The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays women’s roles in society and the sociological development of the 19th Century in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The narrator, faced with Post-Partum Depression, and her content, yet unequal lifestyle help to explain the society the story’s setting is focused around. The rising actions and details, along with the characterization of John, all assist in further comprehending the protagonist and her reasons for insanity within this male controlled way of life.

Gilman, a feminist of the Victorian time period, expresses men as an overwhelming power to further accentuate the unequal, male dominated society the narrator is strained to be a part of. Men of the current time period are represented in the short story through John and the narrator’s brother, two respected and knowledgeable doctors of the era. The Narrator explains that because she is surrounded by doctors “that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 359). Her repetitive use of the phrase, “what is one to do” emphasizes the narrator’s helplessness in her world of masculinity (359). Gilman depicts John as an instigator, causing and guiding the narrator’s illness into abomination.. By viewing John as a figure of harm rather than aid, it is understandable and even probable to feel sympathy towards the narrator and her implied cry for help.

John’s superiority is evident throughout the story, which further explains the basis of the narrator’s psychological motives. The narrator, like many women of the time period, wouldn’t dare argue their cause due to fears of ridicule and self image. As an effect of the time period which the story is taking place, the narrator is completely financially dependent on John and unauthorized to make executive, personal decisions facing her well-being. To gamble on her own cause could face her with a divorce, leaving her with little or no money or, even worse, institutionalization. Since John consistently refuses her query for medical attention, the narrator is trapped within her awareness of nothing and no one to assist her. “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (361). In modern society, humanity’s mental and physical well-being is not restrained to the thoughts and opinions of one man. It is highly unfortunate for the narrator that this is not the case in her contemporary setting.

John, a patriarchal figure of the 19th century, through his self-centered and ignorant personality, refuses to view his wife’s opinions and accept her level of intelligence as equal to his or the men of the time’s society. Gilman, by straining the detail of the narrator’s talented ability to write, implies her high level of intelligence, despite her inequality in being a female of the 19th century. Not only in the 19th century, but even in standards of today, it takes a very intelligent and literate woman to possess the ability of writing on a frequent basis. Not only are her feelings, thoughts and ideas overlooked by her husband and the males of her community, but also they are being restricted and limited when possible. The narrator is faced with a question throughout the narrative of her moral righteousness and longing to write versus her husband’s views of writing and her mental condition. Her enjoyment of writing is also maintained while “having