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The Yellow Wallpaper Oppression

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1892, is both a psychological and feminist piece of literature. It demonstrates oppression, defined as “the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.” The story, written in a form of a journal, is seen through the eyes of a nameless female narrator, who moves with her husband, John, to an estate during the summer to cope with her “hysteria”, eventually leading her to a state of oppression and insanity. The story reflects the confinement and restraint most women during the 1900s felt in marriages and the inferiority women had too men. Throughout the story the narrator’s is suffering from …show more content…

“ The floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through wars” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper). The narrator was forced to conform to the room, even though she repeated stated she wanted to move downstairs. This demonstrates how the room obviously oppresses the narrator, and trapped her in her own insanity. What keeps the narrator’s obsession is the wallpaper, in moments where she even begins to see figures and movement; “ This wall-paper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then” ( Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper). The narrator also claimed to see various women behind the wallpaper, as stated in the story “ a great many women behind, and sometimes only one” (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper). This can symbolize the various women of the 1900s that felt trapped in their marriages, hence the women stated in the story felt trapped behind the wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper also demonstrates the narrator's emotions and feelings. For example, yellow being a bright color can sometimes be too much, in a way overpowering. The wallpaper slowly succumbed into the narrator thoughts, leading to her psychotic

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