Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s deconstruction of gender roles in The Yellow Wallpaper. AP English 12 Mr. AuCoin Shane Caswell October 1, 2015 Shane Caswell 1 Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is an interesting story told from the journals of a woman who progressively loses her mind being locked in her bedroom, but underneath the surface this short story shows us a woman who is at first confined by, but progressively freed from the gender roles and expectations put upon her by society and her spouse. This story is written in an epistolary format. This first-person narrative gives the reader an intimate portrayal of the social attitudes that were common in Victorian era England. From this perspective the story attacks the oppressed role forced onto women in Victorian society. The nameless narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining, patriarchal society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told; in the narrator’s insanity, she defies these roles in possibly the most exaggerated sense. The husband of our narrator, John, represents society as a whole, and much like society he is controlling and he determines what the narrator (women) should and should not be doing, leaving her incapable of making decisions for herself. John is a man and a physician, so his “I know best” attitude can be attributed to his social status. He is very factual, scientific and likes to focus
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbolic tale of one woman’s struggle to break free from her mental prison. Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the reader how quickly insanity takes hold when a person is taken out of context and completely isolated from the rest of the world. The narrator is a depressed woman who cannot handle being alone and retreats into her own delusions as opposed to accepting her reality. This mental prison is a symbol for the actual repression of women’s rights in society and we see the consequences when a woman tries to free herself from this social slavery.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, dank room covered in musty wallpaper all play important parts in driving the wife insane. The husband's smothering attention, combined with the isolated environment, incites the nervous nature of the wife, causing her to plunge into insanity to the point she sees herself in the wallpaper. The author's masterful use of not only the setting (of both time and place), but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to participate in the woman's growing insanity.
Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely
The geographical, physical, and historical settings in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" were more than the primary character could handle. The geography would lead to think she could enjoy the environment, but she chose not to. The physical setting showed us the reader just how grotesque and unbearable it would be to live a room in which the wallpaper to over the narrators mind. Lastly, we looked at how historically women were not allowed to speak their minds about how they felt. Maybe now that John has seen his wife go completely insane for himself he will finally seek extra attention for
The men of the story, namely John, the protagonist’s husband, plays the role of the active working, dominating male who is the sole authority of his family and regards himself as intelligent and wise. John exemplifies the working man of his day, working all day and sometimes late into the night. John is a physician who recognizes the compromised state of his wife, but only chalks it up to temporary nervous depression. Playing into his gender role, John takes charge in treating and helping his wife, believing in his superiority and knowledge. One night when the protagonist confronts her husband to tell him that she really is not gaining anything from being secluded in the mansion and wishes him to take her away, he only replies with, “. . .I cannot possibly leave town just now. Of course if you were in any danger, I could and would, but you really are better, dear, whether you can
The role of women in society was displayed quite clearly by the entrance of John’s sister. The woman writes, “There comes John’s sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing. She is a perfectionist and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick!” John’s sister is representative of the typical woman. A woman who is pleased with her life, and wishes for no more. John’s wife, however, is rebelling on her place in society by writing. This is why she includes the statement; “…I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick!”
As a woman, the narrator must be protected and controlled and kept away from harm. This seemed to be the natural mindset in the 19th century, that women need to have guidance in what they do, what decisions they make, and what they say. John calls her a “little goose”(95) and his “little girl”(236), referring her to a child, someone who needs special attention and control. His need for control over her is proven when she admits that her husband is “careful and loving and hardly lets me stir without special direction”(49). John has mentally restrained the speaker’s mind, she is forced to hide her anxieties, fears and be submissive, to preserve the happiness of their marriage. When the narrator attempts to speak up, she is bogged down and made guilty of her actions. Her husband makes her feel guilty for asking, he says, “‘I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind!’”(225-226). By making her feel guilty for her illness, John has trapped her mentally from speaking up about it, convincing her that she must be more careful about her actions. Men often impose the hardships placed upon women during this era. They are often the people reassuring them of their “womanly” duties, and guiding them
The narrator is portraying a woman who is looked down upon because of her mental illness, but women at the time were often seen as childish or too emotional. “Then he took me in his arms called me a blessed little goose,” (Gilman 5). The narrator’s husband, John, treats her almost like a father would treat a daughter. The narrator is belittled because of her inability to act like women at the time were expected to. “Victorian values stressed that women were to behave demurely and remain with in the domestic sphere,” (Wilson 6). During the 19th century, women were expected to simply care for the children and clean the house. Most of the time, women who aspired to do more than that were not considered respectable wives. “Because the narrator is completely dependent on her husband and is allowed no other role than to be a wife and a mother, she represents the secondary status of women during the 19th century,” (Wilson 5).
In “The Yellow wallpaper”, the wallpaper is a metaphor that expresses women’s protest against the repression of the society and their personal identity at the rise of feminism. During the Victorian era, women were kept down and kept in line by their married men and other men close to them. "The Yellow Wallpaper", written By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a tale of a woman, her mental difficulties and her husband’s so called therapeutic treatment ‘rest cure’ of her misery during the late 1800s. The tale starts out in the summer with a young woman and her husband travelling for the healing powers of being out from writing, which only appears to aggravate her condition. His delusion gets Jane (protagonist), trapped in a room, shut up in a bed making her go psychotic. As the tale opens, she begins to imagine a woman inside ‘the yellow wallpaper’.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” during a time of great change. Domestic ideology positioned American women to run a private domain and fulfill the needs of their husband and children. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman uses the wallpaper in the couple’s bedroom as a symbol to represent the oppression of sexism and the dialogue within the diary resembles the effect a man can have on a powerless woman. Gilman wrote this piece in the progressive era when gothic literature was popular and woman’s rights were debatable.
The yellow wallpaper by charlotte Gilman is about a woman who slowly descends into madness trying to please herself and have a voice even though she is a woman in a time that is is expected for her to obey her husband and be the wife he wants her to be. This short story took many years to be published, one publisher even wrote in a rejection letter to Gillman that stated “I could not forgive myself if I made others as miserable as I have made myself by reading this” (Stephens, 1997). The comment of this publishing agent reflects a man not wanting to publish a women’s story. This is because the short story was written in the beginning of the women 's-rights movement in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century that gave rise to a
Known as the Victorian Era, in late 19th through early 20th century, women were subjected to the patriarchy and the gender roles. Ideally, women were feminine, caring, and motherly. During this time, the idea of motherhood was at its peak. When the narrator of the short story fails to fit the role of a Victorian women because of her “slight hysterical tendency,” she is taken care of in a way a child would have been (Gilman 1). John is a big contributor as a controlling factor to his wife’s life.
It does not take the form of the traditional symbol of security for the domestic
The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman revolves around the abusive relationship the narrator share with her husband. The story is about a women who struggles against her husband to make her own identity. In this story their marriage is about control instead of love. This is a tale that alerts women to the dangers of marriage.
Patriarchal ideology is expressed in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that constructs the concept that women are submissive and inferior, but the breaking of patriarchy gives truth to womankind. Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes her short story in the form of a first person diary, written by an unnamed woman, or Jane. The diary accounts Jane’s descent into insanity as a result of her quasi-imprisonment in her room with yellow wallpaper. Jane’s husband, John, is a doctor, and according to Jane, “he does not believe that [she is] sick! And what is one to do? If a physician oh a high standing, and one’s own husband assures...that there is really nothing the matter…what is one to do?” (Gilman). Jane has a lack of self-confidence in her entry due to