The Yellow WallPaper

Submitted By Kat-Hines
Words: 586
Pages: 3

Women Oppression

In society men tend to exert their control over women. In the story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman she shares how she was diagnosed with what is called neurasthenia, a medical condition that can account for fatigue, headaches, and irritability that can cause a sudden mood swing, that almost made her to go insane. Her husband John is very controlling of her life and likes to tell her what to do and likes to control her treatment plan. An analysis of the story shows how the narrator is being oppressed by her husband by his controlling nature, him forcing her to stop writing, and they way he forces her to hide her own feelings due to his oppressive nature.

In the beginning of the story we learned that the narrator was neurasthenia, which is the reason why her and her husband John decided to rent a house for the summer to get away from everything. Her husband and her brother are both physicians and both state that she is just “temporary nervous depression”. On the other hand she knows that she is sick, but cannot do anything about it but take the medication and any tonics that he gives her. She is also forced to do exercise and forbidden to do work. While she thinks work would help because it has continuous change and excitement. By John forcing her to stop writing it leads her to create a secret journal.

In the 18th and 19th century women had to hide their work from their families much like narrator is doing with her journal. Despite her husband forbidding her to write she writes in a secret journal because John thinks her being creative and wring will drain all her energy and make her worse. By doing this even though he thinks it is good for her he is actually making her hide her creative and intellectual side of herself that come with writing and is turning her into a domestic powerless women who should do and follow everything that her husband says.

Finally in the house the narrator feels trapped and imprisoned due to they layout of the house. She tells us that the house is much like a prison with the locks, separate