Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, The Yellow Wallpaper, is an excellent depiction of a male dominated society. Gilman captures the aspects of oppression and madness to bring about a gothic element into the narrative. Using her own experiences of suffering from depression and subjection, she implements her views on feminist injustice and social identity into her work which enables her to demonstrate the violence created in a male dominated society. Throughout the course of the story, Gilman identifies several roles for women that serve to reaffirm the dominance of the male society even as they circumscribe the growth of women and, in the case of Gilman, place them in impossible circumstances in which madness or flight is the only possible courses…show more content…
John continually rejects her opinions and isolates her from practicing her creative passion. In addition, his treatment of her suggests that his behavior towards her is not due to her illness but is typical. This is corroborated when he communicates to her as he would to a child, referring to her as his “little girl” and calling her his “blessed little goose.” His acts of treating her this way represents the lack of equality between the two genders and how one overpowers the other. Further, he goes ahead and confines her to a room at the top floor of the mansion, which has barred up windows. This brings about a strong sense of male dominance, as he suppresses her want of staying in the room downstairs which “opened on the piazza and had roses all over the windows,” and chooses what he thinks is best for her (Gilman 29). Even the fact that he is a physician and prescribes her rest as a treatment for her illness, him oppressing her every want does not justify his actions. Thus further adding to the factor of an unequal relationship and demonstrating that his belief of women's inferiority prevailing and leaving her in a state of an infantile
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