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Discuss The Treatment Of Women In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a literary compostion that divulges what women of the 1890’s were submissive to in a traditional nuclear family. While revealing what transpires in a typical hudband and wife relationship, she also condems it in hopes of bringinh on a change. The main character who is later rvealed to us as Jane is undergoing treatment for her “tempory nervous depression” and “ slight hysterical tendacies”. The tactics of her treatment are being locked inside a room with barred windows, a nailed down bed, lack of communation to the outside world and a yellow wallpa per that reflects her situation. Gilman begins by introducing the problematic in the relationship, her husband who doubles as her controlling physician. John is representative of a stereotypical man. His characters foundation is established when GIlan states “john laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage”. He also belittles her on several occasions, by csaying things to her such as “ what is it little girl” or referring to her as his “ blessed little goose’. …show more content…

By saying this she adknoleges her husbands supremency even if her personal well being is at stake. John is away all day and even some nights whenhis cases are srrious.”, but he still admistrates all of his wives daily action. She is restriced from leaving the room, talking to anybody other than those in the house and most importantly writing. In fact she states “ am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again” By implicating these rules John submits Jane to the roles of a women, not working and tending to the home. Conforming to this gender role cause her to become a prisoner to their marriage as well as the room but she has yet

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The Yellow Wallpaper’s Impact Then And Now. Society’s judgments for men and women and their expectations are constantly changing, but there are certain ideals that are deeply rooted in our history. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman which is regarded as important feminist literary work which commentates on women's mental and physical health. Written from a first person narrative, the main protagonist Jane takes the reader through her descent into insanity after her husband isolates her from a nursery room to cure her “nervous disorder”.

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581 Words | 3 Pages

For the time period, in which the story takes place, a male-controlled marriage was normal. Jane stated, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (Gilman) from the statement the reader can deduce the fact, that unequal balance between male and female in marriage was common. Throughout the story of Jane being neglected and belittled, leads to her losing her mind at the end go the story. Jane imagines that a woman is in the wallpaper to hide her problems.

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Gilman shows the reader how women in the 19th century were dominated by males in their lives by constantly having the character John, who is the narrator's husband control every aspect of his wife's life including who she meets. An example of Johns control over his wife is how he doesn't let his wife do anything without him planning it beforehand. For example, “ He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (Gilman 7). Another example of how John controls his wife is by not letting her see family members or friends.

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1417 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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Knowing she is breaking his trust, she still intends to keep intact John’s expectations of her as the obedient wife. “There comes John, and I must put this away, -- he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 4). Later she implies that her husband hates to have her write a word. Perhaps John was not comfortable with his wife working because women are not meant to work. This then develops an outward profile of marriage that serves John’s logical perceptions of her as a wife and what she should be.

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What is interpreted from this text is that the wife has been trying to break free from all the dominance that has been asserted over her and now she finally has and she will not go back and be

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505 Words | 3 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper, by writer Charlotte Perkins Gillman, was produced in a time where there was a presence of feminist hysteria. So much so that when a woman’s mental and/or physical health was not up to par for whatever reason it was coined as being “hysterical.” A possible reason being that as Professor stated, “[it was], a sort of catch-all diagnosis for women of a certain class who didn 't behave in the ways women of a certain class were supposed to behave or simply because depression and other illnesses were not properly understood. Gilman writes, “You see he does not believe I am sick! If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing […] what is one to do” (Gilman 10).

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Women in the 19th century were subjected to the pressures of societal expectations. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator, like many women, struggled with the confines of society. Her husband John was overbearing and able to control every aspect of her life due to him also being her physician. She had a rest cure imposed upon her which isolated her and forced her to suppress her imagination. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s

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Although women have always been the ones who carry and care for the majority of the time since men worked all day, there has been a long-standing belief that women should let their significant others decide everything for them and that it is okay for men to severely reprimand their wives. This being said, there is more justification, for men, in domestic violence. Especially in the 19th century, men knew that they had the power to make decisions for their wife, and if they wanted to involve violence in the relationship because the man had the power to do as he wishes. Correspondingly, when this violence occurred, women were unable to get the help from authority figures because this level of bias was a society standard. Since men were the ones

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” has gained widespread acclaim for its portrayal of a woman’s descent into madness and the societal restrictions that contribute to her deterioration. It is a powerful portrayal of the psychological effects of societal expectations and gender roles on women in the 19th century. The story is set in a colonial mansion where the protagonist, a young woman suffering from postpartum depression, is confined to a room with oppressive wallpaper. One of the key elements of the story is the wallpaper in the room where the protagonist is confined. The wallpaper and setting play an important role in the story’s meaning and themes, and their significance can be explored in several ways.

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Gilman wrote the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1890, it’s believed that this short story was an autobiography of her own life. “She was also concerned at a young age with issues of social inequality and the circumscribed role of women” (Mike Lukasik, ed., Literature: Erie Community College En 102-Writing in the Humanities. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013, copyright). During the course of the story, Gilman identifies several roles for women that serve to the dominance of the male society, and place them in impossible circumstances in which madness is the only possible course of action.

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a strange yet intriguing short story by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the narrator and her husband rent an isolated and remote mansion one summer in the late 1800s. The narrator, a sufferer of worsening nervous depression, is forced to stay in a room donned in yellow wallpaper by her husband John, who is a physician that thinks this separation will do his wife good and cure her case. Conversely from what he thought, the narrator’s depression quickly escalates into insanity as she begins to see horrifying images dance across the gruesome yellow walls. Although there are several themes alluded to throughout the chilling short story, one theme that is highlighted is the gender inequality between the narrator and other women in the story and John.

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a first-person written feminist short story that critiques and condemns the nineteenth-century American male attitude towards women and their physical as well as mental health issues. In the short story, Perkins Gilman juxtaposes universal gender perspectives of women with hysterical tendencies using the effects of gradually accumulating levels of solitary confinement; a haunted house, nursery, and the yellow wallpaper to highlight the American culture of inherited oblivious misogyny and promote the equality of sexes. The narrator and her husband, John, embody the general man and woman of the nineteenth century. John, like the narrator’s brother and most men, is “a physician of high

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505 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author presents the setting in a medical institution in which the story is mainly told. The time period takes place in the 1800’s, and the narrator’s thought process and critical behavior becomes more evident throughout the story. The medical institution evolves around the narrator’s state of mind and Gilman establishes the setting in a unique way by expressing the qualities of the “nursery room.” To continue, various attributes relating to the setting, pertains to mainly focus on the narrator’s interpretation in an intriguing way. The setting of the story influences the narrator’s insanity and mental illness, and provokes a sense of confinement and isolation.

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740 Words | 3 Pages

He believes that his wife, the protagonist, cannot make her own decision and thing for herself. “John laughs at me, of course, but one

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