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The Yellow Wallpaper Woman

1292 Words6 Pages

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman deals with the exploitation of women during the fin de siècle. The story reveals the mind of a young woman who is, over of a course of time, going insane and finding her true self. Throughout the story the reader experiences the frustration of a woman who is suffering from postnatal depression, which is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby. During the late Victorian era, woman were forced into a certain stereotype, that of a mother and wife. The way men could, women were not allowed to challenge and express themselves. Just as the nameless protagonist of the story was trapped in an “atrocious nursery”, women were trapped in patronizing roles that did not allow …show more content…

The woman the narrator spots appears to be trapped within a bar like pattern of the wallpaper, as she moves the pattern she tries to break free. It could be argued that, the woman is a symbol of femininity. As the narrators insanity deepens, she believes she is trapped within the wallpaper too. Unable to break free from the wallpaper, like the narrator, the woman in the wallpaper has only the stereotypical option of taking the role as a wife or mother. The woman’s habit of “creeping” suggests that she must still be secretive after she has achieves in becoming free. Society and tradition will not accept her freedom therefore; she must creep and lie in the shadows of the …show more content…

It points out the cruelty women were placed under during the 1900’s and highlights the limits of this sexism by exploring a woman driven mad by a “rest cure”. By looking at the narrator’s role as a woman, her lack of encouragement, her thought process through the story and how others (such as her husband) treated her, the reader can see how this brutal and unjust environment drove the narrator insane. Overall “The Yellow Wallpaper” clearly shows “tradition is the main cause of decay” due to the fact that the narrative points out the problem in society which is sexism and oppression towards

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