Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, published in 1892, played a major role in disrupting and changing gender roles and society’s norms regarding female identity in 19th century. During her time, expression through literature among women was rarely heard of but completely out of the picture, especially through an obviously feminist lens. Gilman’s primary purpose in writing through a narrator confined by the power of her husband John, as she fights against the regulatory doctoral practices during her time that would seem taboo to many in this day and age to bring attention to the cruel treatment that women had to go through during the time when men dominated most aspects of daily life. The way john treats her wife as she tries to cope with her mental illness is a metaphor that Gilman tries to connect to the way women feel in an oppressed society. Though this powerful short story was not recognized until the late 20th century, it has influenced many female writers to use literary expression to bring to life the problems women face today and has proven to be an issue in this Gilman’s story.

Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper, it is clear to the reader that Gilman attempts to defy the typical ways in which a woman going through a mental breakdown should and would have been dealt with according to historically accurate ways of “curing” such cases. The more she is told to hold back her emotions and opinions on the matter, the more the reader can see she is seemingly stronger in her mental state, when in realty Gilman attempts to beat the system by giving her the power to write forcibly “sly about it

Or else met with heavy opposition” from others (Gilman, 300). Catherine Goldman writes in her essay titled “Overwriting the Rest Cure: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Literary Escape from S. Weir Mitchell’s Fictionalization of Women” that:

… The narrator, though mad, defies the doctor’s prescription for healthy eating, moderate exercise, and extended rest and chooses literal madness over johns cure for sanity. In defying her physicians attempt to suppress her she writes herself into a position of power: she defiantly creeps over john but remains trapped within the home from which Gilman freed herself to stay “sane”. (Golden)

Here, the reader can see the connection between Gilman herself, and the narrator going through such a mentally debilitating time. This brings justice to my thesis through expressions of struggle women faced and how they impact their lives. The connection presented here is meant to prove that by writing her short-story during the time of the oppressive society that existed in her own time, publishing the work, and focusing on a mainly feminist approach, a metaphor exists between her and the narrator. Power becomes an important theme in her story because she was exhibiting it in her own life and also gave her metaphorical representation of herself the power to write in her journal when John and Jennie prohibited her from doing so. Both are acts that defy all previously emphasized beliefs about women capabilities, professions, and roles in society. However, other feminist works that wish to bring to attention the harsh treatment of women and unfairness of marital and social statuses didn’t give women the power to overcome their suppressors at all. 

Marge Piercy’s poem entitled “Barbie Doll,” published in 1971 during the middle of the second wave of feminism, is another example of literature’s ability to influence society’s opinion about aspects that many do not agree with (Sigit). Piercy’s text relates to the theme of Gilman’s by expression the same despair and struggle that a women has to face and deal with. In her poem, Piercy chooses to use a central female narrator like Gilman, but the actual content and literal action in the poem differs dramatically from The Yellow Wallpaper. Instead of a change in power for a woman over a man, the “girlchild” in the story shows what can happen to women under such conditions if they don’t have the will to overcome the expectations. The title “Barbie Doll” is significant in expressing these possibilities because the doll she receives in the first few lines of the poem is the perfect representation of what women are expected to look like: blonde hair, doused in makeup, and “dressed in a pink and white nightie” (Piercy 348). However, Piercy describes how the narrator, though she is “healthy, tested intelligent” with an “abundant sex drive and manual dexterity”, a classmate’s rude comment about her physical appearance is enough for her to “cut off her nose and her legs” (Piercy 348-50). The pressures put on her, and many women in the 20th century, were enough to cause her “good nature” to degrade “like a fan belt”, ultimately leading to her death. A sorrowful ending to a depressing story is exactly what Piercy intended to create, and the theme about women’s rights and societies norms that Gilman highlighted a century before will leave a clear impact on the mind of the reader.
