
Women have gone through a rough time period when they were under the oppression of men and confined by their families and the society norms. There are abundant articles about women’s sufferings in the history, while in this essay we specifically focus on the time period of the 1800s. It witnessed several huge resolutions in the society, during which people were exposed to a lot of technique innovations, as well as some fresh thoughts. The human rights and freedom was furthered; in the contrary, most of women lived under the control of men without equality and freedom, and they faced unimaginable difficulties during the process of seeking to equal rights as men. The Yellow Wallpaper, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Bidungs Romance, the autobiographies written by Puah Rakowski and Anna Vygodskaia, work together to show that women were repressed mentally, restricted in home, suffering the domestic violence, and limited educationally.

In the 1800s, women’s desire was always ignored and given way to men’s need. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author talks about a woman who is struggling with mental illness.  She is at the edge of going mad, yet her husband still doesn’t understand her, as well as other relatives and friends. At the beginning of the tale, the woman puts forward a query for three times: “what can one do”; “what is one to do”; “what is one to do” (Gilman 299-300). It repetitiveness reveals the woman’s anxiety and depression, as she knows she is ill, but she is trapped in a predicament, without anybody believing her and comforting her genuinely, even her husband, who is a physician of high standing. As she could not tell others, she has to suffer the torture and the loneliness. It is a vivid description of women in the 1800s that they are oppressed mentally, and want to be understood, but they really struggle during the process. Furthermore, her husband John holds a negative attitude towards her condition, as he does not face directly but tries to hide the truth and deceive himself, as well as others, that his wife is of temporary nervous depression (300). In the story, “[the woman] take pains to control myself—before him”, “but John would not hear of it”, and “here I am a comparative burden already” (301). These words all indicate that the husband always stand on his own perspective—what he does is for his sake, instead of caring his wife from the bottom of heart. It lays a heavy pressure on the woman and she is increasingly tired of pretending to get well, for the purpose of satisfying her husband.

Women in the 1800s were not only oppressed mentally, but also restrained in the family, lack of getting into touch with the outside. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator cannot do anything but to have a rest on bed. She deeply loves writing, but her husband John never approves of it, since it is out of convention, which he could never stand. Therefore, she has to write secretly. “There comes John, and I must put this away—he hates to have me write a word (301).” Not only his husband, but also other family members prevent her from writing. “There comes John’s sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing (303).” It implies that in the 1800s, men post restrictions on women, and more importantly, for several traditional women, they confined themselves into stereotype that they could only stay at home as housewives. In addition, the author describes the color of the wallpaper in details, saying that “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight (301).” It reflects her mental activity at that time, as repressive and negative as that “repellent”, “smouldering” yellow. She does not want to stay inside to face such an ugly paper everyday; however, her desire was refused again. The character’s experience represents a typical characteristic of the society that men had absolute control over women at that time.

Furthermore, women were under the domestic violence and the society at that time sacrificed these women blindly. In the essay “Woman Litigation Literature: The Exoneration of Mayella Ewell In To Kill A Mocking Bird”, Julia L. Ernst makes a brief analysis about the suffering of Mayella. “Mayella’s ordeal…particularly from her perspective as a victim of domestic violence and sexual abuse by her father and willingness of the legal system and society as a whole to turn a blind eye to her situation (1020).” The story To Kill A Mockingbird in part reveals discrimination against women at that time from the experience of Mayella. She has been under the domination of her father and frequently subjected to his sexual assaults, neglect, and other forms of abuse (1029). The suffering of figure represents a common condition of women at that time: they had no freedom, no human rights, but were abducted by society codes and “morality of women”. It was commonly accepted that “women were considered to ‘belong to their fathers and to have little agency of their own (1026).” Even though Mayella was not absolutely innocent for her false accusation of Tom Robinson, she definitely faced a serious consequence as Tom. She was force to endure the critiques from the society—“the discrimination against women based upon societal and legal reinforcement of gender stereotypes (1024).” It is undeniable that women in that time period were not treated fairly and limited by social norms, and their condition did not receive attention of the public. Instead, people exert mountainous pressure on them, on their wives and daughters. Women needed support and attention, but only received violence from the outside. During that time, women’s voice was quelled and vanishing to silence.

In the 1800s, women were limited in education. From Eliyana R. Adler’s “Bidungs Romance”, we could obtain more information about the difficulties of women who wanted to get higher education in the 1800s. The essay concludes two autobiographies written by Puah Rakowski and Anna Vygodskaia respectively. The two female authors desired to gain higher education, but their families and the community did not allow them to do initially; through a harsh struggle, they eventually achieved their goals of being educators with their passion and insistence. As stated in the essay, Rakowski recalls in her memoir that she cannot leave her husband without a profession to support herself and her children (422). In addition to the opposition from her husband, Rakowski encounters setbacks from her parents, as they refuse to look after her children during her absence (422). During that period, Rakowski’s behavior was out of the convention, receiving mountainous opposition. Nonetheless, she never gave in and eventually achieved her dream through a rough battle against opposing voice from her family and the community. The words by Rakowski reveal some opinions at the bottom of hearts of women at that time, “Why I studied so diligently was obvious: My whole life now depended on my examination, my self-liberation from the shackles that fettered me. My own future and the future of my children depended on it (422).” It is common that women used to be under the pressure of men for a long period, for which some of them seek to change such situation to strive for equal rights of education and opportunities on other social issues. In Vygodskaia’s chronicle, she talks about an experience that she left home without her father’s permission, and attended the midwifery courses (423). As a result, her parents gave in, fearing their daughter to be a midwife, and Vygodskaia successfully got access to her dream university St. Petersuburg (423). In the 1800s, Rakowski’s and Vygodskaia’s experiences inspired the community and broke the stereotype. From the current perspective, we may not feel their torture firsthand, but we could clearly know the difficulties that females were faced in the battle for their rights and the oppression of the society exert over the women at that time from their autobiographies. This essay set a vivid background about the women’s suffering in the 1800s, which complements the analysis of “The Yellow Paper”.

According to what has been discussed above, we could make a clear viewpoint about the women’s social situation in the 1800s and the influence of stereotypes upon their sufferings for a long time period. It cannot be denied that the existence of patriarchy society is of necessity in particular conditions; nevertheless, this is not an acceptable reason for the oppression over the women in the history. Women have gone through a hard struggle to gain the rights that they have as almost equal as men in the today’s world. It is definitely a great progress. However, there are still many setbacks against the freedom and rights of women that we need to deal with in the future.
