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Chauvinism In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Chauvinism was an omnipresent issue that women of the 19th century constantly encountered in their daily lives through the form of repressive social discipline, strict gender roles and systemic patriarchal notions (Rosenberg, 1973). Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 realism piece, “The Yellow Wallpaper” clearly illustrates such issues through the characters John and his wife the narrator who embody the reputable physician and his ailing wife respectively. As readers, we become privy to the narrator’s experience with the consequences of chauvinism through the form of diary entries, allowing us an unadulterated view into her mind; first row seats to her slow descent into misery, madness, and obsession. Within “The Yellow Wallpaper”, John embodies …show more content…

As the author of the diary, she is never explicitly describes herself to us, however, the glimpse into her mind through the pages of her writing is infinitely more revealing than anything she could tell us. The reactions she has to her situation and the language she uses to describe them change over time, as she advances from equilibrium, to disequilibrium, before finally arriving at a perceived equilibrium. At first, she is open and truthful, hiding only what is deemed by society as ‘inappropriate’ – it is because of this suppression that the following occurs. She refuses to tell a “living soul” of her theory that “perhaps [John] is one reason…” she does not get well faster, and instead choses to discuss this matter with “dead paper”(Gilman, 1892). The first signs of disequilibrium occur when the narrator secretly continues to write behind her husbands back, who believes that writing will make her nervousness worse. Overtime, she becomes increasingly “unreasonably angry”(Gilman, 1892), grows severely afraid of John, and believes the wallpaper has a woman trapped within its pattern. The resolution occurs upon the perceived equilibrium - presaged by the growing obsession with the yellow wallpaper - in which the narrator seems to believe that she is the woman in the wallpaper, and now takes on the wallpaper woman’s voice, saying, “I’ve got out at last… in spite of you and Jane!”. The reader is shifted from one disconnect to another – where we previously were privy to the narrators inner most intimate thoughts, we no indication as to who she was. The inverse is now true, as we know who she was, but with no more access to her diary entries. We have lost all intimacy. This makes it obvious for the reader the theme of isolation; throughout the novel we were limited in our perspective, isolated to only

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Gilman also highlights a lack of identity of the narrator through the setting of the novella which reflects the narrator’s societal confinement. The protagonist is surrounded by “hedges and walls and gates that lock”, which create a sense of separation that the narrator feels from others and the outside world. In addition, the room in which she is confined contains a “heavy bedstead, and… barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on”. These physical and ‘prison-like’ restrictions imposed on the protagonist clearly demonstrate her lack of freedom. Additionally, Gilman’s use of syndetic listing to describe the narrator’s physical entrapment is perhaps reflective of her feelings of suffocation and her inability to escape as the list feels never ending.

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At the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane metaphorically escapes the wallpaper, representing women's oppression in society however, she seems to have lost her mind in the process. Jane states, “‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘In spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!”(Gilman 17).

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However it could be said that it is through this vagueness, this sense of insanity, that the plot and theme truly develops. As the wife progresses through the story she seems to go from this timid girl to a scheming woman, hiding her fascination with the wallpaper from John, as her insanity progresses. It could be inferred through her ending statements, such as her comments about the figure creeping in the daylight, stating, “It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!” (Gilman 130). This statement can be related back to her own behavior, the way she is, again, timid and submissive with her husband yet defiant in her own way, such as her writing.

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Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.

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The Yellow Wallpaper addresses the importance of coping with everyday life regarding mental illnesses, furthermore advocating the difficulties human beings experience feeling trapped in their thoughts. Charlotte Perkins Gilman delineates the narrator’s emotions, actions, and coping mechanisms while being trapped inside a bedroom. Addressing the lady’s portrayal as she struggles to cope with the limitations enforced alongside her husband, John. Women’s rights in the nineteenth century were influenced by activities, communication, and roles women could contribute to throughout their daily life. Behind the narrator’s eyes, there was grief, and sadness influencing her everyday routine.

