Submissive Women Protagonists in Literature

It is quite common for readers to apply their own standards of conduct to their favorite characters and situations from any particular literature. This tendency affects the way a reader perceives the character throughout the course of the story. In turn this could be responsible for swaying the readers’ opinion of a particular situation or a character. Sometimes authors like to use symbolism to enhance their writing and create a biased opinion of one or more characters, so that the reader is captivated. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, for instance, the author set the tone such that, the reader views the narrator as a passive and oppressed woman whose life is primarily dictated by her husband and imprisoned at her own house. If the story was written any differently, and the audience learned of the narrator from John’s (the narrator’s husband) point of view, we would have been more sympathetic towards him. Similarly, the author uses the ‘yellow wallpaper’ to symbolize what a typical woman’s life would look like back in the era which the story was written. Therefore, we know that symbolism can be used by writers in different ways, often times, to bring into focus important but sensitive topics, such as feminism, in a more trivial way.

STORY SUMMARY

In the literature ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, symbolism is used in the actions and words of our narrator. This holds a deeper meaning throughout the narrative. In the story, we are introduced to our narrator and her family through a series of journal entries made by the wife which is the narrator of the story. During the summer, our narrator moves in to a new estate with her husband and child. Without much holdup, the author reveals that our narrator suffers from acute nervous depression and is thus advised to resort to bed rest by her husband until her health reveals signs of improvement. The narrator’s husband is a respectable physician and is quite strict in terms of his practices as they apply to his wife. Not only does he confine her to a room, but also prohibits her from writing. In a dull and dreary life, writing seems to be the narrator’s only form of entertainment. Our narrator is locked up in an isolated room with a big window and supposedly ugly wallpaper of yellow color. The narrator now spends all day sitting in bed and examining this wallpaper. Soon after, the narrator’s health takes a decline as her life becomes more and more repetitive with each passing day. To distract her from the dull state of her life, she resorts to focusing on insignificant thoughts. She keeps writing about how everything about the wallpaper disgusts her so much. With time, she starts to notice a pattern on the wallpaper which is particularly more visible under moonlight. In a couple more weeks, the pattern on the wallpaper, appears to be coming to life for the narrator. She can now see a woman crawling from one pattern to the next. Patterns in the wallpaper transform into cages that bind the woman. The wallpaper starts to become an obsession for the narrator and now she is determined to free the caged woman. One night, she loses her mind and tears the wallpaper into pieces then starts creeping around the room in circles. This shows how the confined room feels like a cage to the narrator. 

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN

Symbolism can be an author’s indirect approach to presenting a more omnipresent truth of reality. Similarly, in our example, Gilman has made an exceptional use of symbolism to better represent the narrator’s miserable situation and how it causes her to lose her sanity. The biggest reference is related to the woman trapped behind the patterns of the wallpaper. Through the narrator’s eyes, the audience sees the woman’s relentless struggle to lead a life of freedom. As readers, we immediately recognize that the narrator is alluding to herself when she begins to talk about the trapped woman. The only definite distinction that is noticeable, is the fact that while the creepy woman is trapped behind the patterns of the yellow wallpaper, our narrator is trapped in her own thoughts and lifestyle. While we are aware that the narrator’s husband is a practical and rationalistic man, our narrator is different in the sense that she is extremely imaginative and sensitive in her ways of thinking. These imaginative ways are part of the reason she ended up suffering from nervous depression. The narrator’s lifestyle also mirrors the house’s physical set up. While the rest of the house is decorated and attractive to look at, the room that she has been restricted to is quite unvaried and depressing which makes it totally incompatible as compared to the rest of the house. Symbolism is interwoven with the story in several different ways. One of these many ways, involves the representation of our narrator and her lifestyle to evoke thoughts on women and their rights in the Victorian period. 

