Gender Inequality In The Yellow Wallpaper

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.

In the 1800s, this issue was still prevalent in society, although few acknowledged it at that point. Additionally, the fact that the narrator did not feel it was her place to tell her husband that his methods were not helping prove that women were not as independent as men and were expected to follow the orders of men. Furthermore, the roles of men and women in society clearly contrasted; while John was a physician and was free to roam around town, the narrator, John’s sister Jennie, and Mary were confined to the house as housekeepers and caretakers. Plus, John’s superiority to the narrator caused him to believe he was correct in his cure for his wife, when in reality, past experiences caused the narrator to have more knowledge on this subject. However, because she is a woman, the narrator could not do her husband’s