Luis Villeneuve
Ms. De Francesca
ENG4U1-03
12 November 2014
Feminist Analysis : Yellow Wallpaper
The short story “Yellow Wallpaper” was written in the early 1900 's by Charlotte Perkins Gilman to warn women against the rest cure treatment. This treatment which was common a century ago was mostly applied to fragile women that were experiencing depression and anxiety. Rest cure however did the opposite of its purpose, it worsened their mental state. Gilman because of her experience as a victim wanted to display through her short story that women should be treated the same way men are. Her story was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy. The narrator of “Yellow Wallpaper”, a married woman who …show more content…
When John comes into the room she says : “ I 've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I 've pulled off most of the paper, so you can 't put me back” (9).
The narrator believes that her husband is the barrier on her way from becoming autonomous. She cannot continue living her life as a sick and fragile woman that is not listened to. By tearing the wallpaper apart she is free from her husband 's dominance which is against the traditional roles of women. They were supposed to feel safe under the hands of their husbands but the narrator 's actions shows the opposite.
In the “Yellow Wallpaper” the destruction of the narrator is a result of her being under her husband 's hands. The poor decisions that came from him and the lack of participation of her towards her treatment caused her to act the way she did at the end of the story. The story is used as tool to express the author 's beliefs, demonstrating the mental and physical hardships women had to face in this time period. Through this story the author was trying to show that gender roles should be removed from the social order for women to ever be free.
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Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Boston : Small & Maynard,