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Essence Pearl
Dr. Youssef
ENG 101H-33
Essay #3
Word Count: (1341)
Gender and Power
Gender has a major role in our society. Writing helps people, especially women, to voice
their opinions. Throughout the world, women have always been treated differently compared to
men and have had absolutely no rights. Even today there are some cultures that still do not give
any power to women. This lack of power affects women in a lot of different ways. Women tend
to use their writing to get their voices heard. For example, in the short stories, titled “Only
Daughter” written by Sandra Cisneros and “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, two women write about what is happening in their lives and their feelings about these
events.
The main themes of these two short stories are loneliness and independency. Diction
plays a huge role in both of these short stories to convey these themes. The women in both
stories use very specific word choices to describe their feelings. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the
woman talks about how she has a problem but her so called husband who she proclaims loves
her and is so good to her, won’t even admit that she has a problem. She states, “You see, he does
not believe I am sick!” (Gilman 77). The women thinks that she has a serious problem with
depression, however her husband, who is a physician of high standing, tells friends, relatives and
his wife that there is nothing wrong. He just tells them that it is temporary nervous depression
and that she just needs to rest, and she’ll be fine.
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“There comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word.”
(Gilman 78). The husband restricts her from doing anything including writing. Since the wife
isn’t allowed to write, she sits at home all day with nothing to do but stare at the ugly yellow
wallpaper on the wall. When writing she uses specific words to describe the wallpaper and why
she hates it so much. In a way, it is like she is describing everything that is wrong with her life
through the wallpaper. She states, “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and
infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.” (Gilman 85) inferring that it has many problems
that she does not mind but the pattern which is just torture for her to look at. She describes her
life through this example but telling that she has problems and she knows it but the fact that she
is locked up in that house all day is torture for her. Her husband is always gone at work so she’s
home alone a lot of the time. During this time, she writes about how she feels. This woman has
no say in anything she does and is somewhat treated like a child by her husband. She has no
power.
When describing the wallpaper, the women uses very descriptive imagery and
foreshadows what is going to happen at the end. She says, “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in
following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the
lame uncertain curves for a little distance, they suddenly commit suicide ...” (Gilman 79)
foreshadowing that she is going to commit suicide. She also says “I am getting angry enough to
do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars
are too strong to even try. ... I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?” (Gilman
91). This tells that she is getting ready to end it all and connects the feelings about the wallpaper
to her life. Everything she described about the wallpaper was a metaphor for her feelings about
the way she is living and about how she’s sick with depression and wants to be freed from it. She
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is going crazy being in that big empty house staring at the hideous wallpaper. She wants to end
all of her suffering so that she can be free and happy rather than being trapped and alone in that
house. To end her suffering, she then begins to rip off the wallpaper. “Then I peeled off all the
paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly, and the pattern just enjoys it!”
(Gilman 91).
In “Only Daughter” Sandra Cisneros tells about how she is the only daughter in a mix of
seven children. Since she was the only girl and she was forced to spend a lot of time by herself.
This was because her brothers would never play with her because they felt it was beneath them
to play with a girl. This loneliness allowed her to become the writer she is today. The author
says, “But that aloneness, that loneliness, was good for a would-be writer - it allowed me time to
think and think, to imagine, to read and prepare myself” (Cisneros 112). Even though she was
lonely throughout her childhood she made use of it, she prepared herself to become a writer.
Everything the lady in “Only Daughter” wrote about was to her father. She wrote about
things she thought would please him and make him proud of her. She states, “I wanted my father
to understand what it was I was scribbling, to introduce me as “My only daughter, the writer.”
Not “This is only my daughter. She teaches.” Es maestra-teacher. Not even Profesora.” (Cisneros
112) because she wanted him to accept her. She wanted to go to college because she thought this
would make her father proud of her. Her Father liked the idea, but it wasn’t for the same reasons
as his daughter. His reasons for her going to college is a that for her to go to college to find a
husband. She states, “What I didn’t realize was that my father thought the idea was good for girls
- good for finding a husband.” (Cisneros 112). She wanted her father to think of her as more and
be proud with her when introducing her to people.
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In both stories, both women spent a lot of time alone but for different reasons. They also
both handled being alone differently. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the women were alone because
she was depressed and in “Only Daughter” she was alone because her brothers would not play
with her. Both the women used their writing to describe their feelings and voice their opinions
when they did not have the power to actually talk about their feelings and opinions. By being
alone the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was tired of being depressed and eventually
committed suicide. The woman in “Only Daughter” took that time to prepare herself to become a
writer and set herself up for success.
Both short stories were written in two different time periods. “The Yellow Wallpaper”
was written between 1860-1935 and “Only Daughter” was written between 1954-1990. The time
these two stories were written affects them because in “Only Daughter” Sandra Cisneros had
more power than the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Sandra Cisneros was able to go to
college and improve her writing so much that it would be published. The woman in “The Yellow
Wallpaper” didn’t have the ability to go to college and publish her writings. She didn’t have an
opportunity to do anything because of her husband whereas Sandra Cisneros had more freedom
to write and do what she wanted to do. She didn’t have to hide her writing from anyone.
These short stories both show how women didn’t have the power to voice their opinion.
They were both unvalued by the men in their lives and because they are women, they had no
respect. To tell their stories and get their voices heard, they had to write about it. Writing helped
these women to voice their opinions when no one else would listen to them. Both short stories
show how because of their gender, because they are women, the men in their lives did not
respect them, showing the issue of gender and power.
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Work Cited
Cisneros, Sandra. “Only Daughter.” Patterns for College Writing, edited by Laurie G.
Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, 12th ed., Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012, pp.111-14.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 40 Short Stories: A Portable
Anthology, edited by Beverly Lawn, 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009, pp.77-92.