Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her story “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses character to demonstrate how women were under oppression. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent feminist and social thinker at the turn of her century who wrote essays, lectures and nonfiction works (Kirszner & Mandel 375). The Yellow Wallpaper is considered a masterpiece (Kirszner & Mandel 375). Gilman is portraying part of her life in the story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” the story takes places in the 1890’s she complains that she feels trapped and very unhappy because of the anxiety and depression she is facing. She does not want to come to the conclusion that her husband is oppressing her as well.
The narrator’s husband, John is really controlling the marriage. With John …show more content…
The time that they were living in saw John’s behavior as normal. Even the narrator’s brother agreed with John. Women did not have individuality. At times John treats the narrator as if she is only a child. This narrator is clearly feeling trapped in a marriage that does not allow her freedom. Freewill was not something that a woman had the luxury of having or even talking about it with their husbands. Women in that time were governed by their husbands. Even if she was well she could not come and go like John did. Women were to stay at home, have babies, and take care of their husbands. The narrator felt as if she was trapped or caged with no freedom in the present nor the future. During that time women either listen to their husbands or divorced. And divorce was a good way to get shunned from society back then. The narrator depended on her husband to take care of her needs “he is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 377). The narrator saw her freedom only when she was thinking about the yellow wallpaper. It was relevant to her to go on about the wallpaper because she felt her freedom through getting rid of the wallpaper. The wallpaper represented her own individuality. To her that gave her such joy in the fact that she would trap herself in the room just to tear the
The narrator’s husband, John is really controlling the marriage. With John …show more content…
The time that they were living in saw John’s behavior as normal. Even the narrator’s brother agreed with John. Women did not have individuality. At times John treats the narrator as if she is only a child. This narrator is clearly feeling trapped in a marriage that does not allow her freedom. Freewill was not something that a woman had the luxury of having or even talking about it with their husbands. Women in that time were governed by their husbands. Even if she was well she could not come and go like John did. Women were to stay at home, have babies, and take care of their husbands. The narrator felt as if she was trapped or caged with no freedom in the present nor the future. During that time women either listen to their husbands or divorced. And divorce was a good way to get shunned from society back then. The narrator depended on her husband to take care of her needs “he is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 377). The narrator saw her freedom only when she was thinking about the yellow wallpaper. It was relevant to her to go on about the wallpaper because she felt her freedom through getting rid of the wallpaper. The wallpaper represented her own individuality. To her that gave her such joy in the fact that she would trap herself in the room just to tear the