The Role Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is a strong view of how women be oppressed by the opposite sex in our past times. A women’s role was to be at home taking care of children and tending to the daily house chores while the man tends to his job and attend any financial necessities. Through the story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator gives an inside view of not only her side of opinions but how obeying her husband was to ensure her health. Female oppression was unrecognized during the 1800s because of social norms in family households where the man was dominant head of house hold and the woman was obedient and was given the simplest tasks. In the nineteenth century women and men played the roles of homemaker and business man. Men were expected to take care of their families by providing a home, food, and any other needs by having a job. Women were to stay at home and tend to children, as well as any household necessities. Females were expected to play a domestic role of a mother and wife, making sure their husbands were pleased as well as raising their children. “…with the role of women in nineteenth-century society, particularly within the realms of marriage, maternity, and
domesticity” (Witalec). The opinions of these women were not of value as much as that of their spouses, women were to have no voice or opinion of their own. During these times women had no critical part outside of being a house wife, their world was to stay inside and only inside. By taking away the simple luxuries from his wife is exactly what John, the narrators husband, does to make sure that his wife gets healthier faster. The narrator enjoys writing in her diary however, she must hide her thoughts and feelings from fear that they will take away the only thing keeping her happy. The room she is in is not even her choice but because her husband decides there was not enough room for two beds and not enough space with only one window she is a room with the ugly yellow wall paper and barred windows. Bringing up the idea of them moving to the room downstairs even if the narrator enjoys the little objects that make it so special, John will not hear of it. Stripping her of even her own thoughts such as a journal ensures the clutch her husband has towards his wife. “Because the text is her only place of true self-expression, it becomes as oppressive as the room, as oppressive as her husband” (Korb). The narrator has no sense of freedom from her bedroom to her own marriage the final decision is based on her husband. The way John treats his wife not only as a fragile individual, but almost as a child who must be cared for and treated delicately. The words he uses such as “my dear” and “blessed little goose” demonstrating that she is a child who needs to be taken care of. John does not say her name or talk to her like his wife but demands that she take medication and stay inside making sure she gets her “rest”. “He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well” (Gilman). The way he treats her in a childlike manner, makes the narrator believe she is delicate and needs help so she doesn’t identify herself as a woman but as a child. “John reinforces the idea that she is the child, forcing her to sleep in the room that used to be a nursery, making her take naps, reading to her before bed-time, and calling her his little girl” (Kasmer). There is no self-identifying for the narrator, she is seen only as weak individual who must be spoken to her in a gentle, and endearing manner because she is not a woman but a frail infant. An important key is the isolation and seclusion John does to cure his wife of the disease she carries.
Instead of having his wife go outside, enjoy the garden, and meet others, he prefers she stay inside barred up and living in a nursery which she desperately dislikes. Her views and opinions are irrelevant because she is a female who does not know more than her male counterpart. He makes the choices and decisions regardless of what she believes is best in her interests. “The narrator wants very much to work, but by keeping her unemployed and secluded, her husband ensures his wife’s reliance on him” (Quawas). In any way to guarantee that his wife is to remain obedient and kept within his reach, her husband would rather keep her away from anyone or anything that might challenge his
diagnosis. Throughout the story the narrator describes the loneliness and reliance that she has towards her husband. Stripping the narrator from her wants, desires, and dreams, by treating her like a child and giving her no control over her life indicates the dominant part males have on women. “…narrated by a woman who cannot, from the first, seem to hold her thoughts together, thereby confirming the basic necessity for some kind of mental treatment (if not necessarily the kind provided by John)…” (St. Jean). Society plays as a big role because women do not have any control on how they choose to live their lives because in these times women are to listen a man. Any challenges are not to be accepted but to be executed as women are hysterical and need proper treatment, challenging these roles will result in some women going away even if they are perfectly healthy.