Female Oppression
Women, labeled as domestic servants to work solely in the home, possessed very little power up until the late 1950’s. Society placed restrictions on them simply due to their gender by limiting their self-expression and opportunities in careers and pastimes. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman demonstrates this sexist confinement of women through the life of an aspiring woman writer driven to insanity from societal restrictions. The narrator views her marriage as a typical relationship of “mere ordinary people” (478), in which her husband John “laughs at [her]” (478) and “scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (478). Her husband looks down upon her, …show more content…
The narrator expresses anger “with the impertinence of [the wallpaper] and the everlastingness” (481), concurring with her underlying resentment of John’s controlling nature and ignorance of her depression, which she “personally…disagree[s]” with (478). The images she sees trapped in the wallpaper- the hydra, creeping woman, and later, many women- symbolize the oppressed women of the century. During the daytime, the woman in the wallpaper remains “subdued, quiet” (485), while at night, the woman “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard…trying to climb through” (487). In comparison, the women in the late 1800’s acted as obedient, reserved wives and hid their true selves and desires from their husbands. Their ability to express themselves remained behind bars, stuck in the societal barriers. The narrator later observed that the woman “is always creeping” (487), hiding from society as she experiences a taste of freedom. Similarly, women in that time period masked their imaginative thoughts and snuck around in order to pursue them. Many female authors, for example, wrote under pseudonyms of male
Women, labeled as domestic servants to work solely in the home, possessed very little power up until the late 1950’s. Society placed restrictions on them simply due to their gender by limiting their self-expression and opportunities in careers and pastimes. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman demonstrates this sexist confinement of women through the life of an aspiring woman writer driven to insanity from societal restrictions. The narrator views her marriage as a typical relationship of “mere ordinary people” (478), in which her husband John “laughs at [her]” (478) and “scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (478). Her husband looks down upon her, …show more content…
The narrator expresses anger “with the impertinence of [the wallpaper] and the everlastingness” (481), concurring with her underlying resentment of John’s controlling nature and ignorance of her depression, which she “personally…disagree[s]” with (478). The images she sees trapped in the wallpaper- the hydra, creeping woman, and later, many women- symbolize the oppressed women of the century. During the daytime, the woman in the wallpaper remains “subdued, quiet” (485), while at night, the woman “takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard…trying to climb through” (487). In comparison, the women in the late 1800’s acted as obedient, reserved wives and hid their true selves and desires from their husbands. Their ability to express themselves remained behind bars, stuck in the societal barriers. The narrator later observed that the woman “is always creeping” (487), hiding from society as she experiences a taste of freedom. Similarly, women in that time period masked their imaginative thoughts and snuck around in order to pursue them. Many female authors, for example, wrote under pseudonyms of male