If we all saw through the eyes of women, would we see the world a different way? Would we all be considered hysterical? Or would we just all be normal? In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charolette Perkins-Gilman and the novel The Key by Junichiro Tanizaki we see the metamorphosis of two women under two very different scenarios. The unnamed women in The Yellow Wallpaper is stuck in a room where she transforms into a completely different soul and in The Key, the wife, Ikuko appears to also transition throughout the novel, but in the end we are left questioning whether she truly changed or if we, the readers, were just lied to and her true character really came out. In this imagination challenge I will compare and contrast the two women,
…show more content…
John, from The Yellow Wallpaper is the superior, alpa-male, know it all husband and his wife is seen to be obedient and acts content with being stuck in the room covered in the hideous yellow wallpaper. The sexually forceful, yet socially passive, husband in The Key, who has no name like the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper, shares his thoughts and beliefs about his wife through journal entries. The husband in The Key feels as if he is “an unworthy partner”, whereas in the The Yellow Wallpaper John is admired for being a “physician of high standing” (10) and therefore very confident in his beliefs and findings about his wife and her “slight hysterical tendency” (Tanizaki 7) (Perkins Gilman 10). In the beginning of both stories we view both women as very innocent and obedient to their husbands. They are still trapped in a cell, that is guarded by their husband, and we can see they need to break free, but the reader is left wondering how will they do it or if they are even able to in their current situations. Both women are partly molded by their husbands, and thoughts about what their husbands think about them are often shared in their journals. Ultimately in the beginning of the novel both women appear weak and they don 't act like a typical feminist figure; one who stands up for herself and chooses what she wants to do because she wants to …show more content…
Perkins Gilman starting this novel out with a weaker character provides a lens for us to see the narrators growth to a feminist figure. Without this the novel would have no shock-factor or development. In the end of the short story she finally breaks free from the cage of oppression and she is left having to “creep over [John] every time” she circles the room (Perkins Gilman 36). John still being in the room serves as a constant reminder of what she overcame. Perkins Gillman ends the short story with visual of the woman constantly crawling over her husband, and her staying in the room instead of fleeing after feeling trapped for so long. This shows that her fight will never truly be over just like a feminists fight for equality in marriage, the workforce, and in society. Even though her husband is completely passed out he is still an obstacle for her to literally and figuratively overcome. She doesn 't leave the room with the yellow wallpaper because there really is no escape. Anywhere she goes she would be told what to do or how she was wrong so. As a reader in modern society we know that this woman is suffering from postpartum depression, but she shares in the beginning of the novel that even her brother, who is a widely known physician, thinks that
John, from The Yellow Wallpaper is the superior, alpa-male, know it all husband and his wife is seen to be obedient and acts content with being stuck in the room covered in the hideous yellow wallpaper. The sexually forceful, yet socially passive, husband in The Key, who has no name like the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper, shares his thoughts and beliefs about his wife through journal entries. The husband in The Key feels as if he is “an unworthy partner”, whereas in the The Yellow Wallpaper John is admired for being a “physician of high standing” (10) and therefore very confident in his beliefs and findings about his wife and her “slight hysterical tendency” (Tanizaki 7) (Perkins Gilman 10). In the beginning of both stories we view both women as very innocent and obedient to their husbands. They are still trapped in a cell, that is guarded by their husband, and we can see they need to break free, but the reader is left wondering how will they do it or if they are even able to in their current situations. Both women are partly molded by their husbands, and thoughts about what their husbands think about them are often shared in their journals. Ultimately in the beginning of the novel both women appear weak and they don 't act like a typical feminist figure; one who stands up for herself and chooses what she wants to do because she wants to …show more content…
Perkins Gilman starting this novel out with a weaker character provides a lens for us to see the narrators growth to a feminist figure. Without this the novel would have no shock-factor or development. In the end of the short story she finally breaks free from the cage of oppression and she is left having to “creep over [John] every time” she circles the room (Perkins Gilman 36). John still being in the room serves as a constant reminder of what she overcame. Perkins Gillman ends the short story with visual of the woman constantly crawling over her husband, and her staying in the room instead of fleeing after feeling trapped for so long. This shows that her fight will never truly be over just like a feminists fight for equality in marriage, the workforce, and in society. Even though her husband is completely passed out he is still an obstacle for her to literally and figuratively overcome. She doesn 't leave the room with the yellow wallpaper because there really is no escape. Anywhere she goes she would be told what to do or how she was wrong so. As a reader in modern society we know that this woman is suffering from postpartum depression, but she shares in the beginning of the novel that even her brother, who is a widely known physician, thinks that