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Gender Roles In The Yellow Wallpaper

2012 Words9 Pages

Katrina Wagner
Professor Lawrence
English 101B
5 July 2023
Gender in “The Yellow Wallpaper” “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The late 1800s was a time where women greatly struggled with equality and finding the same freedoms as men. Women’s struggle with oppression is one main theme that Gilman highlights in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This theme was a very big issue during this time period, and while a lot has changed, this can still be seen commonly today. Charlotte Perkins Gilman discusses her own experiences with finding medical help during the trauma of postpartum depression. Gilman develops this theme through her complex character development, unique writing styles, and language strategies. Looking …show more content…

Although this story shows the harsh reality of depression, the story almost has a dystopian and nervous tone to it. The audience sees a woman go crazy and see things in wallpaper. The text states, “It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house-to reach the smell. But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper. A yellow smell” (Gilman 444). This quote is one of many examples of how the narrator is focusing on tiny details that drive her insane. This gives the story a dystopian tone because it sounds so odd that no normal person would ever behave like this; only someone truly suffering or crazy could have thoughts like these. It is true that the woman is feeling crazy, but she only feels that way because of her …show more content…

One way the author shows the character’s anxiety is by using personification. Gilman brought the wallpaper to life as a manifestation of the narrator’s anxiety. The narrator thinks, “Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spot she takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” (Gilman 444). These thoughts directly show how the isolation is changing the emotions of the narrator. When they first arrived at the rental house, she could admit that it was frustrating to be alone, but as time went on, she didn’t feel alone anymore. She may have been anxious about loneliness or depression, causing her to see things in the walls to keep her company. The wallpaper was obviously not alive, but the narrator saw it move. The way Gilman wrote this story contributes to the theme because if it wasn’t for the power dynamic between the narrator and her husband, none of this would have happened. If the woman had enough power to be herself and leave the house, she never would have seen a woman moving around in the

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