Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Oppression Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

Fiction stories are one of the most powerful forces we experience in life. Through fiction, we are able to live hundreds of different lives, and experience situations we would never imagine. Through fiction, humans can have an escape from life to momentarily live the life of a superhero, or a wizard, or whatever you can dream. However, fiction serves as more than just a release, it is the greatest learning tool we humans possess. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the medium of fiction to exhibit the situation of women in the late 1800’s in America. In the story, the narrator’s desires are suppressed by her husband and she is told to rest in a bedroom with a strange wallpaper to cure her depression, though she wants to just

Throughout the story, the narrator is constantly being told what is best for her sickness by her husband and male physician, despite disagreeing with their treatment. From the beginning she says “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (151). She has her own opinions on what is best for her, what is most likely due to just having a child, postpartum depression. Unfortunately, in the late 1800’s, women’s opinions were for the most part ignored by most males, especially in regards to professional matters such as medicine. She is put into a sort of a pattern by her husband on how she should spend her days, she says, “I lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can. Indeed he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal. It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see, I don’t sleep” (161). Her husband John tells her what her daily routine should be, despite being away all day working. On the surface, this may seem like the actions of a husband who simply wants the best for his wife, but it also serves as a metaphor