Oppression in The Yellow Wallpaper
Oppression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In 1887, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was suffering for three years from an emotional disorder characterized by fatigue and depression. ... She soon felt better, and wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” an exaggerated version of her story. ... They also reference the parallel story of both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” of how they were both directed the “rest cure” by well-respected male physicians. However, in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator does go insane partially because of how men treated women during the period. ... However, Shumaker does not go far enough to convey how woman were treated during the period “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written. ... Gilman wrote the story as a symbol of the oppression of women in the 19th century society. ... Thus, sunshine is associated with ordered, masculine oppression, while the night seems to liberate the narrator in some form. Sunshine is also equated with the yellow wallpaper, which is “faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (28). ... She also feels watched over by the yellow wallpaper, much as John and Jennie watch over her, adding to her sense of imprisoned supervision. The sunlight theme pops up again when she claims she can see a figure in the wallpaper “where the sun is just so”(30). ... Calling it “paper” rather than “wallpaper” suggests the wallpaper functions similarly to the paper she has been writing. ... The theme of sunlight and moonlight develops here as the wallpaper’s meaning clarifies. ... Then, the wallpaper’s pattern emerges by moonlight. The figure of a woman behind bars symbolizes the oppression of female domestication, since she is barred within wallpaper. Wallpaper is stereotypically a floral, feminine fixture in rooms. However, the narrator grows subconsciously aware of this oppression only at night, when the subconscious is allowed to roam.