The Role Of Oppression Of Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

Today's society has advanced tremendously from its old self, where the status of women and their role in the society have been significantly improved. Equality between the men and women is also a part that was taken seriously in this modern time and age. However, the situation for women during the 50's era was a complety opposite story, where women were not considered to be an entity that can contribute to the society. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, through her short story The Yellow Wallpaper, has reflected to us a picture of a time period where the oppression of women and the lack of self – identity have taken over. First of all, the oppression of women is an idea that the author want to press throughout the story, as you can catch the glimpse
First and foremost, it's the lack of confidence and the mindset that men are superior than women. Throughout the story, for every action that was taken by the narrator, the word "nervous" and "tired" were followed, in order to express the self-doubt in her ability and the uncertainty in her life choice. On the contrary, her husband is described as a man who " never be nervous in his whole life", and every action of him was justified either as rational, thoughful or wise. As the story unfold, we are able to see more and more evidences of this misguided belief, such as the writing activity of the narrator has to be hidden from everyone else, the discouraging feeling "to not have any advice and companionship about (her) work", or the thought that she must not discuss what she had in mind with her husband because it may disturb him,.... Side by side with this inferior mindset is the low expectation of the society for women's identity and their role in the society. As I have mentioned above, the job of the women in the story is only revolving around the house, but the problem is they don't seems to have a problem with that. For example, John's sister was described as a "perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hope for no better profession". She even believed that "it is writing (that) made (the narrator) sick". As we can see, the position the
The story truly portray a horrific society with its discrimination against women, and cry for help for a life where they can be treated as a "person", not as an object with the sole purpose is to entertain their