The Role of a Woman
The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is about a woman suffering from a temporary nervous depression as described by her physician husband, John, during the 19th century. After being diagnosed with this condition, the couple decides to stay in a mansion during the summer where the woman, who is also the narrator of the story, rests to be able to overcome her condition. Her husband constantly prohibits her from writing and isolates her from society. Soon, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room she is staying-in and starts picturing a woman trapped inside. Her mental health starts deteriorating. In the end, she rips off the wallpaper and announces herself as the woman behind it all along. Gilman accurately depicts the tragic reality of women and their role in society in the 19th century by telling the story of an oppressive marriage.
The …show more content…
John calls her nicknames such as “little girl” and “darling” (Gilman 137). With this her husband enforces the idea of her as child who does not have any kind of authority and who must follow what she is told. Gilman uses this technique to show the manipulation men use to control women and the family dynamic they have. A similar case happens when John threatens to send her to Weir Mitchell if she “… doesn’t get better.” (134) This can be interpreted as a parent threatening her child with a punishment. Helena Znaniecka Lopata, an American sociologist, explains that in the relationship of traditional marriages “society embedded women and men in an extended family system, organized . . . along patrilineal lines, with patriarchal authority and patrilocal residence” (2). This statement mirrors not only the relationship of John and the narrator, but the dynamic of men and women during that era, where the women’s role is clearly defined as
The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is about a woman suffering from a temporary nervous depression as described by her physician husband, John, during the 19th century. After being diagnosed with this condition, the couple decides to stay in a mansion during the summer where the woman, who is also the narrator of the story, rests to be able to overcome her condition. Her husband constantly prohibits her from writing and isolates her from society. Soon, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room she is staying-in and starts picturing a woman trapped inside. Her mental health starts deteriorating. In the end, she rips off the wallpaper and announces herself as the woman behind it all along. Gilman accurately depicts the tragic reality of women and their role in society in the 19th century by telling the story of an oppressive marriage.
The …show more content…
John calls her nicknames such as “little girl” and “darling” (Gilman 137). With this her husband enforces the idea of her as child who does not have any kind of authority and who must follow what she is told. Gilman uses this technique to show the manipulation men use to control women and the family dynamic they have. A similar case happens when John threatens to send her to Weir Mitchell if she “… doesn’t get better.” (134) This can be interpreted as a parent threatening her child with a punishment. Helena Znaniecka Lopata, an American sociologist, explains that in the relationship of traditional marriages “society embedded women and men in an extended family system, organized . . . along patrilineal lines, with patriarchal authority and patrilocal residence” (2). This statement mirrors not only the relationship of John and the narrator, but the dynamic of men and women during that era, where the women’s role is clearly defined as