“The Yellow Wallpaper”: A Call to Feminist Action from the Past
(or, Restarting the Gender Role Conversation)
When asked to consider the lack of gender equality in society, you are often faced with a barrage of people claiming that gender inequality simply does not exist in our day and time; to suggest that women don’t have the same opportunities as men is ludicrous. Do aspects of the past really still exist in the ‘equality’ of the 21st century? In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we become privy to the life of a woman living with mental illness in the mid to late 1800s, a time when knowledge about the human brain is decidedly lacking. Through Gilman's provocative writing, we experience the chilling effects of a counterproductive ‘cure’ for mental instability, and live through the lack of rights that women of the era were plagued with. In the wake of the disquieting ending, readers are forced to come to terms with the horrors produced when ignorance and prejudice are combined, and re-evaluate the impact of gender roles in society, in both the past, and …show more content…
Women were not allowed to decide their own fates in the past such that the narrator describes her husband’s extensive control over her as if it is normal; “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.” This veil of normalcy serves multiple purposes. All too often, people cease listening to something once they know what the message is, if they don’t personally agree with it. Because the narrator describes her life in such a non-confrontational way, readers must stick around for the entire story to realize the extent of the damage that was inflicted because of the way women with mental illness were treated. Due to this, the ending of the story and the message it delivers holds much more
(or, Restarting the Gender Role Conversation)
When asked to consider the lack of gender equality in society, you are often faced with a barrage of people claiming that gender inequality simply does not exist in our day and time; to suggest that women don’t have the same opportunities as men is ludicrous. Do aspects of the past really still exist in the ‘equality’ of the 21st century? In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we become privy to the life of a woman living with mental illness in the mid to late 1800s, a time when knowledge about the human brain is decidedly lacking. Through Gilman's provocative writing, we experience the chilling effects of a counterproductive ‘cure’ for mental instability, and live through the lack of rights that women of the era were plagued with. In the wake of the disquieting ending, readers are forced to come to terms with the horrors produced when ignorance and prejudice are combined, and re-evaluate the impact of gender roles in society, in both the past, and …show more content…
Women were not allowed to decide their own fates in the past such that the narrator describes her husband’s extensive control over her as if it is normal; “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.” This veil of normalcy serves multiple purposes. All too often, people cease listening to something once they know what the message is, if they don’t personally agree with it. Because the narrator describes her life in such a non-confrontational way, readers must stick around for the entire story to realize the extent of the damage that was inflicted because of the way women with mental illness were treated. Due to this, the ending of the story and the message it delivers holds much more