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The Yellow Wallpaper: A Woman's Struggle

Decent Essays

A Woman’s Struggle Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story of woman who is suffering through depression in a time period where men dominated women. The story starts off with how the narrator views that men’s ideas are higher than that of a woman’s idea. Just as stated, “My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing” (Gilman) one can easily determine how the narrator sees men are higher than her. Frequently alone left in the room the narrator loses herself and becomes delusional and imagines herself in the wallpaper. Gilman wrote this short story embodying herself, she went through similar situations just as the narrator did. The difference is that Gilman obviously didn’t experience as much intensity, but she had loved ones looking out for her best interest not those of their own. Perhaps if the narrator stood up for herself she would not have ended up in the wallpaper. …show more content…

Upon seeing a specialist about it she was prescribed a “rest cure” and that was all she needed, also he instructed her to never touch a pen again (Gilman). She followed those orders for a short while, ultimately making her decline. Something clicked and Gilman tossed the specialist advice in the trash and began working again, leading her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Just as Gilman had a moment of awakening in a sense, there were moments that the reader can see the narrator fighting the “norm”. One was when John her husband felt that writing would only hinder her and would not help with his diagnoses of a “rest cure” (Gilman). The narrator disagrees, just as Gilman did (in different circumstances) and thinks writing would only help her “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal” (Gilman). She hides her writing because she is fighting for what is right but also keeping it a secret so it looks as though she is being submissive and a good little

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