Gender Roles In The Yellow Wallpaper

In the late 1800’s, women faced oppression and were restricted physically and intellectually due to their gender. Their roles were very specific and limited, contrasting greatly with their male counterpart. While the men were depicted as rational, strong, and dominant, the women were viewed as weak, fragile, emotional, and submissive. The vast differences in both genders and how one treats the other, allows us as the audience to see how harmful and damaging it is in society. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman explores the harmful gender roles that are depicted in her marriage and the narrator’s slow descent into madness shows the harmful effects of patriarchal authority. It’s ironic that although we are much closer to the narrator and are able

John already holds power in the household with him being the husband, but with the additional title of being a physician, the narrator has to abide by what he says. “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression, what is one to do?”(368). Her wellbeing is decided by her husband and she has no say in her treatments and health, despite admitting that she suffers greatly. The condescending way he speaks to her again and again demonstrates the way he casually brushes off her emotional and worried thoughts to the side, representing how in a patriarchal society, men are the sensible ones while the women are dramatic. In this dynamic, the narrator is not only the obedient wife, but also the weak and fragile

She is not only alienated from the world surrounding her, which hinders her ability to improve, but she spends most of her time analyzing the wallpaper and the woman trapped behind it. She begins to identify with the woman, as she herserlf is bound to this room and unable to engage outside of it. As she is spiraling into madness, we become detached from the narrator as she has now become unreliable. It’s evident that her mental health is detirtating, but in the scene where she is peeling off the wallpaper, there is a sense of clarity. This moment symbolizes her drastic and desperate attempt to escape the confinements of her room and in a way, the control of her husband. This scene is crucial in that it’s a liberating experience for her and even though she’s clearly ill and mad, she has finally taken control in her wellbeing and frees