Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American dignified author of short stories, poetry and nonfiction in which she incorporated her political and social activism for the feminist movement. Her most famous piece entitled The Yellow Wallpaper, written in 1899, was a semi-autobiographical piece in which she confronted her internal battles with severe postpartum depression and psychosis as well as confronted the misogynist system in which she lived (Radcliffe). The Yellow Wallpaper is a story told from the perspective of an unnamed woman who is married to a doctor named John who held her captive in an abandoned residence as a means to treat her depression. The story is the collection of the narrator’s entries that she wrote, even though John forbade
…show more content…
As she describes, “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes” (Gilman 7). This piece of text reveals the woman’s realization that the wallpaper changes with the light which directly relates to how her concept of time reflects the influence of the patriarchy in society as the years go on. The narrator is a woman which makes it understandable that she is the only one between herself and John who is able to understand the issues that affect women’s quality of life. John is unable to see the woman’s plight because he only sees things through a male’s perspective and has never taken any regard to anyone’s desires but his own. When the author mentions that the wallpaper changes as the light changes shows how the oppression of women has ingrained itself so seamlessly into society over hundreds of years that many people, especially men, are ignorant to it and the harm that it causes. The narrator’s description of light changing is reminiscent of the passage of time in which society continues to systematically put women at a disadvantage; even though hundreds of years have passed the current conditions of women have stayed the same. Women are still dehumanized and devalued in all aspects of society whether it be in a workplace, at school, or even within their family and peer groups in which they struggle to seek equal treatment to their male
As she describes, “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes” (Gilman 7). This piece of text reveals the woman’s realization that the wallpaper changes with the light which directly relates to how her concept of time reflects the influence of the patriarchy in society as the years go on. The narrator is a woman which makes it understandable that she is the only one between herself and John who is able to understand the issues that affect women’s quality of life. John is unable to see the woman’s plight because he only sees things through a male’s perspective and has never taken any regard to anyone’s desires but his own. When the author mentions that the wallpaper changes as the light changes shows how the oppression of women has ingrained itself so seamlessly into society over hundreds of years that many people, especially men, are ignorant to it and the harm that it causes. The narrator’s description of light changing is reminiscent of the passage of time in which society continues to systematically put women at a disadvantage; even though hundreds of years have passed the current conditions of women have stayed the same. Women are still dehumanized and devalued in all aspects of society whether it be in a workplace, at school, or even within their family and peer groups in which they struggle to seek equal treatment to their male