The Yellow Wallpaper
In the early 1800's women were given a subservient role in society. In marriage the husband could be viewed as the warden and the wife as the inmate. This left the woman to become dependent and therefore inferior. In "The Yellow Wall-Paper" the author Charlotte Gilman vividly writes the effects of oppression on women. The main character is suffering from mental depression because of the shackles her husband puts on her with his practical ideas of recovery. The wife is a creative spirit with her own ideas and thoughts, which she tries on numerous occasions to express to the husband only for him to view the ideas as insignificant and reply "blessed little goose." "The Yellow Wall-Paper" is about a woman's' perception of the control men have and the unwillingness for one woman to give into the male patriarchy. The writings in the wife's journals and the symbolic description of the wallpaper show the rising theme of feminism. John is the husband who is also a doctor. His practical thinking with logic is what causes the psychological restraints in his wife. "He scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures." It is because of his philosophy for a rest cure he appropriately plays the
The wallpaper is symbolic of oppression and gives the narrator her freedom from the shackles. "Now why should that man have fainted? Bet he did and right across my path by the wall, so that I have to creep over him every time!" The wife does step over her husband and his practicality. "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. The narrator's journal entries are prohibited. It is evident that victory belongs to the narrator. Initially the wife expresses a horrid discontent for the wallpaper and gradually in the story she takes a liking to it. Eventually, the caged woman in the wallpaper becomes free to creep but in the day and the wife begins to see the connection as her. "It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please. The narrator wants the ability to creep out during the day and night just like the imaginary figurine in the wallpaper. Surrounded by the wallpaper in the room the narrator begins to describe it in her entries. "There comes John, and I must put this away, -he hates to have me write a word. This imagery the wife sees can be applied to herself as a woman trapped behind the male superiority. The narrator broke free and explosively demonstrates her stand for feminism through the entries in her journal and the freedom opened by the wallpaper.
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