Theme Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

The first aspect both stories have in common is the fact that both of the women are oppressed by a man in their life.“The

  The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can by read in many different ways.  Some think of it as a tragic horror story while others may find it to be a tale of a woman trying to find her identity in a male-dominated society.  The story is based on an episode in Gilman's life when she suffered from a nervous disease called melancholia.  A male specialist advised her to "live a domestic a life as far as possible.. and never to touch a pen, brush or pencil..."   (Gilman, 669).   She lived by these guidelines for three months until she came close to suffering from a nervous breakdown.  Gilman then decided to continue writing, despite the physicians advice, and overcame her illness.

Today, women have more freedoms than we did in the early nineteenth century. We have the right to vote, seek positions that are normally meant for men, and most of all, the right to use our minds. However, for women in the late 1800’s, they were brought up to be submissive housewives who were not allowed to express their own interests. In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman is isolated from the world and her family because she is suffering from a temporary illness. Under her husband’s care, she undergoes a treatment called “rest cure” prescribed by her doctor, Dr. Weir Mitchell. It includes bed rest, no emotional or physical stimulus, and

Most women in America nowadays are lucky enough to consider themselves to be an independent individual, but females were not always guaranteed their freedoms. Throughout the early 1900’s, authors would characterize husbands to be controlling figures. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins demonstrates just how possessive the husband is to his wife in their marriage. This short story shows just how miserable the woman is to be in a marriage with John because John, thinks it would be best that his wife is isolated to get over her postpartum depression.“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how a male dominated society leads to the woman not being their own individual by using characterization, narrator perspective, and conflict between women and society.

A glance at a few of the conversations between John and the narrator will help clarify the roles of husband and wife as the story represents them. Rather than see the husband and wife as equals, the story clearly places the wife in the role of inferior. Nowhere is this made more explicit than in the use of condescending names when referring to his wife. Early on, when the narrator complains of the unsettling décor in her room, John "called [her] a blessed little goose" (Gilman 2); later, when she cannot sleep, he calls her a "little girl" (Gilman 5). When the narrator protests that she is not improving under her treatment, John patronizingly states: "'Bless her little heart!' said he with a big hug, 'she shall be as sick as she pleases!'" (Gilman 5).  Such language use suggests that the narrator is akin to a child, rather than an adult partner of the speaker. Even the narrator herself, within the confines of her own writing, notes that one of her biggest disappointments is that she is unable to fulfill the obligations that come with marriage and motherhood: "It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!" (Gilman 2).

and "gates that lock". At the top of the stairs is a gate that keeps

The most common element found within both pieces of literature is that both women seem to be greatly selfish.

The first similarities is woman didnt have a choice as to who they would marry. This is seen in the Article when the author says “Woman didn't have a choice as to who they would marry and, most of the time. Woman didn't even know the man before they wed. This is seen in the book when the author says “ I am you Prince and you will marry me,” Humperdinck said. Buttercup whispered. “ I am your servant and I refuse.

Some women felt like in the 19th century felt trapped just like the women in the “Yellow Wall-Paper.” The woman in the book symbolized that women who wanted to get out but couldn’t and who struggled because they had no way out. The women felt that they were supposed to be what men wanted a “housewife,” having no significant importance in life. They felt as if their lives were being lived by what other people had wanted. Most of them wouldn’t come right out and say it because they felt that it wouldn’t have done anything and it didn’t to them.

Imagine yourself in prison. Steel bars and barbed wires are all around you. You cannot contribute to anything because you are a convict and convict are not valued in society. If you try to escape, you’ll be punished and ultimately end up back in your cell. Even if you manage to successfully escape or just released, you’ll be ostracized.

     The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives a brilliant description of the plight of the Victorian woman, and the mental agony that her and many other women were put through as "treatment" for depression when they found that they were not satisfied by the life they had been given.

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

Two different stories written within sixteen years of each other; could they really be that different? Could they even be so similar? These short stories were written in two different cultural environments. “The Jewelry” was written in 1883 by a man named Guy De Maupassant, who based the story in Paris, France. It tells of a man, his wife, and the wife’s two flaws that actually make the man wealthier. “The Lady with the Dog” was written by Anton Chekhov, who wrote the story in his hometown Moscow, Russia. This author composed a story of a disloyal husband and his adventures with the new foreign woman in town. With those summarizations, it is probably hard to believe that they are actually so similar, really they are. Two different stories that are of such dissimilar content are actually the same. It can be assumed these stories had no influence upon each other. Therefore, environment and the time period is truly of the essence in these short stories. It is brought a couple of times throughout the stories of where they are and how the men feel and act around women. They are both told with such an ironic tone throughout and the protagonists are both men that could not live without women. Both tell a story of how women affect their lives, but do not truly realize how important they are until the women are gone. The men show who they truly think they are early in the stories and slowly, and even painfully, are shown that they are

     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

Rational & justification for choosing the texts: Both texts are set in a similar time period from the 1890s to 1900s. Women of that era were generally subjected to restrictive conditions through being stringently controlled by patriarchy, an issue closely tied to my topic. Women in the social context of TYW were confined to the domestic sphere, their individualities