Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In many literature works, feminism has been a major theme. Feminism is prevalent within the disease of the main character, the characters, and even the setting of the story. Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper has a remarkably strong feminist theme throughout the story and focuses on gaining independence as a woman in the 19th century while also losing portion of herself, throughout a time women have constantly battled for equality with men.
The short story is a collection of journal entries written by an unnamed woman whose husband has rented a house for the summer. The husband, John, who also happens to be the narrator’s doctor, moves her into an upstairs room. As a form of her treatment for her sickness, she cannot work, only exercise and eat. Out of fear, the narrator hides her journal from John, his sister, and the housekeeper.
In reality, the lack of scientific experience and knowledge of the doctors at the time, in addition to the patriarchal society, allowed for women to be misdiagnosed and further harmed instead of helped. The “cure” consisted of activities that made women helpless and reliant on the doctor, a prevalent theme throughout history. She believes that she should be with rest of society, yet her husband disregards her opinions and ignores her.
John controls her creativity by not allowing her to write, controls her motherhood by not allowing her to see her child, and controls her thoughts and ideas by not allowing her to speak of them. He is the typical dominate male of the time, molding his wife into an ideal of a commodity. Within the story, the unnamed narrator exclaims, “he does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer and that satisfies him” (Gillman 3). He is a prominent physician who forces his wife to believe in his knowledge of medicine and overall counterfeit