Gender Roles In The Yellow Wallpaper

Avery Swinimer

Mrs. Donck

ENG4U

4 April 2023

Revealing the indifferences of gender roles within Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story that tells the tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and her descent into madness. Her physician husband decides that the only way to cure her “temporary nervous condition” is to be deprived of any form of stimulus at a summer home. Through the implementation of literary devices such as mood, tone, and symbolism, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper uncovers the inequalities of gender roles and the oppression of women during the nineteenth century.

In the short story, Gilman uses the narrator's

At the beginning of the text, the narrator says “Personally, I disagree with their ideas… I believe that congenial work would do me good” (Gilman 648). This inner dialogue illustrates that at the beginning of her stay, she believed she was okay and just needed to keep herself occupied with her passions such as writing; however, her husband insisted that she needed treatment for her “nervous condition”. This demonstrates that the narrator is subject to the opinion and decisions of the men in her life and that she has no other option but to obey them and their commands. At the end of the story, the narrator then writes “‘ I've got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’” (Gilman 656). This quote shows how the tone of the story went from optimistic to madness and how the narrator has completely dissociated from herself. She believes that she has escaped as her husband no longer has control over her. As the tone of the story shifts, it becomes evident that the oppression from her husband leads to the mental deterioration of the

The narrator's husband says “‘My darling,’ said he, ‘I beg of you, for my sake and for our child's sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?’“ (Gilman 652). The husband begins to use their child as a means of informing the narrator that her role as a woman is defined by motherhood and if she cannot fulfil those duties then she is failing society. The baby cements his belief that she is not well as she is unable to care for it. The narrator says “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes at night, and that is hard!“ (Gilman 656). In this quote, the narrator is referring to the wallpaper which she views as prison bars. During her time in this room, she realised that she is trapped not only in the estate but in her role as a mother and a wife. The narrator wants to escape from her duties and become her own person however, her stay in the room has her convinced that this is her life now due to her husband's constant reinforcement of gender roles and the oppression she faces. Through the use of simple objects such as wallpaper and a child, the author creates a world where men