Preview

The Yellow Wallpaper Patriarchy Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
221 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Yellow Wallpaper Patriarchy Analysis
Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1899) as a vessel to illustrate a criticism of the patriarchy. The narrator, who is going through a time of mental distress, experiences the effects of the patriarchy first hand through the treatment from her husband John. I will analyze the relationship between the narrator and John through his use of condescending language towards her , and the effects of these interactions on the narrator. My focus will be on the question, how does Johns condescending and controlling attitude reflect on the mental and physical health of the narrator? I will look into the significance of her husband John being a physician. An important observation I am analyzing is the connection between
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Why Does Gilman Make Both The Narrator's Brother And Her Husband Doctors
    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why Does Gilman Make Both The Narrator's Brother And Her Husband Doctors

    Reading “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’” I came to feel that Gilman made both the narrator’s brother and husband doctors to make point that men in general were the dominant species. Having both men as doctors shows that men had the well established careers, knowledge, authority, and the women were meant to be submissive and domesticated. Men were the doctors who told women "live as domestic a life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual life a day”. Gilman showed that the narrator’s true illness was mental illness and letting man have power over her thoughts, actions and life as she once did.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Women In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is understood that the narrator is a woman who has a mental illness but cannot overcome it due to her husband’s controlling ways. Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the ideological victimization of many women of the early 19th century through a gothic tale of humor where women suffering from post-partum depression is isolated.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Gender Role Effects in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Gender Role Effects in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist writer who wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the 1890’s. During this time period the woman were expected to keep the house clean, care for their children, and listen to their husbands. The men were expected to work a job and be the head of a household. The story narrates a woman’s severe depression which she thinks is linked to the yellow wallpaper. Charlotte Gilman experienced depression in her life and it inspired her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The short story is based on a woman, not given a name in the text, who is very dependent on her husband. The narrator plays a gender role that is degraded by her successful husband, who is a doctor, because she is a female. John ignores his wife’s accusations with the wallpaper and looks down on the fact that she cannot fulfill her duty as a woman, mother, or wife by treating and calling her childish names.…

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Oppression In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
    • 1519 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Oppression In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

    At first glance, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper may seem to be a fairly simplistic text, which outlines a woman’s struggles with postpartum depression; however, with greater investigation, it can be determined that a deeper meaning is present. The Yellow Wall-Paper, with further analysis, can be interpreted as having a meaningful message, as the oppression of women is profiled. This message is gradually exposed along with the development of the characters, namely the narrator and her husband John, throughout the text. As the narrator experiences visions of women trapped in her walls, is forced to conform to specific gender roles, and is unable to express or communicate her own feelings, the impact which oppression has on the individual, as well as the idea of patriarchal society, is demonstrated.…

    • 1519 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gilman And Hurston: A Comparative Analysis
    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Gilman And Hurston: A Comparative Analysis

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman portrays the ill effects of marital gender roles through the characterization of the narrator and her husband, John. The narrator suffers from mental illness and is trying to recuperate with the guidance of her physician husband. John’s roles as her husband and her physician create an unbalanced distribution of power in their relationship, allowing him to assert a tremendous amount of dominance over her as two strong authority figures. This is apparent when the narrator complains about…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Seeing Oppression in Gilman’s “the Yellow Wallpaper”
    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Seeing Oppression in Gilman’s “the Yellow Wallpaper”

    The attitude towards women’s health by doctors and physicians has changed greatly over time. Women aren’t looked down upon by male doctors anymore, nor are these women dismissed as crazy or simply stressed when they believe they don’t feel well, seeking medical help. However, women in the past—specifically during the nineteenth century and before that—weren’t so fortunate. Oppression against women was great at that time; a woman receiving the same treatment as men was practically crazy, especially when women were supposed to be submissive, meek, and kind housewives to their men. In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a turn of the century short story, an unnamed woman, suffering from what’s presumed to be postpartum depression, is prescribed the “rest cure” by her physician husband. They reside in a rental home for the summer, and the woman is isolated in a locked upstairs room to recover. From that point on, the readers watch as the woman slowly loses her mind under the influence of the rest cure. By writing the story from the first person point of view, the reader catches a large glimpse of the effects of the nineteenth century’s oppression by physicians against women.…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Protest Against Masculine Discrimination In Faulkner's A Rose
    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Protest Against Masculine Discrimination In Faulkner's A Rose

    The patriarchal system is one of the foundations of Western civilization, being based on Christian beliefs regarding men and women’s proper roles in the society and in the domestic sphere. In her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Gilman makes a feminist statement by illustrating the failures of the patriarchal system, which condemns women to silence, isolation and decay. In the short story, the male character is twice a representative of this system, as a husband who dominates his wife privately, and as a physician who is able to dominate women in the public sphere, by imposing his judgements and prejudicial…

