Feminist Elements In 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

While many people today regard the story as having feminist qualities more than anything else, it still remains a great example of the gothic genre. Ever since being acknowledged convincingly as a feminist text by the 1973 reissue of the story by the Feminist Press, the story’s numerous gothic qualities have been put aside and thrown by the wayside. Every aspect of the story reeks of the gothic genre including its plot and major characters as well as its major themes.
The major themes in “The Yellow Wallpaper” also reflect gothic underlyings. The prospect of isolated imprisonement for mental and physical revitalization is a very gothic and foreboding theme that runs throughout the story. This theme is also carried by the diagnostic medicine