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Suffering Women In The Victorian Era

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In the article, the author explains the suffering women experienced in the Victorian era where strict gender roles and expectations in the society governed how the women lived their lives in a family dynamic. During this time, society expected women to exercise their roles as “the ideal of the ‘true woman’ as wife, mother, and keeper of the home” while also remaining submissive to patriarchy ((()))). If the women maintained these qualities of “the true woman”, they would receive acceptance and respect in society. ((((())))))). However, living under fear of breaking these regulations in this strict patriarchal society often led the women to experience depression, powerlessness, and stress. ((())) Whenever a woman experienced these emotional and mental breakdowns, people believed that she lacked the mental capacity to play her required role in the family and sent her to an asylum for mental recovery. …show more content…

These unusual and unfounded cures to rid the women of their hysteria symptoms lacked reasonable foundation and made the women feel worse. In her story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Gilman shares her disapproval of the treatments used to cure women in this time by describing her misery under the strict treatment of physician S. Weir

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In Charlotte Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she tells a horrific ghost story about symptoms of the rest cure. The “rest cure” was a treatment developed by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell who restricted women of intellectual stimuli and condemned them to a domestic life to help their postpartum recovery. After being a victim of this treatment, Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Careful attention to the use of Gilman’s symbols in her short story allows the reader to analyze some of the themes concerning feminism and societal misogyny. Foreshadowing throughout, Gilman uses the house, the writing, and the wallpaper as symbols to show how man’s use of the “rest cure” limit women in society and offers that the solution to this issue is to persistently tear away at man’s injustice.

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Craft examines the usual roles of the Victorian men and women, passive women especially, requiring them to “suffer and be still”. The men of this time were higher up on the important ladder of that era. Craft believes the men are the “doers” or active ones in

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman also known as the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper uses imagery in this book. As a women in the 1980’s many women had very to little power or approbation to the society. During this time many women were noted to have an illness known as ¨Nervous Disorders¨, which is mentioned in the book by the narrator. Gilmans purpose of The Yellow Wallpaper was to free women from fostering their intelligence, emotional growth, and domestic servitude during this era of struggling women.

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In the 1800s a woman would go undiagnosed with depression due to the idea of women having hysteria versus a legitimate mental health issue. In the Yellow Wallpaper, Why I wrote the Yellow Wallpaper and the Awakening the mental illness is apparent. All three women are suffering from some sort of mental illness which has not been addressed which leads to the oppression of women. Not because doctors or men did intentionally try to hurt them but lack of knowledge and care were a major issue. First to start out with the Why I wrote the Yellow Wall Paper Gilman was a women suffering from severe and continuous breakdowns in the 1800s.

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Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.

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The Yellow Wallpaper was critical of the neglect of women’s mental health problems and the standard rest cure meant to get women back on their feet to enable them to carry out the

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Despite their endeavors to escape their bondage, the women behind the bars could not escape because the men found alternative tactics to keep them in confinement. The bars strangle and cut off the heads of the women that climb out of the pattern, “it turns them upside down and makes their eyes white!” resonating to an envision of a crazy woman. The narrator herself is a great example of how effective men were at establishing alternative tactics like this. The narrator was classified as having hysterical tendencies, like most women of the nineteenth century, were when they complained of pain, anxiety, fatigue, or depression, as a source of suppressing their agency through prescribed isolation and prohibited writing.

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In the Victorian era, men and women based their connections on the formidable society that was there at that time. Qualities that were not wanted by the society were ignored and disregarded as inappropriate, thus making conduct in this era very stern and gender stereotypical. Women at that period had a distinctly strict way of life. The main role of a woman was considered to marry, to take part in their husbands’ life, and to take on their husbands’ interests and business. They were confined to live false lives and have false interests to please the Victorian way of lifestyle.

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VT1700633 Victorian Women Jayd Paik Women have evolved from being treated as property to being CEO of companies and having control of what they get to say or do or even think. Before women had rights they were owned by their husbands and were taught to do all the house work, including taking care of her husband first then the children. He could have as many mistresses as he wanted, yet if she even dared to look at another man he would beat her in front of whoever. The Victorian Era was a harsh time for women because of the way they were treated. In this essay I covering the abuse they took as wives, sisters, daughters, and workers, the roles they played back then verses the roles they play now, and how my vocation of choice would be different

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