Oppression Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins

During the 19th century, feminism was absent in society and people believed authority of the household belonged to the man. Women were expected to maintain a housewife standard by tending to the house chores and children and were given unequal opportunities to men. Women were also not allowed to express their individuality and intelligence. An outspoken woman would be condemned as unfeminine by society and, therefore, prove inadequate for societal norms such as marriage. An outspoken wife would be condemned even more so. In an effort to escape society’s oppression, many women came forth about their living conditions under men’s authority and began writing, lecturing, parading, etc. to attract attention to the matter. Charlotte Perkins

The woman’s husband and brother—both physicians—diagnose her condition as a “temporary nervous depression” and tell friends and family she will be fine after a strict period of rest with no writing (310). John, the woman’s husband, believes if his wife works or socializes, the stress from these endeavors will make her condition worse. So, John takes the woman to a mansion in the woods and puts her in a room—a previous nursery—with yellow wallpaper. At first, the woman hates the wallpaper and wishes to be moved from the room, but as the story progresses, the woman finds herself attracted to the yellow wallpaper and attempting to understand its pattern. While figuring out the pattern, the woman describes seeing another woman creeping behind the wallpaper every night. A few days pass and John tells the woman that he is glad to see his wife finally improving. The woman confides in her husband's reassurance and says she is feeling much better despite her steady decrease of sleep each night from staring at the wallpaper. The woman says, “I don’t sleep much at night, for it is interesting to watch developments,” and then, later, goes on to say, “Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (319-320). Eventually, the woman becomes so infatuated by the girl behind the

The woman described the paper as, “One of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin,” and having the color of, “a smoldering unclean yellow” (312). Later on, as the woman concentrates deeper into the wallpaper’s pattern, she discovers two different patterns within the wallpaper despite the wallpaper itself being one design. Gilman uses the woman’s description of the wallpaper to symbolize the complicated intermingling of society. The identification of two patterns, however, portrays society’s perspective of women as a tainted concept that covers the opinions and ideas of most women during the time. The woman also explains that the room had once been used as a nursery. The author provides this bit of information about the room to further demonstrate how society treated women like children and suppressed their ideas. When the woman says, “This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had,” and “it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads,” the author further portrays that society oppressed women which in turn led to women experiencing psychological illnesses (313-320). Also, when the woman says, “And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back,” the author symbolizes as finally broken free from society’s opinion of her and that she is not going back to living by