
In the late 19th century, being a male was a privilege that nobody today can relate to. In the present, we have nearly solved gender equality, but with the strides we have made from the 19th century are incredible. We would not have gotten this far without brave authors such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates the dangers of the oppression of women by men in the late 19th century. The Yellow Wallpaper shows the relationship of John and the narrator as an example of the typical upper middle class married couple. These two have a child together, and the narrator, who is John’s wife, is slightly depressed and told to rest, without working, seeing the child, talking to friends, or being able to write. Though the entire short story is a journal of her writing, we can see in the writing that she is sneaking her journal and not telling her husband about it. John, the husband, is ignorant, brash, and uncaring for his wife’s well-being. These characteristics are Gilman’s portrayal of males in the 19th century. The entire reasoning for the narrator’s demise is because John would not let her speak her mind. She would be able to if the culture was different, but people are used to this oppression of women. Gilman created this short story to impact a change in the culture that is unjust. 

Though John is a physician, the practice of bed rest is dangerous and unhelpful. If you are sick you might feel like lying in bed all day, but ignorance of medicine can be dangerous. If a man tells his wife to take a bed rest, the wife will do so. Yellow Wallpaper shows the danger of someone’s word not being heard. For example, the narrator tells John that she does not like the idea of a bed rest, but she is pressured by societies male dominance to listen to men like John and her brother, whom she must blindly take their word. The narrator shows her concern on the situation by saying, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (Gilman) When she says, “But what is one to do,” she knows as a woman she has no say over her condition because this century’s mentality is that a man knows best. A woman’s opinion is not taken with anything but a grain of salt. In this time period, women would be expected to believe the same things as their husband. For example, “They did not vote independently; instead, their voting preferences tended to mirror those of the men in their families” (Gov). Once married, their voices are overshadowed by their husband. Yellow Wallpaper shows this when she talks about how she does not want the bed rest. 

Marriage in 19th century was a completely different relationship than marriage we know now. Though women had the independence to choose who to marry, all their belongings go to the husband. According to the Married Women's Property Laws, passed April 7, 1848, “The real and personal property of any female who may hereafter marry, and which she shall own at the time of marriage, and the rents issues and profits thereof shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts, and shall continue her sole and separate property, as if she were a single female” (Memory). Also, the husband is the one who dictates what the female is to do. This is demonstrated by John refusing any ideas of the narrator to work or meet friends. John makes her sit in the room all alone and she has no say about it.

Gilman saw the wronging of a woman’s position in life, and decided to write against it. She saw that women were not being told to work or have the same options for life as a man. They would be expected to stay home and tend to the house for the husband. For example, “Women were usually expected to live their lives largely homebound, taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. Free time for women was not supposed to be spent socializing but doing other things related to the maintenance of the family, from sewing socks to laundry” (Sailius). Women were not treated equally to men, they were treated as if they were meant only to live for men, instead of with them. Though the narrator of Yellow Wallpaper is locked in a room alone with the purpose of being healed. John’s sister comes home to take care of the child and the house. John is just the typical male, he works for his family and comes home and the wife works for him. Though it seems harmless, this leaves the woman dependent on the man. This is can lead to the pressure on the women to work for the man and do whatever they say because they are solely dependent on them. Since they are so dependent, “A true woman was virtuous. Her four chief characteristics were piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. She was the great civilizer who created order in the home in return for her husband's protection, financial security and social status” (ushistory). In Gilman’s Yellow Wallpaper, she exposes this injustice when the narrator is locked in the room. She slowly turns against her husband for not listening to her, and keeping her in the room. 

In the Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator would be fine with staying in her room if it was not for her wallpaper. She starts by hating it’s pattern, but then she sees more than just a wallpaper. She has been in this room for weeks, and her mind starts to turn on her. It is ironic because she is locked in the room for her own mental health, but she took her husband’s word and stayed in the room. She soon starts seeing a figure behind the wallpaper. She thinks it is a woman who is trapped by the wallpaper’s pattern. She stays in that room for so long that she winds up tearing the wallpaper to free the woman. In my opinion, the woman behind the wallpaper is a symbol for women in the 19th century and the wallpaper is the oppression of men at that time period. She continuously gets frustrated, and the more she gets frustrated the more she focuses on the wallpaper. Which is directly connected to her frustration with John, because the frustration is in the relationship they have.

This story is a story of purpose. Yellow Wallpaper was not only about a relationship that ended in peril, but it was a commentary on social injustice that was taking part in the 19th century. This story helped shape America and even the rest of the world. Gilman was one of the few to protest during this time period. She took action and decided to share it with the world to help women. Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that was meant to affect the time period, though the time period affected the writing in a lot of ways.
