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Girl By Jamaica Kincaid And The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Throughout history, women have had to fight for their rights and equality in society. There are many joys of womanhood, such as the natural connection from woman to woman, the strength and power, and the innate feeling of love. Despite this, there are certainly multiple negatives to being a woman. The female experience is unique, and can be extremely difficult at times. Ever since the beginning of time, women have always been told how to behave, how to feel, and just how to live in general. In the prose “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both pieces of literature show the themes of womanhood, and how the two stories can be connected.
In the poem “Girl”, Kincaid beautifully portrays …show more content…

In both stories, a person with higher authority is trying to control the main character. In “Girl”, the mother frequently slut-shames her daughter, and tells her how to become a good housewife, while in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character slowly descends into madness, as her husband does not get her the proper help she needs for her mental health. “this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease” (Kincaid). In this line, Kincaid represents the expectation of women to serve their husbands and fathers. This is also shown in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, when the main character feels as if she has to hide her true self to please her husband. “I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really much easier about you." "I don't weigh a bit more," said I,” (Gilman 652). The woman’s husband thinks she is getting better just because of her appearance, but continues to ignore her mind’s health. Once again, this is a very negative aspect of womanhood that women throughout history have experienced. “this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways” (Kincaid). The mother is telling the daughter ways to deal with men in her life, which, unfortunately, is a reality for most women. Hostility from men is something every woman will deal with at least once in her life. This is also shown in “The Yellow Wallpaper” when the husband ignores the main character’s needs, and does not get her proper medical

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The respective protagonists were also driven into madness by their husbands and a lack of support from their friends. With the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” her husband as well as her husband’s sister were simply ignorant to her pleas for help. Minnie Wright, on the other hand, suffered from a mentally and physically abusive relationship and a lack of support from any friends at all. Despite the commonplace of men in powerful positions in each story, they are both considered feminist works as women are given a larger role and have better ideas than

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Gilman creates a comparison of power between the narrator and her husband through the use of sexism. The narrator, after the Fourth of July, remarks, “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall,” (3). Through this, she presents John’s ultimatum in a way that makes him look as if he is domineering. She implies that she has no say, and that he has the final decision on any of the actions that happen in order to heal her illness of depression. He is simply the dominant one in the relationship, a male with the power to control whatever happens to her.

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman's renowned short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a haunting and powerful portrayal of the injustice and oppression faced by women in the 19th century. Through her masterful use of ambiguity and horror, Gilman creates a chilling tale that reflects the societal constraints placed upon women and the detrimental effects of gender inequality. One of the ways Gilman employs ambiguity in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is through the narrator's mental state. The story is written in a first-person narrative, and the reader experiences the events through the perspective of the unnamed female protagonist.

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story written in 1892. The story is centered around a woman who faces societal expectations, and how men controlled women’s decisions simply because men were superior at the time. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates how the lack of self-determination can have a negative impact on mental health by showing how men controlled women’s decisions through the use of narration and imagery. Initially, the protagonist is portrayed as a woman who suffers from postpartum depression or a “nervous condition.”

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Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman utilizes women inferiority in marriage in order to demonstrate the gender separation between women and men, thus divulging women being confined in a puerile mentality. The story conveys the idea of representing women as inferior to men; by having the concept of a “domestic” woman and an “active working” man. Gilman manipulates the scenery in order to reveal the hidden actions of men’s denial towards women’s equality. Men limit women by having women live inside a box thus effecting their mentality state. The narrator views marriage in a certain way which allows for her opinions to be disregarded.

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She identified the yellow wallpaper as a metaphor for women’s discourse. The narrator’s underlying feelings of confusion, depression, and frustration was covered by the yellow wallpaper which she rips from the walls at the very end to reveal “what is elsewhere kept hidden and embodies patterns that the patriarchal order ignores, suppresses, fears as grotesque or fails to perceive at all” (35). The yellow wallpaper is interpreted as the conflict of gender inequality and the struggles of women in a patriarchal society. The imagery reflects on how women feel toward sexual inequality and the situation with

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The yellow wallpaper is not just the dreadful décor the narrator is stuck within the story but the most important symbol in the story. It symbolizes how women were not allowed to change or free to make their own decisions. The narrator once said that the wallpaper "sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it" (Gilman). She felt like the wallpaper stuck and not able to succumb to change she demonstrates this as well when she says "The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out" (Gilman). The narrator herself became the women she saw in the wallpaper that she felt trapped in a life without change which manifested itself into the wallpaper further increasing the symbolism and importance of yellow wallpaper.

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