Repression of Women Exposed in The Yellow Wallpaper

Repression of Women Exposed in The Yellow Wallpaper The short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives a brilliant description of the plight of the Victorian woman, and the mental agony that her and many other women were put through as treatment for depression when they found that they were not satisfied by the life they had been given. In the late nineteenth century when the Yellow Wallpaper was written, the role of wife and mother, which women were expected to adopt, often led to depression or a so-called hysteria. Women of this period were living in a patriarchal society where they were expected to be demure and passive, supportive yet unquestioning of their husbands, and†¦show more content†¦Mitchells patients lost much of themselves as people (53). Gilman herself, after sinking into a deep depression, was sent to Mitchell in Philadelphia for his rest cure. After a month of treatment Mitchell concluded that there was nothing wrong with her and sent her home with these instructions: Live as domestic a life as possible. Have your child with you at all times. Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two hours of intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live. (Gilman, Autobiography 62). Gilman followed these instructions for several months until she came extremely close to losing her mind. Says Gilman of this time: I made a rag baby, hung it on the doorknob and played with it. I would crawl into remote closets and under beds to hide from the grinding pressure of that profound distress. (63). It is exactly this situation that lead Charlotte Perkins Gilman to write her eerily accurate tale of one womans forced regression into insanity. As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist. Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the hereditary estate (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the haunted house (170) as she would like it to be. She tells us of her husband, John, who scoffs (170) at her romantic sentiments and is practical to the extreme (170). However, in a timeShow MoreRelatedThe Yellow Wallpaper : The Story Behind Jane s Metamorphosis2033 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: The story behind Jane’s metamorphosis† In her literary work â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays the nineteenth century women subjugation by setting the narrator to be diagnosed with a mental illness. The narrator is then taken to a country house where she develops a special interest with the yellow wallpaper in the room her husband places her. In spite of her social status as a woman of the nineteenth century, Jane faces a major metamorphosis that consistsRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Yellow Wallpaper 1332 Words   |  6 Pagesmoonlight makes the woman behind the wallpaper become clearer night by night. This personification describes the way insanity is creeping onto the narrator. For a very long time, the moon associates with early fertility-centered societies and female power. In â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† the contrast between daytime with its constant limitations and nighttime with its unpredictable freedoms are symbolized by the alternating effects of sun and moonlight on the wallpaper. During the daytime the freedom ofRead More`` The Yellow Wallpaper `` And `` It s A Girl ``1651 Words   |  7 Pagessecularization that women face even before they are born. Women of all ages, culture, and religion face this injustice. Every once in the while, in a field of trampled flowers, one robust plant stands and over time grows into a strong tree that protects the other mangled flowers, helping them flourish. In the 19th century, one of these strong plants was Charlotte Perkins Gilmans, who wrote â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† to challenge the ideals of society and their treatment towards women. Gilman, faced withRead MoreA Deeper Look At William Faulkner s `` A Rose For Emily `` And Charlotte Perkins Gilman `` Yellow Wall Paper2163 Words   |  9 PagesFaulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily† and Charlotte Perkins Gilman â€Å"Yellow Wall Paper† shows that the authors illustrate the isolation, repression and confinement of women in a male dominated and sexist society during the nineteenth century. The stories show the enormous effect repression has on the emotional and mental health of the opposite sex. Naomi Nkealah states that in patriarchal cultures, power is vested in the hands of men and therefore women s needs are classed as secondary (Nkealah). The protagonists