck from a hard day of work, and children dinner? Many believe that should still exist and that women should only be allowed the little things in life. You may even imagine seeing a woman being forced to do as she is told by her father or other males in her life. Gender stereotypes were very much alive in earlier years and the things that went on were not consider stereotypes.

Through the minimal interactions that John has with his wife, he is consistently revealed as a superior and patriarchal figure to the narrator, rather than a romantic partner. The narrator’s trivialization in the marriage is demonstrated at the very beginning of the story when she admits that her husband “John laughs at [her]” then tries to vindicate his insensitivity by saying that “one expects that in marriage” (3). Likewise, she introduces John as someone who is “practical in the extreme..., has no patience with faith...and scoffs openly at

He overrides her judgments on the best course of treatment for herself as he would on any issue, making her live in a house she does not like, in a room she detests, and in an isolated environment which does nothing but cultivate loneliness. John’s governing of her “care” shows that he believes the theories which claim that women’s societal inferiority leaves them in a constant state of infantile

It does not take the form of the traditional symbol of security for the domestic

Unfortunately, the bullying causes his wife to transition from loving him, to being afraid of him. This, along with the Rest Cure, causes her to slowly become insane. The change in her personality, can be seen shortly after the last time she attempts to talk to John about the severity of her condition. John continues to dismiss her feelings as mere fantasies. He also treats her as if she were one of his patients, instead of how a loving husband should treat his wife. Due to the neglect on Johns behalf, she becomes more withdrawn and obsessive about the wallpaper in her room. This could be due to lack of stimulus, as well as isolation from social interaction. One thing is for certain, John treating her as a patient, and the complete disregard for her feelings causes her to become more discreet, and then her obsession

Inaccessible from the mental prison of her husband’s planning, the protagonist of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the depiction of the struggles faced by a woman in seeking a freedom of thought. It is clear that this is a clarification on the state of women in late 1800s, and perhaps even the struggles of author with a culture run by men. In the beginning of 19th century, all the women around the world were bound to stay at home and give all of their attention to their husband and children. The narrator in the story cleverly uses symbolism that develops the theme of domination of the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper, and tells a story about a woman’s struggle against male-centric society.