Essay On Female Oppression In The Yellow Wallpaper

Female Oppression in The Yellow Wallpaper In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Mrs. Gilman tells a story of a woman who is trapped in her own thoughts about her life. As she writes in her journal of how she feels about her marriage of being treated like a child by her beloved husband. Mrs. Gilman uses many literal elements that show the oppression over the narrator’s story. Throughout the story, these elements give a sense of knowledge of what is to come at the end of the story and relate to why she feels selfless in her own life. As her husband thinks she has gone into a “rest cure” depression all she wants is to be free from control without being jailed within marriage. The fact that women had no control over words or thoughts during the mid-eighteenth century made a huge impact in this story of how she lost her mind in such writings her husband might of thought would work. During this time, this story was to rescue women from the “rest cure” by providing what happens …show more content…
Her husband, a physician, wants her to write what goes through her head believing this would help tremendously with the rest cure instead of listening to how she really feels. As said in the story, “ I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal” (Gilman). Meaning the more she wrote about her everyday feelings the more it did not make her feel sane instead she went crazy over the fact she was isolated from her thoughts and words from her own husband. In an overview of The Yellow Wallpaper, it states “ …She does something John doesn’t approve of-she writes in a journal, thereby creating her only true self-expression” (Korb). With that being said, the narrator’s husband assumes his wife will get better with these journals but instead it puts her in worse conditions. The more isolated she feels the worse her depression of being trapped in a confined