Essay on the Feminist Approach in the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The yellow wallpaper is one of the most critically and highly acclaimed feminist literature and literary works. Gilman works towards depicting the status of women during the mid and late 19th century in early America. The story shows how society defined the roles of women especially during the Victorian period in a succinct way. Women were subject to behavior, strict codes of conduct, thoughts, and ideologies that were relegated and subjected. The story clearly indicates how women were denied the privilege of self-expression not only in the various social but the institution of marriage.

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As Gilman portrays, women were a weaker sex during the Victorian age; they were also fragile and emotionally unstable. All conditions and characteristics surrounding women moved towards the expression women as inferior to men. During this period the state of being of women was often associated with their reproductive system, and therefore the various female ailments were accorded to the center of her being. As Gilman states I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulusbut John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad (Gilman 1). So I will let it alone and talk about the house. Here the narrator gives a precise indication of the immense power her husband has over her including her thoughts. It is the reason why every time she thinks she hears her husbands voice in her head. Gilman shows the reader the type of power men had of the women during the Victorian period, and she clearly shows how they even influence the thought process of women to such an instance that the women did what their husbands wanted.

Gilman indicates I dont like to look out of the windows eventhere are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did (Gilman 658). Here she brings out an image of the woman that the author brings out throughout the story. The homes women lived in during this time acted as prisons, and that is why many women including Jane creep. As she looks at the women from her window, the narrator gets a clear picture of another part of her she wants to keep secret. She sees herself in these women who are creeping, which is a norm for many if not all women during this era. Women were the property of men during the Victorian period, and in many instances, the women were under the supervision of their men. The men did not, however, allow the required freedom for women which made women of this era to find ways of escaping the prisons even just for a while. It is why they would creep out of their homes. She develops numerous questions concerning how women survive in the prison they call home, but she lacks the appropriate answers and thus leaves the questions for any other concerned woman.

John frequently restricts her to her room, disapproves her writing and engagement in social affairs. These characteristics are a sample of the behavior demonstrated by men during this time and how women suffered emotionally in silence at the mercy of their men. Society is no different because it encourages men to treat women the way they do during this age through human-made laws, cultural and social norms which lean towards favoring men and demeaning women.

Works cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The yellow wall-paper. Penguin UK, 2015. (1-10)

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The yellow wallpaper. Real ROI, 1989. (1-10)