Theme of The Yellow Wallpaper
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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American women did not enjoy the freedom they do today, and their roles were defined for them by men (Metaphor; Thomas). This was particularly true of middle-class women, and men placed them in an ideological prison which effectively silenced them. Women were often virtually imprisoned in their homes, with servants tending to the needs of the family, caring for children, and taking care of the house. Women were expected to remain virtuous and pure, even in marriage, to be modest, and religiously pious and submissive. In this way, men ensured the passivity and docility of women, and the medical profession's godlike attitude in The Yellow Wallpaper demonstrates this arrogant attitude of men towards women. Gilman portrays American society at the time as being oppressive towards women and how dangerous it was for a woman to fight back. The story of The Yellow Wallpaper is told by the woman, who acts as narrator (Gilman). Her husband, a physician, has rented a mansion for the summer so she can recuperate from neurasthenia. She rests in an upstairs room, a former nursery, with peeling yellow wallpaper which becomes her obsession. He husband forbids her to do anything, particularly write, so she keeps a diary in secret. She is tended by her husbands sister, Jennie, and the nanny takes care of their baby boy. As her condition worsens, the woman becomes more obsessed with the wallpaper, trying to trace its patterns and becoming
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ould and couldn't do. The narrator is one with the woman in the wallpaper, and in setting the woman behind the wallpaper free, she is liberating herself. Her cries for help have gone unheeded, her husband keeping her medicated to the point where she cannot think straight (Metaphor). It is possible she was suffering from postpartum depression, and he has pushed her further and further towards a mental breakdown by the way he has treated her, keeping her almost bedridden, encouraging her to rest, not wanting her to even write. Symbolically, Gilman is telling society that men cannot continue to oppress women without suffering the consequences.
The female narrator does not fight back against her husband in The yellow Wallpaper. Even though he is a doctor, and her brother is a doctor, neither believe she is really sick, and propose a rest cure (Metaphor). She does not agree and even says, "Personally I disagree with their ideas...I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good" (Gilman). She shows not only the restrictions placed on her by her husband, but symbolically, the restrictions placed on all females in American society at that time (Metaphor). She is confined to one room of the house; the
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Approximate Word count = 1409
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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