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Essay On The Yellow Wallflower

445 Words2 Pages

A Feminist Critique

Feminine criticism is an aspect of gender criticism. Gender criticism “examines how sexual identity influences the creation, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works.” “The Yellow Wallflower” is a feminist critique of gender in society. In this story in particular, it is demonstrated through symbols. The wallpaper is one symbol that was used. “I kept still and watched the moonlight on that undulating wallpaper till I felt creepy… the faint figure behind seemed to shake the paper, just as if she wanted to get out” (Gilman). I think that the wallpaper is a symbol of the narratos life. It represents the independent role of the narrator – she slowly breaks away from her role as a wife, and she realizes she no longer needs to be trapped. No one needs to make decisions for her. Writing is a symbol in and of itself as well. Writing is a symbol of the independent female side of the narrator. She is able to express herself, her thoughts and her emotions freely, which makes her an independent woman.
Katherine Anne Porter 's book, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," provides with knowledge of the research work based on the understanding of female sexuality while giving explanations as to why other feminists failed to adopt her literature for their cause. Porter health was not that fine and it is believed to have …show more content…

This story reveals a strong relationship with heritage in that there is a strong link between feminity and ethnicity evident through the way chooses to define herself by embracing ancestral African background and later renames herself. She argues that feminity has a lot to do someone’s identity. From a feminist perspective, there is some conflict between women which is brought up by their different social classes. Dee represents a higher social class than her momma and Maggie. It also reveals the importance and the role of women in the

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At first it is seen as nothing but an old ruined wallpaper with a “bad” pattern. As the story progresses she stares at the paper for hours and sees a sub-pattern behind the main pattern, visible only in certain light. She hen sees a desperate woman trying to leave the wallpaper which shows how the women feel trapped. The author uses the yellow wallpaper as a symbol of the oppressive life that many women have today and back then.

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For instance, there is an understanding of the woman’s feelings as she describes “a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” and the pattern looking at her “as if it knew what a vicious influence it had” (Gilman 437). The personification is symbolic in displaying how the woman felt as she was stuck in the lonely room with allowance of her husband and Jennie, their child’s nanny, keeping their eyes on her with the dependence of her healing. Additionally, the woman specifies that behind the yellow wallpaper she can see “a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to sulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman 438). As the appearance of the wallpaper is personified, the author taps into the hidden meaning that the woman’s sickness is taunting her as she is attempting to heal. In the end, readers are given the most significant piece of personification in the statement, “and then when the sun came and that awful pattern began to laugh at me, I declared that I would finish it today!”

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