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Essay Comparing The Yellow Wallpaper And The N

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Mohra Gad Dr. Meloy HON 272 19 April 2024 Gender Confinement The main character in Charlotte Gilman’s novel “The Yellow Wallpaper” experiences confinement – both physically and mentally. Similarly, Suzanne is physically jailed in the convent, which spirals into numerous other forms of confinement in Denis Diderot’s epistolary novel “The Nun”, including mental incarnation. "The Nun," which was written in 1796, and "The Yellow Wallpaper," which was published in 1892, over a century later, are set in quite different eras. However, both female characters face oppressive forces in their respective societies. The lead characters share a fundamental similarity: they are both women navigating their men-dominated patriarchal society. Despite their disparate …show more content…

Both her husband and her brother, two men, say that nothing is wrong with her. She completely ignores the fact that her husband identifies it as a hysterical tendency, which although extremely condescending, still points to an issue. This pattern of invalidation reflects broader societal norms that diminish women's autonomy and credibility, establishing their emotional well-being to secondary importance because of their gender. Moreover, the wife’s reluctance to challenge the opinions of her husband and brother highlights the power dynamics at play, wherein women are conditioned to defer to male authority figures and suppress their own needs and concerns. Furthermore, Suzanne is also invalidated within her own convent, filled with women, but being treated by a male doctor. When asked what she needs assistance with, she tells him “I don’t want to live” (Diderot 113). To this he replies, “I can’t help that!” (Diderot 113). While he did not dismiss her to the same extreme as the wife has been in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, he does not attempt to dig deeper into her mental issues, simply telling her that he cannot help her with

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The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is suffering severe depression and it only gets worse within time. She is a new mother, a newlywed, and is being plagued as having post-partum depression by her readers. Her husband keeps her confined for the “rest cure” from family and friends so that she cannot be influenced by anyone. His solution and the other physician’s solution to her sickness is to place her in isolation, and because he is a prestige physician, everyone assumes he knows what is best for her.

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