Yellow Wallpaper American Culture at the Turn of the Century Essay

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Yellow Wallpaper," American culture at the turn of the century,

Consider "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a feminist text. What does the work say about women and American culture at the turn of the century? How does the wife defeat the patriarchal culture represented in the attitude of her husband?

At the beginning of Charlotte Perkin Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," a new mother, evidently suffering from postnatal depression, is placed on an enforced 'rest cure' in which she is supposed to have no stimulation of any kind. During the 19th century, intellectual activity was thought to be dangerous for women, particularly in regards to their reproductive capacities. The woman is driven mad by her 'cure' and her lack of an outlet for her creative energies.

The 19th century created an ideal image of middle-class femininity, often called the 'Angel in the House.' This was an image of a woman who was pure, good, and completely contented with taking care of her family as a means of self-fulfillment. As a new mother, the unnamed narrator is clearly expected to fulfill this ideal.

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At the beginning of the story, she has evidently just had her child. The woman seldom mentions the child in the story, indicating a detached and ambivalent view of her new role that she cannot fully express. "It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous." Rather than viewing her depression as rooted in her mixed feelings about motherhood or even a biochemical reaction to childbirth, her husband (a physician) attributes it to her mental activity outside the realm of the maternal.

Gilman deliberately makes the powerful male figures in "The Yellow Wallpaper" physicians, to indicate the powerlessness women had over determining how their bodies and minds were viewed. "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do? My brother is….....

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