The yellow wallpaper By Destiny Mugisa

About the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman was best known in her time as a crusading journalist and feminist intellectual. She argued that women’s obligation to remain in the domestic position robbed them of their intelligence and the may be beneficial contribution to society The structure of the traditional family did not benefit anyone not the woman who was made into an unpaid servant, not the husband who was made into a master, and not the children who were subject to both. The Yellow Wallpaper draws heavily on a particularly painful episode in Gilman’s own life. Early in her first marriage, Gilman was stricken with a severe case of depression. leading specialist in nervous disorders treatment in such cases was rest cure/forced inactivity. Prevented from working, she soon had a nervous breakdown. At her worst, she was reduced to crawling into closets and under beds, clutching a rag doll. Once she abandoned “rest cure”, Gilman’s condition improved, Leaving behind her husband and child, a scandalous decision, She wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” soon after her move to California

Reaction To demonstrate the kind of madness produced by the popular "rest cures” for the first decade “The yellow wallpaper” was read as a piece of horror fiction firmly situated in the Gothic genre. Since the 1960s, however, it was perceived as a piece of the women’s movement illustrating 19th century attitudes towards women’s physical and mental health. According to Gilman, the short story was never intended as a Gothic horror, but rather as a cautionary tale about what supposed “rest cures” could do to the mental stability of patients

Suggested Themes Women- The narrator’s confinement and repression are strictly based on her gender. There is a gendered subtext, especially given what we know about the period in which Gilman was writing (late 1800s). The women we see in the story are meant to find fulfillment in the home, while the men hold positions. The narrator’s lack of a name also reinforces the notion that she is speaking as the voice of women collectively, rather than as an individual. Incarceration- The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is confined to a single room in a large house. Her husband frequently spends his nights in town as part of his duties as a big shot doctor. This patriarchal system is the overwhelmingly dominant theme of the story, as the narrator’s attempts to cope with isolation.

Links to “A dolls House” Marriage- Both marriages experience a power struggle, where the women attempts to understand and challenge the assigned gender roles in a domestic setting. Women’s treatment and Attitude- Majority of women in both books search for responsibilities or activities that are outside of the expected duties of a woman which is to cook, clean and bear children. However the constant demeaning and oppression causes the women to submit to the authority of men. This submission to men confines the women and is a hindrance to freedom Escape- Both leading women end up running away in order overcome their problems.