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The Inequality Of Women In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a young wife as she visits their vacation home with her husband. The story is written in a journal form from the wife’s perspective which includes her interactions with the people around her and gives insights to her thoughts and true opinions about others. The story develops the characterization of the wife as she ascends to madness depicted through her actions which contrasts from the beginning to the ending of the story. Gilman uses the description of the narrator’s experiences to convey how women were treated during the treatment of mental illness in late 19th century. Gilman uses the characterization of the husband to portray the inequality of women in marriage in the …show more content…

This fear is visible as she hurriedly ends her journal entry when she says, “There’s sister on the stairs” (Gilman 301). The narrator is cautious not to get caught writing since it was prohibited during her treatment. This suggests the forced limitation put forth on her that restricted her individual self-expression. The narrator develops this fear into doubt as time advances. She explains, “I have found another funny thing, but I shan’t tell it this time! It does not do to trust people too much” (Gilman 310). With the increasing lack of variant activities and the bitter toxicity of the people around her, the narrator realizes that “It does not do to trust people too much” including the journal that she is writing. As Gilman develops the changes in narrator’s character, she reaches the peak of suspicion when she states, “But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me- not alive” (Gilman 311). The narrator indicates that she finds invaluable fascination which she is afraid to let anyone know and she is willing to go any extent, even hurt someone if she has to mentioning “not alive.” The ignorance and childlike behaviour led the narrator to find value in the wallpaper which she wants exclusively to keep to herself. The narrator’s doubt towards others around her grew through the lack of trustworthy communication and their dictatorial attitude toward

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The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a portrayal of a woman’s descent into madness and how the society around her contributes to her illness. As a matter of fact, the story was inspired and written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s own personal experience. Gilman’s use of a first person point of view and tone allows the reader to experience and understand the narrator's actions and situation. The narrator’s tone also plays a role in establishing her character and the theme through the paragraph structure, her thoughts and expressions and finally her ironic expressions. To begin with, the narrator's tone helps establish character through her paragraph structure within the story.

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the protagonist struggles the realization that the perplexity of the woman in the wallpaper is a symbolic version of herself. The title itself suggests that the uncanny will be connected with objects, particularly with the house and the wallpaper: ‘Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it,’ and later: “I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. (Stetson 650)”

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman offers a number of literary devices to express the theme of female oppression. To achieve this, Gilman creates a narrator who is both incredibly expressive of her feelings, while also being prone to questioning her own assessments. This in itself is a comment on Victorian female ideologies, as the character’s constant claims that she is going insane further pushes the reader to believe she is an unreliable narrator. This was a common thought shared by men in the Victorian age to devalue and

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