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Homework answers / question archive / What are some of the problems with reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a feminist text? For instance, does the narrator speak for all women? Could the men in the story also be understood as repressed individuals?
What are some of the problems with reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a feminist text? For instance, does the narrator speak for all women? Could the men in the story also be understood as repressed individuals?
What are some of the problems with reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a feminist text? For instance, does the narrator speak for all women? Could the men in the story also be understood as repressed individuals?
My Response:
The Yellow Wallpaper," written by Cltarlotte Perkins Stetson, was a full-length story; the feminist text would be unable to create the same emotional connection with the reader that it does. Because the story is presented in a tight story format, the plot must develop, reach a climax, and come to a conclusion as quickly as possible so that the reader can understand the entire story. A full-length novel has the potential to become overly preoccupied with the past. That would be a problem in this story because it accounts for a person's difficulties. Because it can briefly share these problematic emotions, I believe it is presented as a short story. Stories must capture the reader's attention quickly, and many people dismiss this as a problem. As a precaution, the short form prevents the issue from being addressed. Mental illness has been and continues to be a severe problem, primarily because society does not know how to deal with it efficiently.
I can tell right away that the narrator is a creative and highly expressive woman from the beginning of the story. She brings scaring herself as a child with imaginary nighttime monsters, and she takes pleasure in the conception that the house they have taken over is haunted. Nonetheless, as part of her "cure," her husband forbids her from using her imagination in any way whatsoever. As a result of this treatment, both her reason and emotions revolt; she directs her imagination toward seemingly innocuous objects: House and the wallpaper attempt to divert her attention from her growing dissatisfaction. As a result of her negative emotions, her description of her surroundings becomes unsettling and sinister, and she becomes fixated on the wallpaper.
The men in the story also are understood as repressed individuals because The story establishes a sense of progressively rising distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which indicates that gender roles were strictly defined at the time; however. After all, the story is only one representation of the period; examining other sources is necessary, which is better aware of the nature of American attitudes in the eighteenth century. While the story does not depict the husband and wife as being on an equal footing, it shows the wife as subordinate.