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A Woman's Role In The Yellow Wallpaper

1266 Words6 Pages

In the midst of the nineteenth century, the period of which the American class of women were basically tied through marriage to a male superior. Women were to be thought of as an asset, property, and a valuable ideal figure of a household. The domain of a woman’s way of life was based on the ideology of the prescribed roles of being a wife and a mother. The male figures of the household on the other hand, were in the hands of politics, economics, and business in the idea that the male superior of the household was to provide all the essentials and possible needs of his family. During this time period, women did not have the opportunity of choice. The major focus of this selection is the theme of a woman’s role in the nineteenth century and …show more content…

The narrator is in fact a woman, in which at the time was defenseless against her husband who in addition is the individual who decides what his wife does, who she allowed to see, where she goes during the day as she recovers, who visits her, etc. In the piece, the narrator’s husband a physician has placed his wife in isolation after becoming under the impression that she is depressed. In the cell of isolation, the narrator begins to display the many details the room has to offer observing the yellow wallpaper covering every inch of the room alone. In the short selection, the narrator’s husband begins condoning his influence on the idea of his wife’s best interest in which the wife exclaims “he hates to have me write a word” or “he does not believe I am sick” (Gilman 845), depicting the strong position of authority a male figure has over his wife and in fact continues to throughout the entire short story. In a way, the basic purpose for the array of mental problems lies in the actuality that she is beginning to hesitate in expressing herself and giving her personal opinion on the obstacles she has began to face throughout the

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