"The Yellow Wallpaper"

Analytical Essay # 61515

English > Analysis
Literature > American
Women Studies

Examines themes of oppression in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper".

1,440 words () | 1 source | APA | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story that has inspired many critical views of the author, in terms of her use of symbols in the story to create what are seen as social themes. Critics have remarked on Gilman's text itself as an autobiographical function or expression of the author's frustration in her time-period about women's roles. Other critics have looked more directly at the story to see themes of changing ideas of gender roles. This paper examines
"The Yellow Wallpaper" in terms of the themes that the author intended to convey in the story. It follows a close reading of the text itself rather than relying on secondary criticism to examine and analyze these themes that are put forth. It is the general contention of this paper that the author is trying to convince the reader of the unjust domestic imprisonment of the narrator by her husband, who is supposed to love
her, but acts more like her captor.

From the Paper:

"The fundamental conflict between the protagonist/narrator and her husband is displayed by her assumption that, "John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him" (Gilman, p. 110). The narrator is an emotional and imaginative woman who has become convinced that emotion and
imagination are making her ill. She cannot reconcile herself with this outward reality, and therefore rebels in many ways against this interruption of her time, which is controlled strictly by her husband, who tells her that she cannot even write, due to her condition. This control that the husband has over the narrator is the central feature that
the author uses to convince the reader that the husband is going overboard and endangering the fragile narrator, because the control is that of a captor to their prisoner, not a husband to his wife."