    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper Patriarchal Oppression
    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper Patriarchal Oppression

    In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman uses the narrator’s social status of a woman and her husbands patriarchal oppression to show how, people who control others deprive them from self expression. In the story the narrator was patriarchally oppressed by her husbands over controlling power. His words were very authoritative that he would have the last word in anything. He even was the one that determined whether his wife felt sick or not.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Yellow Wallpaper Thesis
    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Yellow Wallpaper Thesis

    Gilman used her chance as a writer to critique the role of a married women. Turning this issue into a theme found within “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilman challenged the subordination of women in marriage with the narrator’s relationship with her husband John, who also happens to be her physician. Though her husband is careful and loving to her, he misjudges her thoughts and dominates over her because of his status of being her physician: “You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do? If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysteria tendency-what is one to do?” (Gilman 238). The narrator has no voice for herself, she is trapped and unhappy under what her husband says: “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Michell in the fall. But I don’t want to go there at all…”(Gilman 242). The narrator had no one to believe in her and no one to stand up for her; she can’t even stand up for herself, because of the reputation behind having…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Women and 19-Century Domesticity in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
    • 1964 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Women and 19-Century Domesticity in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story about a new mother attempting to overcome her diagnosis of depression by being cooped up in a room without normal human interaction as prescribed by a top-rated male psychologist. The gender role expected of the nineteeth century woman was not ideal to the main character. The story goes on to critique the treatment plan set forth by her husband and psychologist. This in turn critiques the entire belief system in the nineteeth century that women should not be working outside the home. Gilman reveals in “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’?” that the story parallels one of her own, with exaggeration (Gilman “Why I Wrote” 804). Through research and an analytical reading, I will demonstrate how Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” contradicts the gender roles that were placed on American women in the nineteenth century.…

    • 1964 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Subjugation Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Subjugation Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story documenting the mental illness of the unnamed narrator. Throughout the story, the reader watches as the narrator goes from nervous to paranoid to complete psychosis all while blaming the wallpaper in her bedroom. She tries many times to seek the help of John, but he dismisses her questions of illness with simple remedies such as isolation, rest, and tonics. Eventually, the narrator succumbs to her illness and tears apart the wallpaper, leaving John shocked into unconsciousness. John oppresses his wife as a person by disregarding her mental illness as silly worries. Subjugation of women not only in a marriage, but in society as a whole was not uncommon for the Victorian era.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Insanity In The Yellow Wallpaper
    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Insanity In The Yellow Wallpaper

    In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a story of a woman in the 1900’s, she gradually loses her sanity due to a “nervous condition.” The woman in the story exemplifies the women in Gilman’s era; she verifies this by writing her story in a mode of horror. The usage of imagery, and plot development exposes the irrational and unjust treatment women are getting by men in her time, which exposes the reality that no one wants see.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Life For Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Life For Women In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    Lives for women in 1892 were heavily controlled by men. Women were treated as if they were inferior to men. Charlotte Perkins Gilman brings light to this problem in a interesting way. Gilman herself, was in fact driven to near madness and later claimed to have written “The Yellow Wallpaper” to protest this treatment of women like herself, and specifically to address her physician. Although they never replied to Gilman personally, they are said to have confessed to a friend that they had changed their treatment of hysterics after reading the story. While real life aspects are apparent it’s the symbolism and subliminal feminist in her story to show how a woman’s role in society is limited with no control or creative outlet.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper
    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses setting and symbolism in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” to portray the toxic social standards placed on women in the late nineteenth century and the growing awareness of women’s rights through the story of a woman suffering from postpartum depression who eventually loses her sanity. Gilman utilizes symbolism, such as the wallpaper and the narrator’s husband being a physician, which shed light on the social restrictions women had. At the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions how her husband “John is a physician” who “does not believe [the narrator] [is] sick” (pg. 1). The adage of the adage. Although the narrator’s husband does not have bad intentions toward his wife, the “resting cure” he imposes, where the narrator is “absolutely forbidden to “work” until [she is] well again,” actually backfires and leads to the narrator’s insanity.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    During the 1800s and most eras, women have been considered inferior to men and should have an obeying demeanor which is challenged through many authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was well known for her depression and had severe constraints in her own life style which led to these solemn and yet satirical masterpieces. In her short story “ The Yellow Wallpaper”, she conveys her purpose of exposing the constraints men have placed over women through symbolism, irony, and point of view in his psychological thriller. First, the short story is loaded with symbols within the wallpaper and even the room itself.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics