The Yellow Wallpaper Commentary Essay
Involuntary Imprisonment in “The Yellow Wallpaper” During the 19th century, women experienced significant strides in Women’s Suffrage, but still struggled to be seen as equal to men in every part of the world. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, having suffered from depression, went to a well-known physician, Silas Weir Mitchell, who prescribed her the rest cure only to risk losing her sanity from the lack of brain stimulus. With the intent to go against Mitchell’s methods, give fellow women real experience and advice, and share about the oppression of women by men at the time, Gilman writes her most notable work. In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman emphasizes that women of this time who experience a gender division
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When describing the house that the narrator and her husband are staying in for the summer, she notes, “It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (Gilman 287). Although the house is very nice, it is separated from the rest of society, just as women can be. Women can be very intelligent and talented, but will be isolated from society, more profound jobs, because they were women. Women are expected to do only pretty and lady-like things, such as reading, sewing, and playing music. The men of the story, however, are well-known physicians, which is a very respectable job that women were not allowed to do, as seen by society. The narrator then describes her bedroom she will be staying in during her treatment: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman 288). This detail resembles a prison, further explaining how restricted the narrator feels though she does not outwardly recognize that restriction on her. The bars and rings were made to ensure no escape, much like society towards women. Society’s bars and rings are women’s expectations to obey their husband’s every will and to be loyal. This detail also includes children, which is how John treats the narrator as. Further specifying, the narrator describes a piece of furniture, “this great immovable bed—it is
When describing the house that the narrator and her husband are staying in for the summer, she notes, “It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (Gilman 287). Although the house is very nice, it is separated from the rest of society, just as women can be. Women can be very intelligent and talented, but will be isolated from society, more profound jobs, because they were women. Women are expected to do only pretty and lady-like things, such as reading, sewing, and playing music. The men of the story, however, are well-known physicians, which is a very respectable job that women were not allowed to do, as seen by society. The narrator then describes her bedroom she will be staying in during her treatment: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman 288). This detail resembles a prison, further explaining how restricted the narrator feels though she does not outwardly recognize that restriction on her. The bars and rings were made to ensure no escape, much like society towards women. Society’s bars and rings are women’s expectations to obey their husband’s every will and to be loyal. This detail also includes children, which is how John treats the narrator as. Further specifying, the narrator describes a piece of furniture, “this great immovable bed—it is