The Yellow Wallpaper was unconventional in its time and extensively aware of the injustice women endured in America’s patriarchal society. For this reason alone, it can be argued that The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, challenged marginalisation of American women in the 1890s, even as it restricts them within men’s houses. The Yellow Wallpaper focuses on marginalisation, which is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as ‘the treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral’. Gilman’s transparency towards the topic of marginalisation empowers a voice which otherwise may be silent or go unheard. However, it can also be argued that The Yellow Wallpaper falls victim to the encouragement of marginalisation due to its exaggerated depiction of insanity.
The short story by Gilman features a female protagonist in an androcentric society. “John is a physician” could be viewed as a description of the female character’s husband to aid the reader’s judgement of the character but it also shows the predominant focus on men in society. John’s profession is mentioned before the main character talks about herself. This suggests that John is the active …show more content…
“By daylight she is subdued, quiet” – the figure is an extended metaphor of the narrator. Restricted to her room, she too is subdued. John is the yellow wallpaper, the “torturing pattern” represents the continuous marginalisation. John collapses when the paper also collapses, at the hands of the narrator. The paper that suffocated the woman in the wallpaper signifies John’s suffocation of the narrator and how he trapped her. The significance of “I’ve pulled off most the paper, so you can’t put me back!” is fundamental to the story as it directly challenges marginalisation as the narrator has gained her freedom and is no longer weighed down by the power of
The short story by Gilman features a female protagonist in an androcentric society. “John is a physician” could be viewed as a description of the female character’s husband to aid the reader’s judgement of the character but it also shows the predominant focus on men in society. John’s profession is mentioned before the main character talks about herself. This suggests that John is the active …show more content…
“By daylight she is subdued, quiet” – the figure is an extended metaphor of the narrator. Restricted to her room, she too is subdued. John is the yellow wallpaper, the “torturing pattern” represents the continuous marginalisation. John collapses when the paper also collapses, at the hands of the narrator. The paper that suffocated the woman in the wallpaper signifies John’s suffocation of the narrator and how he trapped her. The significance of “I’ve pulled off most the paper, so you can’t put me back!” is fundamental to the story as it directly challenges marginalisation as the narrator has gained her freedom and is no longer weighed down by the power of