The Yellow Wallpaper Feminist Analysis

The Yellow Wallpaper was published in 1862, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. When it was published, it became a very controversial piece because of its atypical storyline. The topic of this story revolved around a woman losing her state of mind which was loosely based on the author; Gilman. Gilman shared a similar experience allowing me to criticize this story sociologically. The role of women during this time was known as feeble and needed a male dominant figure to keep them in line, this can be shown in the story. With this, I’m able to judge this piece from a feminist point of view. So with this in place I’ll be using a sociological and feminist criticism for The Yellow Wallpaper. Before I go into the criticism of the piece itself, first allow me to discuss the author of this piece, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman was a feminist, lecturer, and writer and her most well-known story is The Yellow Wallpaper. According to Encyclopædia Britannica “She soon proved to be totally unsuited to the domestic routine of marriage (p.2)”. She didn’t fit into the typical mold of a housewife and didn’t want to live her life domestically. You see
The wallpaper plays the biggest part in this story because it’s the reason for Jane’s craziness and it shifts the way the story is told. As Jane notices the wallpaper at first she thinks it’s the nicest thing in the room, she starts to look at it more closely, so much to the point where she studies the pattern. Eventually she starts seeing something within the wallpaper; a person. As the days go on in this obsession with the person in the wallpaper grows and grows. During the daytime she acts normal enough to keep John off her back. She says “I know John would think it absurd” saying that John thinks her ideas are ridiculous and that maybe she really is delusional. Ultimately she succumbs to the madness and starts to rip off the wallpaper so she can free the