The Alienation of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper

A detailed Summary of The Alienation of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" share similar themes of women being alienated from the community and offer similar solutions to this problem. Nora and the narrator of the yellow wallpaper are both alienated because of the limited role that society places them in. This limited role based on their place as women in society alienates them from the community by making them inferior. This does not only refer to how others perceive them, but how they come to perceive themselves. It essentially becomes an accepted view where the two women both accept being powerless and allow themselves to be dominated. Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henrik Ibsen show through their works that the solution to this problem is for women to recognize their limited roles and fight to break free from these roles.

Nora and the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" are both alienated from the community because of the limited role that society places them in. This refers to the way that women are viewed as wives and mothers and are not considered to have any greater value or ability. In both cases, the women are not physically isolated from society. Instead, it is more a case wher

Finally, it is important to consider the solution that both authors offer. This is another point where both authors offer the same solution, with both showing that it is necessary for women to recognize their limited roles and fight to break free from those roles. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" this is seen by the way the narrator is driven to madness because of her alienation. This madness begins because of the orders she has been given not to use her mind. It must be noted that this order is given based on an assumption that women can get ill from too much work and too much thinking. The narrator tries to obey this order, but her restless mind needs to be occupied. Her thoughts become focused on the wallpaper. This leads to her delusions where she believes there are women skulking behind the wallpaper. Her madness worsens as the woman behind the wallpaper becomes clear to her. At this point, the narrator considers that she is improving. She states this by describing how she now looks forward to studying the wallpaper and finding out what is behind it, "Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch" (Gilman 841). This suggests that the narrator's real problem is that she has nothing to occupy her mind with. Her obsession and madness continues to increase to the point where she tears off the wallpaper and then skulks around the room believing that she is the woman from behind the wallpaper. This final outcome acts as a warning to women, urging them not to accept the role that society has placed them in but to break free from the role. As the narrator's story shows, trying to accept the given role will only result in madness. "A Doll's House" presents the same message by showing how Nora manages to break free from her role. This occurs when Nora realizes that Torvald is not going to take the blame for borrowing the money and protect her. It was noted earlier that Nora accepted her role as inferior. However, Nora also expected her husband to take care of her. When this does not happen, Nora realizes that she is living up to her role, but her husband is not living up to his. With this understanding, Nora can no longer accept the situation and allow herself to be dominated. This leads to the outcome of the play where Nora packs her bags and leaves Torvald. This represents a complete reversal of Nora's character where she is now being independent, making her own decisions, and taking action to please herself rather than to please her husband. At the same time, this is a positive ending for the play. In this way, Nora becomes an example of how women should stand up for themselves and assert themselves rather than allow themselves to be

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Approximate Word count = 1853
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English