Underneath the Yellow Wallpaper: How
A yellow light encourages a pause – not a full blown stop, as red lights demand – but a short period of consideration. Within this moment, one determined whether they want to proceed or to stop. Similarly, Charlotte Gilman uses her short-story “The Yellow Wallpaper” as an example for her readers to judge whether they should proceed in confining women or if they should cease harboring the misconception that women as weak and incapable. Gilman purposefully aligns the narrator’s final plunge into insanity along-side the narrator’s newfound positive interpretation of her confinement, demonstrating that women must be unhealthy to be complacent in the borders society has put around their autonomy.
Similar to how society robs women of their freedom and claims that it is for their sake, the wall-paper is a flimsy, false veil. The sole purpose of wall-paper is making dull things look more appealing, to mask the true nature of walls: making sure those …show more content…
She states that she “shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night” and that it “is hard” (Gilman 793), reflecting her situation in the beginning of the story. Whereas in the start of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator writes in secret, she now must crawl in secret. From whom must she keep her activities hidden? John. A man who holds a respectable position in society and who thinks that he is more knowledgeable than her. John is a representation of all those who want to subdue women. In the same fashion as the narrator, women must hide their actions from men and those who approve of the standards that men have set for their behavior. When others are around, women must behave according to society’s constraints and it is like the “night” (Gilman 793), a time where movement is rare and there is no light of hope – only
A yellow light encourages a pause – not a full blown stop, as red lights demand – but a short period of consideration. Within this moment, one determined whether they want to proceed or to stop. Similarly, Charlotte Gilman uses her short-story “The Yellow Wallpaper” as an example for her readers to judge whether they should proceed in confining women or if they should cease harboring the misconception that women as weak and incapable. Gilman purposefully aligns the narrator’s final plunge into insanity along-side the narrator’s newfound positive interpretation of her confinement, demonstrating that women must be unhealthy to be complacent in the borders society has put around their autonomy.
Similar to how society robs women of their freedom and claims that it is for their sake, the wall-paper is a flimsy, false veil. The sole purpose of wall-paper is making dull things look more appealing, to mask the true nature of walls: making sure those …show more content…
She states that she “shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night” and that it “is hard” (Gilman 793), reflecting her situation in the beginning of the story. Whereas in the start of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator writes in secret, she now must crawl in secret. From whom must she keep her activities hidden? John. A man who holds a respectable position in society and who thinks that he is more knowledgeable than her. John is a representation of all those who want to subdue women. In the same fashion as the narrator, women must hide their actions from men and those who approve of the standards that men have set for their behavior. When others are around, women must behave according to society’s constraints and it is like the “night” (Gilman 793), a time where movement is rare and there is no light of hope – only