Feminist Perspective of “The Yellow Wallpaper”
The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the horrendous struggles a feminist would have faced during the 1800s. Gilman’s story is extremely impactful to the feminist ideology considering, she experienced the agony first hand. “The Yellow Wallpaper” also looks closely at the patriarchal society and how men used their roles to control women during this time. Through the main character, Gilman describes how women are “supposed to” to think or act. Even though, at first glance this story seems to fall in favor of patriarchal ideology, the main character still breaks away for the hystra of it all.
The story begins with the main character stating she feels ill and is being treated for what her husband John calls, “temporary nervous depression”. At first glance this statement makes the main character seem weak considering she was diagnosed with a mental disorder or in other words hysterical tendencies. The diagnoses in fact does not follow feminist ideology considering the women is not painted as a powerful feminist. However, Gilman uses this to show how the patriarchal society around the main character has tricked her into feeling something abnormal was wrong with her. The diagnoses that this woman received also came with a very …show more content…
For example, even though she does not personally agree with the prescribed treatment she still continues without uttering a single rude comment to John. John’s wife even states during a session of writing, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do.” Gilman choose to have the woman internalize her feels to emphasises how oppressed women were in the 1800s. The relationship change is also shown through the internal and physical
The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the horrendous struggles a feminist would have faced during the 1800s. Gilman’s story is extremely impactful to the feminist ideology considering, she experienced the agony first hand. “The Yellow Wallpaper” also looks closely at the patriarchal society and how men used their roles to control women during this time. Through the main character, Gilman describes how women are “supposed to” to think or act. Even though, at first glance this story seems to fall in favor of patriarchal ideology, the main character still breaks away for the hystra of it all.
The story begins with the main character stating she feels ill and is being treated for what her husband John calls, “temporary nervous depression”. At first glance this statement makes the main character seem weak considering she was diagnosed with a mental disorder or in other words hysterical tendencies. The diagnoses in fact does not follow feminist ideology considering the women is not painted as a powerful feminist. However, Gilman uses this to show how the patriarchal society around the main character has tricked her into feeling something abnormal was wrong with her. The diagnoses that this woman received also came with a very …show more content…
For example, even though she does not personally agree with the prescribed treatment she still continues without uttering a single rude comment to John. John’s wife even states during a session of writing, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do.” Gilman choose to have the woman internalize her feels to emphasises how oppressed women were in the 1800s. The relationship change is also shown through the internal and physical