The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins, describes what life was like for

women during the 1950s. In Perkins story, there is an unidentified woman who is trapped inside
a room staring at a wallpaper. The argument present in this story is that the woman remains
unidentified. The purpose of this is make the reader look at the bigger picture. Thus, creating
awareness of the struggles women had during this time. The author isn't focused on one person
in particular but, is instead uses a example of how powerless women were. Her husband John
is a doctor and had recommended her to be in a room all day. He tells her this because she has
a tendency to become very nervous, while she also suffers from depression. Therefore, he
believes that the only solution is for her to be isolated. This only ignites her depression since
shes in a room all day without any sunlight. She has recently had a baby with her husband that
she no longer gets to see. Any mother that isn't able to see their child is going to be depressed.
Even if the child is an adult, a mother always protects its babies no matter what circumstance.
The author makes it clear to the reader what kind of situation the woman finds herself
in. The woman is locked away in a room all day because her husband told her to do so and
so she had no other choice but to oblige. As did many women during this time , who were
being controlled not only by their husbands but by men in general. The men were supposed
to go out and work during the day to make ends meet, while the wives stayed home with the
kids (Perkins, 1986). This control over women happened After marriage when they would take
the husbands last name thus giving the men power to govern over them.
The author, Perkins, wants the reader to notice the comparison between the story and
the reality of what was going on during the early 19th century. The woman in the story
represents every woman that had been controlled by men during feminism. John had used his
power to dictate the decisions he wanted for his wife. An example of him dictating ng her
decision is that In the story the woman had just had a baby and was depressed because she

could never see it being locked away in an isolated room. She wanted to see her child however,
it was not up to her whether or not she could see her child it was up to her husband whom made
the decisions for her regardless of how she felt about the matter.
Any woman back in feminist era had felt isolated not being able to move up in the work
field and form any relationships. In the early- to mid-nineteenth century, "domestic ideology"
positioned American middle class women as the spiritual and moral leaders of their home. Such
"separate spheres" ideals suggested that a woman's place was in the private domain of the
home, where she should carry out her prescribed roles of wife and mother (Perkins, 1986). She
was depressed because she was isolated all day and anyone who was put in her position would
have felt the same way. how?
The unidentified womans husband, John, was like any other man during the time period
in America. He had an education and had a good job. Not only a good job, but a job that
required people to listen to him mentally and physically. The doctors patients see it as life or
death regarding their health. If they dont listen to what the doctor says, then that might be the
end of their life. Men, on the other hand, would rule the public domain through work, politics,
and economics (Perkins, 1986). Also, if one can notice that unlike the woman of the story the
man is entitled with a name. Thus making him seem as a person of higher importance since he
can be identified with a name. At the end of the story the author describes the woman tearing
the down the wallpaper as a sign of change. A quote provided from the author explains the
transformation By the middle of the century, this way of thinking began to change as the seeds
of early women's rights were planted. By the end of the 1800s, feminists were gaining
momentum in favor of change. The concept of "The New Woman," for example, began to
circulate in the 1890s1910s as women pushed for broader roles outside their home-roles that
could draw on women's intelligence and non-domestic skills and talents (Perkins, 1986).

The Yellow Wallpaper symbolizes the woman being trapped. It acts as barrier just as it
was for women back during the 1940s. Women struggled to get their foot in the door in politics
or any field because of the man's power. The problem women faced was how they thought
mentally. She thought there was a wallpaper there but it reality there wasn't. Women allowed
men to get in their head mentally. They allowed themselves to believe they could not do certain
things because they were women.
This is why the author chose to write this story. To create awareness for an opportunity
to change what was going on between men and women. The author wants the reader to look at
the bigger picture and focus on the problem women were having during the 1940s and 1950s
in order to get women to change their way of thinking, thus changing society..

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman "The Yellow Wallpaper""

Gilman, "Yellow Wallpaper" The Norton Introduction to Literature, 2013. Web. 01
Mar. 2016.