The Oppression of Women in the Yellow Wallpaper

The Oppression of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.” Said by Cheris Kramarae, former professor, and director of Women’s Studies, at the University of Illinois. This quote relates to how The Yellow Wallpaper is an important text for understanding feminist concerns about the influence of the patriarchy on women's lives. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is still relevant in modern times because of the discrimination and oppression women faced in the 19th century, much of which still persists today.

The Yellow Wallpaper is an entire metaphor for how women were expected to play the role of wife and mother. The story demonstrates the oppression of women and Gilman intentionally chooses to express the subjugation of women. It is the woman's freedom that is being restricted by her lovely husband who thinks what he is doing is the best for his wife and of course expects no explanation for this from somebody else. Everything happens gradually in the story and the narrator confronts the oppression by her husband, which makes her feel like a prisoner in her house by her husband. She is unable to speak out and express her own ideas thus the more she gets mad the braver she gets because she is losing her compliant and obedient self. The woman simply follows her husband's dictations. In doing so, she stifles her positive qualities, her lively imagination and her creativity. So she remains confined to a room studying the ugly wallpaper and imagining she sees a woman behind the pattern. She is that woman, of course, imprisoned behind the arabesque pattern. (Gilman) This represents the male attitudes and societal traditions that prevent women from participating fully in society and its challenges.

The story is about woman's loss of freedom and humanity within the institution of marriage. The disregard of women stems from them primitively viewed as a man’s property. Though women are not viewed legally as...