While today the genders are relatively equivalent, this was not always true. In the story "The Yellow Wall- Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the narrator witnesses the different gender roles while she is in the "summer home" for her "temporary nervous depression". The author uses symbolism throughout the story to show gender roles, as the significant characters represent the typical males and females in the current society of the story.
Making decisions is something everyone does, and consequences, both negative and positive, follow the choice made. During this story the males in the narrators' life makes her decisions for her. First in the story, the women states, "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures …show more content…
I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick," (350)! Jennie does what women are considered to be best at during this time, she sticks with tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of people, and she wants nothing more for herself, as she is pleased with the life she is living. The yellow wall- paper is a major symbol in the story, it represents entrapment and the lack of freedom. The story says, "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. Then in the very ' bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern – it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads, (654). This passage demonstrates the intersection of confinement and gender, the narrator sometimes sees many women imprisoned by the pattern of the yellow wall- paper. Women were meant to be seen and not heard, they were supposed to follow the authority of the men in their lives without question. This is shown in the confinement of the wall women and Jennie's everyday life of house cleaning, as women were cornered in the gender role of …show more content…
The narrator states, "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 think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house," (648). The narrator has internalized her husband’s authority to the point that she practically hears his voice in her head, telling her what to think and when she thinks in a way that her husband does not agree with a sense of guilt fills her. It is also said in the story, "John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell
Making decisions is something everyone does, and consequences, both negative and positive, follow the choice made. During this story the males in the narrators' life makes her decisions for her. First in the story, the women states, "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures …show more content…
I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick," (350)! Jennie does what women are considered to be best at during this time, she sticks with tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of people, and she wants nothing more for herself, as she is pleased with the life she is living. The yellow wall- paper is a major symbol in the story, it represents entrapment and the lack of freedom. The story says, "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. Then in the very ' bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern – it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads, (654). This passage demonstrates the intersection of confinement and gender, the narrator sometimes sees many women imprisoned by the pattern of the yellow wall- paper. Women were meant to be seen and not heard, they were supposed to follow the authority of the men in their lives without question. This is shown in the confinement of the wall women and Jennie's everyday life of house cleaning, as women were cornered in the gender role of …show more content…
The narrator states, "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 think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house," (648). The narrator has internalized her husband’s authority to the point that she practically hears his voice in her head, telling her what to think and when she thinks in a way that her husband does not agree with a sense of guilt fills her. It is also said in the story, "John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell