2. Please comment on this post about The Yellow Wallpaper. Some possible topics:
a) could this be read as a parable about feminism/sexism? Explain.
b) if it is a a parable about feminism and sexism, take a detail and explain how it would work.
c) How else could this story be read than as such a parable?
You're allowed to simply make an observation and think about it.
Specific references to the text are informative and persuasive.
Katie Burch
ReplyDeleteThis story could be read as a parable to feminism and sexism because in it the lesson to be be learned is not to be inactive when experiencing depression. Because the narrator is a woman she is told by her husband how to live. He is a physician and is supposedly treating her nervous depression. She is not allowed to do what she believes is good for her condition, instead she has to follow strict orders. "I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus- but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad." It sounds like the supposed help she is receiving is really doing quite the opposite. Sitting around and not even being allowed to think about her condition seems ridiculous and restrictive. She feels that by doing this she is not getting better; however, she cannot argue with her husband because she does not know any better because she is only a woman. "I don't weigh a bit more," said I, nor as much; and my appetite may be better in the evening when you are here, but it is worse in the morning when you are away!" This quote shows that she really is not getting better despite the claims of her husband. He is restricting her so much that no wonder she feels depressed and also feels the need to mess with the yellow wallpaper. Her feelings are not considered when her husband John is around. He has complete authority over her and that right there shows how sexist he is being. He is taking advantage of his power and she is suffering as a result. There is so much feminism in this story and one piece in particular that displays this is "Better in body perhaps-" I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word." She is trying to get her opinion acrooss to him, but he will not tolerate her standing up to him. The narrator attempts to say how she is actually feeling, but of course only her husband John really knows what is best for her since he is a man.
Katie nails this one, and at the beginning mentions a very good point. "Because the narrator is a woman she is told by her husband how to live." We must take into account the era that this was written in. The nineteenth century held strict ideals about the functions of the male, versus the woman in marriage. Katie mentions, "She feels that by doing this she is not getting better; however, she cannot argue with her husband because she does not know any better because she is only a woman." This is an extremely valuable piece of information, especially because it expresses the ideals that woman remain second class citizens because of their more 'domestic' work, where the husband had the 'active' work. I make this argument: Katie says, "He is restricting her so much that no wonder she feels depressed and also feels the need to mess with the yellow wallpaper." Because John is led by society and time period to believe he is superior, his misjudgment and asserted dominance over his wife because he thought he could help her, whereas he was really keeping her locked up in her own mind. And what Katie says again, "The narrator attempts to say how she is actually feeling, but of course only her husband John really knows what is best for her since he is a man."
ReplyDeleteI think it is very possible that this story is a reflection of sexism. It is based in a time, I believe the early 20th century when women were not respected, and their intelligence not looked upon as highly as males in society. We see this from the start of the story, the narrator is apparently unwell, and accepts her condemned state because "What can one do" when your husband "is a physician of high standing", and your brother too? Both men seem to agree that she is afflicted with "temporary nervous depression, and a slight hysterical tendency." And though this prediction does seem to evolve during the stories progression, and her fascination with the wallpaper develops, I still question if her sickness was valid at the start, and if she could have gotten well if she would have made her own decisions. Yet she had no control over her life, but two men did....
ReplyDeleteBoth Katie and Trevor have really hit the nail on the head. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a parable about sexism. The narrator is a woman whose life is controlled by her husband, giving her very few freedoms. There is the fact that she is depressed and tries to articulate her feelings, but her husband won't listen to her, however there is something else that made me realize the importance of sexism. The fact that her name is never mentioned, yet her husband and her child's names are, shows that she is less important. John Steinbeck does this in "Of Mice and Men", the only woman in the story is only referred to as "Curly's wife". This title gives her no real identity. This has made me think that the author of ,"The Yellow Wallpaper" did this on purpose to make the narrator seem bellow her husband.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning she accepted her husband’s needs instead of hers. She wanted a bedroom downstairs, but her husband had to have the room with the yellow wall paper. He did not even consider her ideas. He had more power over her when he diagnosed her with temporary nervous. She had to be in the yellow room all day for her "health". The room had barred windows. This showed that she was restricted to what she could do. I believe the wallpaper in the story reflected the woman and her feelings. The wallpaper showed her frustrations. At one point she described the wallpaper, "I didn't realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman." This showed that she was blind that she was being controlled. After observing the wallpaper she realized that she was trapped like the woman in the wallpaper. The wallpaper revealed the truth to her. "In the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard." The woman in the wallpaper wanted to get out, but did not know how. The woman tried to get out like the woman in the wallpaper did by asking her husband if she could go visit some cousins. The husband was in charge, but the wallpaper was the one that taught her to be strong and overcome.
