Of Mice And Men Femininity Analysis

How is the idea of femininity explored in The Yellow Wallpaper and Of Mice and Men?

Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men the idea of femininity is mainly explored through two characters that don’t fit the expected roles of the time. These characters provide us with an understanding of how women were labelled through symbolism in both texts. The futility of the women’s dreams and that they only served a purpose as wives, is shown between dialogue, narration and symbolism. Dialogue and epistolary gives the reader and insight into the isolation that occurs due to the ideal of femininity in the texts.

In both texts symbolism displays that women are labelled if they do not fit the domestic

Curley’s wife wished she could go to Hollywood and chase her dream of acting, the narrator wanted to was write. Curley’s wife had always regretted marrying Curley and was never satisfied with her role as a wife. Curley’s wife expressed this to Lennie, “I coulda made somethin’ of myself… maybe I will yet.” (Steinbeck, page 87) Similar to how the narrator was confined to her room, trapped by social expectations, unable to write or even fulfil her domestic role. The domestic sphere is a confinement towards both women, in the Yellow Wallpaper, the symbolism of the wallpaper and how it, “Becomes bars!” (Gilman) shows us how she felt physically and emotionally trapped by her role that she was unable to fufil. Whilst Curley’s wife expresses this through dialogue once again, “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while. Think I like to stick in that house alla time” (Steinbeck, page 77). The only way the women broke away from their roles was in death. Both women were trapped by the domestic ideal of femininity that made them unable to follow their creative loves of writing and acting, as women were only viewed useful as wives and