Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the ignorance and neglect towards women’s health, physically and mentally, during the 19th century through a short story called “The Yellow Wallpaper”. It describes an account of a woman who was driven to insanity due to the Victorian rest-cure- forced upon her through the credibility of her physician husband. The husband, John, represents a stereotypical spouse with his stance on the relationship and protests to the protagonist any freedom of creativity “for her own good” esque. Through the narrative of the protagonist, Gilman reveals the underlying truth behind the cause of her mental issues and how it relates to feminism. Although the narrator’s name is never directly stated, every other character in the story is given a name,
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Similar to The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator remains female with a protest against a male-dominated environment. While her husband ostensibly provides Janie, the narrator, “everything” she could ever want, it comes with a price of conforming Janie to a submissive wife. Janie, however, possesses a free-spirit and constantly attempts to create connections with the residents of the town, a form of freedom. Upon seeing this, her husband takes to the offense as it appears the other men (who are inferior) are reaping the “treasure” of Janie. To counter this, “he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store” (Hurston 55) to conceal her bright personality. Janie herself doesn’t give much of a protest, parallel to the same reasons as to why Jane didn’t challenge John’s reasoning behind her treatment. As Janie’s husband embody the stereotypical power of the relationship, Janie mandatory follows his orders despite her passion for freedom. Hurston even states that “she was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 66), unveiling the support against her feminism rights as a
Similar to The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator remains female with a protest against a male-dominated environment. While her husband ostensibly provides Janie, the narrator, “everything” she could ever want, it comes with a price of conforming Janie to a submissive wife. Janie, however, possesses a free-spirit and constantly attempts to create connections with the residents of the town, a form of freedom. Upon seeing this, her husband takes to the offense as it appears the other men (who are inferior) are reaping the “treasure” of Janie. To counter this, “he ordered Janie to tie up her hair around the store” (Hurston 55) to conceal her bright personality. Janie herself doesn’t give much of a protest, parallel to the same reasons as to why Jane didn’t challenge John’s reasoning behind her treatment. As Janie’s husband embody the stereotypical power of the relationship, Janie mandatory follows his orders despite her passion for freedom. Hurston even states that “she was there in the store for him to look at, not those others” (Hurston 66), unveiling the support against her feminism rights as a