AUTHOR’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Back in the time when the story was written, women did not have the freedom and rights they have today. They also had little or no power over even the simplest decisions that concerned them. They were often thought of as fragile and as thus treated as a burden of the family. They were heavily dependent on their husbands for food, shelter, and almost everything else. Gilman is very clever to paint a character along the lines of how women were looked at in that period. In our story, the narrator is not allowed to make a decision about her well-being and is instead pushed to the edge of sanity where her depression lead her to become mentally unstable. She is also denied the choice to make use of her only creative outlet, writing. Instead she has to keep her use of diary a secret from her overruling and dominating husband. Unlike other docile women from the Victorian period, who assent to social dogma, our narrator is strong enough to not lead a life like that of a submissive woman. Rather, she defies her husband’s wishes by continuing to feed her artistic concerns by writing secretively. (Quawas, 50) Gilman relates to the narrator through their desires and love of journalism.

SYMBOLISM and FEMINISM

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not just a writer but a philosopher, socialist, and feminist. (Quawas, 36) Through her affluent work over years, she has proved to the world over and over again that women are not just meant to stay at home trying to make the “domestic sphere as a cheerful, pure haven” and wait for their husbands to return to them every evening but explore the outside world and partake in things that make them feel free-spirited and independent. (Quawas, 35) Gilman was always a supporter of equality in all fields even in the nineteenth century when it seemed quite far from attainable especially for women. The Yellow Wallpaper is the author’s step towards bringing a change in the patriarchal society. It is an effort to cause a change in the mindset of people about women and to discourage people from indulging in the practices that restrict them from living their life to the fullest. In our example, it is quite evident that our narrator is trying her best to defy all the odds that come in her way to becoming a new woman. A woman “who is in the process if becoming, struggling to assert her individuality and to construct her own identity in a society where the prevailing intellectual and ideological issues of the age are inimical to the very existence of women.” (Quawas, 40) It is almost fascinating to watch how our narrator is able to apprehend her state of confinement and transforms into being a stronger woman who is willing and is able to get the freedom that her heart desires at her own terms. In her own ways, our narrator is a true embodiment of a feminist.

FEMINISM IN REAL WORLD

Needless to say, Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ was inspired by the author’s own personal experiences before and during the Women’s Rights Movement that continued for about 150 years. Our short story was constructed in 1890. It was during this time that the nation witnessed passionate but raging women, fight against the nuisances of the society to curve a corner for themselves in the society. A lot has changed since then. Today not only are women allowed to enjoy their basic rights but are competing with men to win that first spot in the apex of every institution. It is because of the tireless efforts of the women activists back from the era, that freedom and independence are no longer one of the many popular debatable topics of the nation. However, it’ll be inaccurate to say that oppression against women is eradicated completely or equality among genders is restored all around the world since feminism is tied into a lot of different sectors of the community. But it can definitely be said that ongoing efforts are being made to convert the ideology into reality someday.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is still considered an important piece of literature because it is an untraditional short story that emphasizes on the negative impacts of mental illness such as depression from the perspective of a woman. Through her story, the author wanted to educate the readers about several different critical topics. Gilman has made a brilliant use of symbolism throughout her story to hint at the very intense issue of feminism and women rights back in the nineteenth century. The narrator from the story is the spokesperson for all the defeated and subdued women who were trapped in the norms of the society. Her portrayal of women and their lifestyle from the Victorian time period is quite accurate and reflects on some very significant facts from the past. The lesson derived from the story could be used to our advantage in creating a better example for generations to come.

Works Cited

• Bak, John S. “Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “the Yellow Wallpaper”.” Studies in Short Fiction 31.1 (1994): 39. ProQuest. Web. 14 Nov. 2018.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper Summary.” SuperSummary, www.supersummary.com/the-yellow-wallpaper/summary/.
• Quawas, Rula. “A NEW WOMAN’S JOURNEY INTO INSANITY: DESCENT AND RETURN IN THE YELLOW WALLPAPER.” AUMLA : Journal of the Australasian Universities Modern Language Association, no. 105, 2006, pp. 35-53,147-148. ProQuest, https://0-search-proquest-com.library.svsu.edu/docview/194686452?accountid=960.