The Unequal Status Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known as a journalist, a writer and a feminist intellectual; often reflects on social issues such as political inequality and the unequal status of women in her writings. In the story “The Yellow Wall Paper” she critiques the position of the narrator as a woman in her marriage. The main issue that the narrator deals with in the story is her nervous condition and her husband, John, suppressing and restricting method of treatment for her condition. Her Husband’s way of treating the nervous condition leads to a conflict within the narrator’s mind which begins to give her a clearer understanding of her own powerlessness. In this short fiction, Gilman outlines the issue of social conditions of women in marriage and the use of power in relation between the sexes. …show more content…
The narrator’s illness gives her a better understanding into her position in society and in her marriage. Throughout her sickness her husband, John who is her physician controls her behavior as part of her treatment. Although John may mean well, but he does not understand the negative effect his treatment has on his wife. He is so sure that he knows what is best for his wife that he ignores her own opinion, forcing her to hide her true feelings. For instances, near the beginning of the story the narrator states, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do”. This quote shows the powerful, authoritative voices of her husband, her family, and the condition of her treatment which ask her to be passive. Even though she disagrees with her treatment, but she has no power to change the situation because her opinions carry little