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The Yellow Wallpaper Submissive

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The Submissive and the Dominant Charlotte Perkins Gilman once said “This is the woman 's century, the first chance for the mother of the world to rise to her full place . . . and the world waits while she powders her nose” (Davis 179). Gilman came to be known as a notable feminist, but she was much more than a feminist; Gilman was an American author, social reformer and a lecturer (Davis 179). Gilman’s work “The Yellow Wallpaper” show her strong views on feminism and show traditional gender norms formed the traditional role that women played in the 19th century. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” which was a short story published in 1892 (“Charlotte Perkins Gilman” 110). “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written in first person and it is seen through …show more content…

The narrator describes John as a dominant man who knows best for everyone, especially his wife because he is a physician. Because John is the strong man, so his wife must be weak and submissive. What is seen in the text is perceived as a “traditional” marriage, for example, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that [in marriage]” (Gilman 111). This depicts women who are submissive and have no authority in the marriage this resembles the theme of the subordinate of marriage. Because John is the dominating man the wife just wants to please her husband so she remains submissive. The wife is seen as less than her husband and it is seen through the way he addresses his wife, he addresses her as his daughter by calling “darling” or “little girl” (Gilman 118-119). One can interpret that John treats her as a child because she seems to be unfit to take care of her child and because she claims she’s sick. In addition, the wife is considered and seen as an object; for example, she doesn’t even have a name she is referred as “the wife” (Gilman 110-126). When the text is taken into perspective, this is a very feminist piece because of the struggle that the wife goes through to find out who she is. What the story depicted is the struggle for women to break from their traditional gender norms and from the dominance that is asserted over them and representation of this is when the wife says “I’ve got out at last, said I, in spite of you and Jane… you can’t put me back” (Gilman 126). What is interpreted from this text is that the wife has been trying to break free from all the dominance that has been asserted over her and now she finally has and she will not go back and be

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In the nineteenth century, woman had no power over men in society. They were limited in their freedom, as their lives were controlled by their husbands. Some women did not mind this lifestyle, and remained obedient, while some rebelled and demanded their rights. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are short stories that exposes the lifestyle women lived in the nineteenth century. The protagonists from both stories, Jane and Georgiana, similarly lived a male dominated lifestyle.

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Reading these pieces by Gilman has been a unique experience as to seeing on how different life was during the nineteenth century from a first hand experience from Gilman herself. Over the course of reading these pieces I would like to go more in depth about three pieces including The Yellow Wallpaper, Three Thanksgivings, and The Cottagette. All of these writings were about Gilman’s own life experiences through the nineteenth century that she endeavored. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a talented writer, self-educated social scientist and lecturer, an activist for women’s rights who herself experienced the consequences of oppressive male attitudes and treatment of females. She rebelled against the accepted role and fate of women in her time.

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During the mid to late eighteen hundred women were considered second class citizens that were refined to the interest of the home and family. Women were not able or encouraged to pursue careers, education, or liberty at this time. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Charlotte Bronte were aspiring feminist writers of this period who broke down worldly standards and helped to spread the news of and encourage the women's rights movement, which began to take the world by storm. Both Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” utilize imagery, symbolism, and personification to sanction uprising ideologies of the freedom and empowerment of women in the mid to late 17th century that challenge the traditional classist

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Passage Analysis #1 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman, in this particular passage of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” explores the theme of female oppression through imagery and symbolism of the wall-paper. These elements of literature make the wall-paper come to life for both the narrator and the audience. “The front pattern does move”(55) personifies the wall-paper to be so animate and physically restraining that the woman behind it must shake it to attempt to escape. The italicization of “does” serves to further affirm that the wallpaper exhibits restrictive human-like behaviors - particularly those of dominant men in society. The narrator states that there are “a great many woman behind”(55), extending the metaphor to all Victorian women in the United States and others around the world who are oppressed.

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(Attwood.63) In the social construct of the narrator’s household, the wife is the woman with the most power, she controls most of the house activities with the commander (husband) away. When the narrator first comes in there is an establishment of a hierarchy. The wife has never questioned her husband for having multiple affairs and having total control over her however she does feel the threat of the narrator and she aims her authority towards the narrator; thus contributing to the sexist system that keeps women under domination.

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Knowing she is breaking his trust, she still intends to keep intact John’s expectations of her as the obedient wife. “There comes John, and I must put this away, -- he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 4). Later she implies that her husband hates to have her write a word. Perhaps John was not comfortable with his wife working because women are not meant to work. This then develops an outward profile of marriage that serves John’s logical perceptions of her as a wife and what she should be.

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In the 19th century, the misogynist standards left women in a state where their potential was suppressed. Charlotte Gilman argued against a society where a woman’s mentality and physical health was not fully cared for because of men. She herself had been a victim of these standards causing depression and her journey to not rely on another man shaped her feminist attitude. In 1892, she wrote a piece entitled The Yellow Wallpaper where she unravels the destruction anti-feminist attitudes can cause. By the use of setting Gilman formed her meaning that women deserve not only the same rights but compromise/ To start off, let’s look at the isolated house in the yellow wallpaper

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Women in the 1800’ and early 1900’s were treated the same as slaves, second class citizens who had no voice or decision over their lives. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 with a late American 19th century setting. The main character, a nameless woman, fights depression and anxiety along with being oppressed by her husband John and wanting to rise against the norms of

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The wife was ill and John threatened to send her away even if it was to help her she didn’t want to leave home. When they got in fights the women took the blame and just thought John was always right and he knows what's best, she can't see that he is controlling her. “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive.

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Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman was an iconic feminist of her turn-of-the-century time period where she advocated for women’s rights specifically as well as having controversial, even contradictory beliefs in areas of other social reform. As an author, lecturer, and social critic of the Reconstruction to Industrial movement time period where crucial societal changes were occurring for women, she was able to speak on and revolt against the stereotypical submissive role that women played in the American household of that time, with the seemingly sole purpose of motherhood and subservience to a husband. In addition, her political standpoint was visible in her fiction and nonfiction writings, the most famous being “The Yellow Wallflower”. This short story is told from a narrative, journaled perspective that is a reflection of a true account from Gilman’s

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