Oppression is defined as the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. This was not unusual for women in the 20th century, as well in the early 1900s. Women did not get the chance to vote until August 18, 1920, the women's suffrage. In The Yellow Wallpaper, by using symbolism, the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows how the narrator felt oppressed.
In every story of oppression, there is the oppressed and the one who enforces that oppression. In this case, it is John who unintentionally oppresses his wife. John is a physician who is also the protagonist’s husband. He is a person who needs to see something to believe it. With these realistic thoughts in mind, he believes that there is nothing wrong with the protagonist. …show more content…
In the beginning, the narrator goes out of her way to describe how the wallpaper is atrocious as well as artist sin, in Lines 53-63 “The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped off - the paper - in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide - plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurd orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.” Throughout the story, the narrator goes to show how irritating the pattern is to her, which shows how the oppression is irritating, like in Lines 132-133 “This wall-paper has a king of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then.” She even goes to ask John to put her in another room, or to refurnish the wallpaper (Lines 81-87, “He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. ‘You know the place is doing you good,’ he said, ‘and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three months’ rental.’ ‘Then do let us go downstairs,’ I said, ‘there are such pretty rooms down there.’ Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and
In every story of oppression, there is the oppressed and the one who enforces that oppression. In this case, it is John who unintentionally oppresses his wife. John is a physician who is also the protagonist’s husband. He is a person who needs to see something to believe it. With these realistic thoughts in mind, he believes that there is nothing wrong with the protagonist. …show more content…
In the beginning, the narrator goes out of her way to describe how the wallpaper is atrocious as well as artist sin, in Lines 53-63 “The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped off - the paper - in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide - plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurd orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.” Throughout the story, the narrator goes to show how irritating the pattern is to her, which shows how the oppression is irritating, like in Lines 132-133 “This wall-paper has a king of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then.” She even goes to ask John to put her in another room, or to refurnish the wallpaper (Lines 81-87, “He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. ‘You know the place is doing you good,’ he said, ‘and really, dear, I don’t care to renovate the house just for a three months’ rental.’ ‘Then do let us go downstairs,’ I said, ‘there are such pretty rooms down there.’ Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and