Yellow Wallpaper Thesis
Often times throughout literary works, authors will use their work to express their passion on important topics or to enlighten the reader more about those topics. Author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman does this within her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Throughout Gilman’s time, she was a leading figure in the women’s movement during the turn of the 20th century. Gilman used her work as a chance to use her voice to challenge the important topics that happened among that era, including conventional gender roles. She also used her own troubles that she faced in her personal life to inspire her short stories. The one short story that relates the most to Gilman’s life is “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilman used the troubles in her life to portray the
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themes found in the “The Yellow Wallpaper”; the subordination of women in marriage and the evils of the “resting cure”. During the time of Gilman’s life and the time period of this short story, a woman’s ultimate role was to be a wife and mother.
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
hysteria. During this time hysteria was assumed to be an imagined illness that people did not take seriously, mainly the men. They believed that women were more prone to having hysteria because they were less rational and stable then men were. In 1879 one doctor wrote, “The range of activity of women is so limited, and their available paths of work in life so few, compared with those which men have in the present social arrangements, that they have not, like men, vicarious outlets for feelings in a variety of health aims and pursuits” (Overview: “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The strong, creative women during this time was forbidden to express themselves, like the narrator: “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 240). Though her self-expression throughout her writing is one of the ways that she found relief throughout her time during the cure that her husband put her on. The cure that was believed to help with the hysteria, the “resting cure”. During the golden age of hysteria, the most accepted “cure” was the “resting cure”. The “resting cure” required the patient to have complete isolation from their loved ones, forbade any type of mental or physical exertion, and total bedrest. Dr. Silas Weird Mitchell wrote, “When they are bidden to stay in bed a month, and neither to read, write nor sew…” (Overview: “The Yellow Wallpaper”). Being that John is not only the narrators husband but also her physican, assigned this “cure” to her. She was instructed to not let her mind wonder, “I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try“(Gilman 240). Though her husband means well, he does not understand the emotional torture that is wife is going through. When being told, she should not to let her mind wonder, she writes, “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (Gilman 240). The narrator is trapped, no way out, not even on paper. Gilman, being much like the narrator in the short story, had first had of what it was like to be a woman that suffered from an illness like this during this time. The way she uses the themes found within this short story to portray what it was like for women is heartbreaking. Herself, along with the narrator had to suffer from the subordination of women during this time along with the evils of this so called “resting cure”. Neither having a voice when it came to their health nor their own life. They were both trapped under their husbands authority, because of their status and gender in society.
themes found in the “The Yellow Wallpaper”; the subordination of women in marriage and the evils of the “resting cure”. During the time of Gilman’s life and the time period of this short story, a woman’s ultimate role was to be a wife and mother.
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
hysteria. During this time hysteria was assumed to be an imagined illness that people did not take seriously, mainly the men. They believed that women were more prone to having hysteria because they were less rational and stable then men were. In 1879 one doctor wrote, “The range of activity of women is so limited, and their available paths of work in life so few, compared with those which men have in the present social arrangements, that they have not, like men, vicarious outlets for feelings in a variety of health aims and pursuits” (Overview: “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The strong, creative women during this time was forbidden to express themselves, like the narrator: “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 240). Though her self-expression throughout her writing is one of the ways that she found relief throughout her time during the cure that her husband put her on. The cure that was believed to help with the hysteria, the “resting cure”. During the golden age of hysteria, the most accepted “cure” was the “resting cure”. The “resting cure” required the patient to have complete isolation from their loved ones, forbade any type of mental or physical exertion, and total bedrest. Dr. Silas Weird Mitchell wrote, “When they are bidden to stay in bed a month, and neither to read, write nor sew…” (Overview: “The Yellow Wallpaper”). Being that John is not only the narrators husband but also her physican, assigned this “cure” to her. She was instructed to not let her mind wonder, “I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try“(Gilman 240). Though her husband means well, he does not understand the emotional torture that is wife is going through. When being told, she should not to let her mind wonder, she writes, “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (Gilman 240). The narrator is trapped, no way out, not even on paper. Gilman, being much like the narrator in the short story, had first had of what it was like to be a woman that suffered from an illness like this during this time. The way she uses the themes found within this short story to portray what it was like for women is heartbreaking. Herself, along with the narrator had to suffer from the subordination of women during this time along with the evils of this so called “resting cure”. Neither having a voice when it came to their health nor their own life. They were both trapped under their husbands authority, because of their status and gender in society.