Influences of Patriarchal Society in The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a brief and vivid overview of the patriarchal society of the 19th century. The story is based on a woman who, after having a new baby, became mentally distressed and was put on bed-rest by her husband. She is confined to an upstairs bedroom in a colonial mansion used solely for her recovery. Her husband, John, believes depriving her from any social contact will recover and restore his wifes mental state. John, who is a doctor, does not even allow her to write in her journal, as he believes that any kind of physical exertion will relay the rest cure; although she does write in her journal when he is absent. The Yellow Wallpaper greatly represents the patriarchic and sexist society present during the 19th century. With the role of the male sex in the setting, we can see how females were innately inferior to males and how they often treated females. As the story unravels we can see how the narrator uses the power of confinement to fight her husbands authority and begin what we know today as being the feminist movement.

Even in the very beginning of the story, we can start to begin to see how confinement is a major theme in the story. It reads, It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. (3). Here, the narrator is describing her room, which her husband has picked out for her. She describes the room as being for little children with bars on the windows, a clear sign of confinement. Also referring to women as being anything but adults. Further on it reads, John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious. (3). This depicts the concept of confinement as John gets to go out all day and come and go as he pleases, as the narrator is stuck up in the upstairs room by her self.

In the narrators journals she constantly writes about her views from her windows of her bedroom. She talks about them in envy, as she knows shes not allowed to go outside because shes stuck in her room. She writes Out of one window you can see the garden, those mysterious deep-shaded arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees. Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautifully shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try. (4). From the view of the narrators eyes, John is always right, and John knows best. Hes forcing her to give up her creativity and inspirations just because she is sick. Hes forcing her to be confined to one room, to help her heal her depression and mental nervousness. Johns using his power and authority over his wife, because he knows he can, and he knows his wife will believe him and listen to him. John uses his doctors position to take control over his wife using his gender stratification. He oppresses his wife to the point of her going crazy, where he should take responsibility of the account of her craziness.

As the narrator is confined to the room, she starts getting more and more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper on the walls. As a result of the confinement and the absence of her husband, the narrator becomes lonely and seeks for company. She finds the company in the wallpaper. The narrator finds a womans image behind the wallpaper, as she becomes more and more obsessed and as the time goes on, the image starts to become more and more clearer, as she continuously rips the wallpaper off of the wall, she is able to let more women out, as if they were stuck or confined in the wallpaper.

She hates this wallpaper a lot; this is visible from beginning to end. As it bothers her more and more, but by asking to have the paper removed, in turn results in another way John can control her. At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. (4) If John let her repaper the room, he was worried about what else she would ask and demand for, knowing that he gave into one request. He didnt want to give up his patriarchal authority, and he told her not to let it bother her.

With her last straw, the narrator is finally able to take down and win over her husband in victory. With the removal of all the wallpaper and all the womens images gone, she is able to finally feel freedom and not confinement. She is able to take control of her life, and not have to listen to her husband and rely on him for everything she does. Shes able to overthrow the gender stratification present, and conquer her fears. In The Yellow Wallpaper we were able to follow the narrators struggle of gender inequality within the struggle and confinement of her own self, resulting in her victory over her husbands patriarchal thinking. We were able to see her change from a very timid, sick woman to overpowering the most powerful man in her life. Its because of acts like these; we are now able to live in a non-patriarchal society and a society where women and men are equally the same, and not controlled or confined by someone of the opposite sex.