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Charlotte Perkins-Gilman wrote an eye opening story over a woman dealing with mental illness in a male dominant medical era called, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The story is told through the eyes of a mentally ill woman whose doctor also happens to be her husband. During the time period of the late 1800s women didn’t have much of a voice when it came to their well-being. With her doctor also being her husband, it puts a strain on their marriage with the fact that if she didn’t agree with the decision that her doctor has made, it would mean she didn’t trust her partner’s professional opinion. Gilman brilliantly incorporated the narrator’s husband as the doctor to emphasize two points; how much control men had over women, and how the doctor aspect of the husband represents the treatment women received in the medical establishment.

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In her book, "The yellow wallpaper", Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents a protagonist that finds her mental illness voluminously increasing as they are unable to cope with their isolated surroundings as well as the oppression forced upon women stereotypical of 19th century American society. Throughout the book, Gilman utilizes the protagonist 's diary as a lens of consciousness, accounting the events within the story as its reliability becomes unstable and the protagonist, seeps deeper into a delusional state of being. It is through these accounts that the wallpaper evolves in its symbolism, becoming a menacing pattern of confinement, a reflection of her society 's oppression of women that is exemplified by the narrator 's decline in mental

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As the story progresses, the narrator's hallucinations become more vivid and intense. Jane imagines that there is a woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper, and she becomes gripped on setting that woman free. She stated in the story, “the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out" (Gilman 652). This can be seen as the narrator's yearning to free herself from her psychological captivity. Paula A. Treichler also agrees with this symbolism by stating in her academic journal, “the woman in the wallpaper represents the narrator herself, gone mad” (64).

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“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a fascinating story about a woman who struggles with her mental health in a facility that is supposed to help her get better. The story was written at a time when the roles of women were beginning to change; however, the ideas of submission and domesticity were still prevalent. Gilman brings to light a variety of ideas about women’s roles in the nineteenth century through her story. Her work was used as a critique against the expectation that women should submit to their husbands, the struggles of mental health, and the struggles of motherhood.

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Throughout the story, Jane completely disagrees with John’s prognosis and form of treatment. This is shown when Jane says, “So I take phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas.” (page ) As the story continues Jane makes suggestions to John about what she thinks would improve her health.

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She wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in an effort to open the public’s eyes to the unfairness of this treatment. By infusing Jane’s narrative with childish language and actions without ever actually calling “Jane” by her name, Gilman creates a universal experience any woman of the time could insert herself into. This allowed women to fully realize the injustice they faced. John’s belittlement of Jane also serves to create both a universal and eye opening experience for the women reading it. Additionally, for those who were willing to read into the symbolism, the nursery and the meaning underlying it added to the injustice Gilman conveys.

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Everything from how her interactions with her family to her perception of her environment and how it evolves throughout the story allow the reader to almost feel what the narrator is feeling as the moves through the story. In the beginning, the only reason the reader knows there may be something wrong with the narrator is because she comes right out and says she may be ill, even though her husband didn’t believe she was (216). As the story moves on, it becomes clear that her illness is not one of a physical nature, but of an emotional or mental one. By telling the story in the narrator’s point of view, the reader can really dive into her mind and almost feel what she’s feeling.

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Gender Inequality: A Woman’s Struggle in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman captures the lives of women in a society based on societal expectations during the late nineteenth century. She focuses on the issue of gender inequality where women were often discriminated against and expected to fulfill the role of a perfect wife and mother. The narrator is based on on Gilman’s personal experience of suffering from her treatment for postpartum depression due to the social restrictions on women which represents a reflection on women's social status in society. The narrator, who remains anonymous, is depicted as a depressed and isolated prisoner who is oppressed under her husband’s control and struggles to break free.

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After reading “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. You couldn’t help, but see Jane’s spiral downward into more absurd observations, from her acting even more crazy, to her constant ramblings and obsession about the wallpaper, to her constant returning to her moral conscience of being a good wife to John, Jane had quite the ordeal in this house and in her mind. As Jane said “I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And I’ll tell you why--privately--I’ve seen her!

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