ReplyDeleteThis woman’s husband, John, completely controls her every move. While she seems at the beginning of the story to have some emotional problems, by the end of the story she is extremely crazy. I think that the more he controls her, the more crazy she becomes. When she focuses so much on the wallpaper and says the following, it is clear that she has lost a sense of reality, “The front pattern does move- and no wonder! The woman behind it shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over” (521). Part of his control over her is that he keeps her isolated from others. She wants to go visit relatives and leave the house, but he says that that would not be a good idea. “I tried to have a real earnest and reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to cousin Henry and Julia” (518). She refers to their baby a couple of times in the story but there is no sense that she is ever anywhere near the baby. Someone else cares for the baby. The only maternal sense we get from her is that she is glad that the baby does not have to sleep in that nursery because of the wallpaper. The story is also told through the point of view of the woman. So the reader sees her thoughts get more illogical. Early in the story she repeatedly says how much John cares for her and loves her, but by the end she doesn’t trust him at all.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that this is a parable dealing with sexism. Her husband has absolute control over her and although her body is telling her that she is unhappy, she cannot face that. She puts on a facade that she cannot even fully tell is fake. Her first instinct is to say what she feels, especially in terms of the room, "I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.", and yet even the slightest thought of upsetting her husband leads her to force herself to sacrifice for him, "It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim." She dismisses her feelings as a whim and yet it is clear that they are very strong. She lets her husband walk over her because she knows no other way, and this eventually leads to the obsession with the wallpaper and the woman inside of it begging to get out. The woman inside the wallpaper could represent all women during this time period, all of them waiting for that one woman that will tear back the wallpaper and pull them through.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that this story is a reflection of women's status at the time. I believe her condition's getting worse and worse as her husband denies the fact that she's desperately in need of his understanding and support. I totally agree with what katie says: "He is restricting her so much that no wonder she feels depressed and also feels the need to mess with the yellow wallpaper" The fact that her husband and her brother are both "physician of high standing" restricts her right to speak up for herself. Sometimes do I doubt her judgement and think that she may actually be depressed but the fact that her husband forbids her to make herself at least emotionally better (by visiting relatives) makes me think that maybe the love the husband has for his wife isn't really love.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Trevor and Katie both make very valueable points. It is clear that all the desicions which are made for the narrator is mainly by her husband and some which are supported by her brother. Even though this does show the higharchy of the sexes the narrator does still allow this to happen. Weather it is if she know any better or not. She continues to speak about how wonderful her husband is and how he is doing all of these things because he loves her. But it makes the reader wonder if the husband really is so wonderful. Many times he 'threatens' to bring her to a home and refuses to let her sleep in the room downstairs. He even refuses to let her take control of jobs that belong to the woman of the house (such as cooking, cleaning, entertaining guests etc.) This all has to do with the issuses between the different sexes throughout this short story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that this story is related with ‘sexism.’ The most miserable thing is that she couldn’t even notice that her life is controlled by her husband, John. Although she wants to live by her will, she hasn’t even tried it and treated like a child. This shows that how long these conditions are continuous. Maybe listening John’s words and controlled by him can be already her old habit. John brainwashes her by keeps telling how he cares about her, although if he really loves her, he should respect her own thoughts. He locked up her in his little room and made her to see and hear what he wanted. I don’t mean that John is a bad person or locked her for a bad purpose. It’s because the time period when they lived. At that time, people accepted this controlling naturally.
ReplyDeleteThis story is not only a parable about sexism, but also a parable about break down of oneself. In the small bed room, we can see how one person is going crazy. She saw many girls from the wall and finally peeled off that yellow wall paper. I think that wall paper symbolizes that her own binding and pressure. She keeps trying to run away from that wall, but she couldn’t. After failing to run away, she couldn’t stand it anymore and peeled off as the way of escape her situation.
Most of the comments thus far are excellent, but I believe I can add one point. The "Yellow Wallpaper" depicts a woman trapped in an physical and psychological state. She is ordered by her husband to do whatever he wishes, one of the many traits that was common in her day and age. Due mostly to the husbands ignorance, the women tries to push social boundaries in order to free herself of the state of mind she is in. It is only until she begins to obsess over this yellow wallpaper that we as readers can grasp the true concept of it: the wallpaper is the wall that prevents her from reaching social justice.
ReplyDeleteI have read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of the statements above. There is quite an overwhelming sense of oppression and sexism in this story. I would like to speculate that the control her husband has on her is not only keeping her form getting better, but maybe even causing it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Katie said. Because of the fact that the narrator is a woman, her husband got all the authority. Almost everything of her life is controlled by John, even her thinking is controlled. She has to do what he said, and she has to care so much about John when she’s doing something. Also, the setting affected to feminism and sexism. John has set as a physician, who always doing something, learned a lot, knows a lot, and powerful, but the narrator who represents all the women, described as a weak person who has a mental health problem. She’s not working, she just stays at her house, because that’s what her husband wants her to do. As you see, on the above comments, there’s a lot of example which represented feminism and sexism. I think this story can be determined as a criticism against sexism.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that this story could be a parable to feminism/sexism but I also think that it is very possibly not. We must realize that since the narrator is not mentally stable we do not get the complete accurate story. Also her husband did love her very much and shows his affection "Then he held me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose". I feel that John is confused because he attempting to play the role of the husband, the doctor and a father of their son. He wants so much for his wife to get better for his sake and his son's so he tries too hard, not realizing his therapy he planned for her is actually making her worse. Another point is that John's sister is also reinforcing the rules about remaining in the room so it is clear that it does not represent a dominating sex.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amber's point, or more her question, 'if her sickness was valid at the start, and if she could have gotten well if she would have made her own decisions'. I read the story and I knew that she was being treated for nervous depression by her husband but it seemed pretty mild at the start.I noticed that she seemed bothered by the wallpaper but it didnt take up all her focus. She payed attention to the garden and greenhouse, and Mary and the child, and the view from the window. It wasnt until her husband wouldnt let her do what she wanted and handle herself that she became paranoid and obssessed with the wallpaper.The extent of her obsession came as a shock to me because of how normal she seemed at the start!I found the story really creepy over all.The speaker had an eery tone and the repitition of the words 'John says' seemed to degrade her form a wife and husband,equal in marraige, to an oblivious child under the control of a man.
ReplyDeleteI have read!
ReplyDeleteKatie Burch