Feminst Views Yellow Wallpaper
In the story The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane who is the narrator, tells a story that is an account of her own life and bout with mental illness. John her husband who is a doctor, suppresses her by controlling her maternal instincts and daily activities. The views of women by the medical community and society in general also contributes to the condition that she is in. Her analysis of the wallpaper that surrounds her room is representational a of her feelings and the condition that she is in. This story is representational of the suffering and repression that many women felt during the early nineteenth century by their families and community. Jane is suppressed, by the actions of John, in not letting her act out her motherly duties to her family. Traditionally the mans duty is in the workplace, to support his family, and the woman's is in the home to support her family. Jane and John have a small son who Jane is not allowed to take care of. In this case, Jane is not allowed to support her family by the elimination of her maternal role. John has ended that need by hiring Mary to fulfill that role. Jane falls victim to the urges of the an desires of her maternal instincts. Her depression i
s greatened by not being able to mother her child. The comment that she makes that the windows of her bedroom were "barred for Little Children", shows how her motherly duties have been suppressed by her illness and also by John. The yellow wallpaper that is on the walls of their bedroom and the woman behind it is symbolic of women's suffrage. When Jane looks at the wallpaper it confuses her more when she attempts to decipher its meaning and this hinders her recovery. She says the figure is "like a woman stooping down and creeping about." and she "shakes the pattern as if she wanted to get out." The figure is a symbol herself. She refers to a front pattern and a back pattern which is less visible. The front pattern is what is proper and what the world is seen to be a world that she has no interaction with, while the back pattern is the reality of suffering and oppression that she is feeling. The way she refers to John and Jennie being affected by the paper seems to mean that people know this oppression is going on, but refuse to admit it or do anything about it. At the end she rips off as much of the wallpaper as she can to symbolically free herself and the figure behind the paper. On the last page she says "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?" It is a declaration of herself as a woman. The Yellow Wallpaper is a story that challenges the reader to look at another time period and compare it to the world today. In doing that you will see that they are very similar. The same views apply in some countries of the world today. The view that
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1062
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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