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Entrapment In The Yellow Wallpaper

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The trope of entrapped characters is common in many works of literature, as it is an effective way to represent real-life systems of oppression and fear. Gothic literature of the nineteenth century was written in a time when there was strict enforcement of patriarchal gender norms. There were high expectations of women to act docile and subservient to men, expectations that lead to many women feeling trapped within the gender norms and unable to act freely without fear of social backlash. Lord Alfred Tennyson's 1832 poem Mariana and Charlotte Perkins Stetson's 1892 short story The Yellow Wallpaper both utilize the trope of entrapment in order to comment on the effect of oppressive gender roles expected on women. Both works have themes of both …show more content…

This physical entrapment is enforced by the narrator's husband, a physician attempting to cure her hysteria and post-partum depression using the now-disgraced “rest cure”. Throughout the short story, the narrator descends into madness as a result of the isolation, with nothing to keep her mind busy but to track the pattern of a hideous yellow wallpaper. The narrator is not only physically confined within the room, but is also mentally trapped, for she is discouraged by John to engage in any mental activity including writing. This confinement within the home is a clear representation of the patriarchal oppression of women in the nineteenth century. In fact, the narrator is not the only trapped female figure in the story. As the narators mental state continues to deteriorate she begins to see a woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper lining her …show more content…

Mariana is mentally trapped in a cycle of hopelessness and dysfunction as a result of not having a husband present. Even though the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper had a husband to ‘take care of her’, she was still oppressed and physically entrapped as a result of not conforming to the strict binary gender norms of Victorian society. While both works could be interpreted as represented as portraying women as having weak mental fortitude, it is a more nuanced view to acknowledge that their madness was caused by the confinement they experienced, not the other way around. Mariana and The Yellow Wallpaper highlight the damaging effects of gender roles and societal expectations on women's mental well-being, and challenge the notion of women as inherently weak or dependent, instead placing the blame on the oppressive systems that confine

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