Feminist Aspects of The Yellow Wallpaper - 730 Words

Feminist Aspects of The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can by read in many different ways. Some think of it as a tragic horror story while others may find it to be a tale of a woman trying to find her identity in a male-dominated society. The story is based on an episode in Gilmans life when she suffered from a nervous disease called melancholia. A male specialist advised her to live a domestic a life as far as possible.. and never to touch a pen, brush or pencil... (Gilman, 669). She lived by these guidelines for three months until she came close to suffering from a nervous breakdown. Gilman then decided to continue writing, despite the physicians advice, and overcame her illness.†¦show more content†¦Women struggled with society to gain status equal to men and their efforts were found in many literary works.. Famous authors such as Mary Wollestonecraft, Alice Walker, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman herself published works that expressed these views and served as a creative outlet similar to the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper. The narrator finds herself economically and emotionally dependent on her husband, John. Many times she questions to herself why she stays in the room all of the time. She then answers herself by saying, John says it is good for me (Gilman, 665). She thinks of her husband as much wiser and more important than she, which is the way that society treated males during the time period the story was written. During this era, women were discouraged from joining the work force and were thought to be better suited as a mother, and wife rather than an employee. This is the common stereotype that women tried to overcome during the womens movement. Similar to the narrators freedom from the suppression of her husband in the conclusion of the story, womens effortful battle lead to a victory in 1920, when women finally won the write to vote and be included in the political decisions affecting society. The narrator went through mental as well as physical struggles as did the women of this era. During the progressive movement, they continued an effortful battleShow MoreRelatedThe Yellow Wallpaper : A Feminist Cry843 Words   |  4 Pages The Yellow Wallpaper: A Feminist Cry Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, portrays a woman who has postpartum depression and is confined to her bedroom with atrocious yellow wallpaper. Gilman writes from a time when women were oppressed and not taken seriously in social context. Her depiction of a depressed woman who is imprisoned in a room by her husband represents the societal oppression of women in the patriarchal society of the American nineteenth century. ThisRead MoreComparison of the Yellow Wallpaper, Story of an Hour, and Gaslight960 Words   |  4 Pagespast century, contemporary feminist movements continue to blossom as gender expectations and stereotypes remain deeply embedded in our culture. Today and in the past, feminist notions about the social norms that limit womens possibilities have yearned for expression and have found this through various artistic outlets. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin, and the 1944 Film Gaslight are three artistic works that relay feminist themes in a unique way.Read MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1271 Words   |  6 Pagesnovel entitled, The Yellow Wallpaper significantly used the aspects of literature such as genre, stance, and register to express the social message concerning the sufferings that women undergo in their daily affairs. However, most of the females do not have control over the challenges that develop in their surroundings. Gilman also uses the book to entertain the society members thus providing relief to the readers. In essence, the author of the novel above used the literature aspects above to illustrateRead MoreAnalysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper1073 Words   |  5 PagesThe short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be interpreted in many ways. Some scholars debate that it is written as an autobiography, some say it is an isolated work, a complete fantasy, or simply just a feminist uprising. One particular scholar even relates the feminism aspect with a feline creature within one scene of the story (Golden 1). Although there are many aspects throughout the text that represent feminism, the main theme that shines through is the story of a womanRead MoreFeminist Perspective on Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper1274 Words   |  6 PagesThe Yellow Wallpaper, Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is comprised as an assortment of journal entries written in first person, by a woman who has been confined to a room by her physician husband who he believes suffers a temporary nervous depression, when she is actually suffering from postpartum depression. He prescribes her a â€Å"rest cure†. The woman remains anonymous throughout the story. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in the room, and engages in some outrageousRead MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman1312 Words   |  6 Pagesto certain issues in real life. The short story titled â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† was written in 1892 about a woman named Jane who is diagnosed with depression and given a treatment named the â€Å"rest cure.† Charlotte Perkins Gilman created this story based on her experiences with the â€Å"rest cure† and sent it to the creator of the treatment, S. Weir Mitchell, for criticism (Gilman 419). When read, this short story is usually seen through a feminist critical lense, but it can be taken more in depth if the readerRead More The Variety of Feminisms and their Contributions to Gender Equality by Judith Lorber1120 Words   |  5 PagesContributions to Gender Equality feminist denominations arose from different views, making many contributions to improve women’s status. Lorber discusses the views of, â€Å"gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (1) etcetera, all which have fought to improve women’s rights. Though there are many different aspects of viewing feminism, writer and contributor of owl.purdue.edu, Allen Brizee suggests that the main ideology that holds those aspects together is the oppressionRead MoreWomen s Rights By Susan Glaspell1307 Words   |  6 Pagessearch for the victim of a murder case and the women are discriminated. In the â€Å"Yellow Wallpaper,† written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman is in a limited lifestyle were her husband, and has to deal with having less of a say in conversation. Constant communication of feminism throughout the world will allow everyone in the world to realize that equal rights between genders are normal. Feminism is a necessary aspect of the human race until society gives equal rights to women so they can feel importantRead MoreThe Independence Born From Desperation1248 Words   |  5 PagesLouisa returned to college to finish her bachelor degree and after some time, she got a very good job as a teacher. Today, my dear friend has a fulfill ed life as a teacher, mother, and wife. Like in Louisa’s relationship, the major conflict in The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, is the confinement by domestic roles of motherhood and marriage, which led women to dangerous confusion between internal desires and the assumptions of society for females. At the beginning of theRead MoreYellow Wallpaper1673 Words   |  7 PagesSvetlana Kryzhanovskaya Prof. Grajeda ENC 3014-MidTerm Paper March 12, 2012 Structuralism amp; Feminist Theory ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ written by Charlotte Gilman can be affectively analyzed from two schools of thought structuralism and feminist theory. Though structuralists’ deny the work of literature any connection to its author (it must be what it is, no underlying meaning) feminist theory must first and foremost be understood in its historical framework. By the turn of the century, journals