Practice Analysis
Question: Practice Analysis: using textual evidence (at least 3 quotes)
explain the significance of the theme of writing in Gilman’s short story,
250 words minimum
Story: The yellow Wallpaper
Theme: Patriarchy (Male Dominance) and Fixed Gender roles
The yellow wallpaper talks about the narrator’s descent into madness
and delusion while being edged on unknowingly by her husband who as
a physician believes that he knows what is best for her and not taking
into account her opinions.
Men are widely considered to be the more presiding between the
genders while women are considered inferior as evident on page 2
when the narrator said “ I even said so to John one moonlight evening,
but he said what I felt was a draught, and shut the window”. The
narrator told her husband about the strangeness of the house but
instead of her husband to try to understand what she was saying, he
shut the window thinking that was best for her.
Also on page 3 when she complained about the room with the
wallpaper and wanted one downstairs “I don't like our room a bit. I
wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all
over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But
John would not hear of it. He said there was only one window and not
room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another” her
husband disagreed with her, perhaps if he had agreed with her and
taken the room she wanted downstairs, she wouldn’t have gone
berserk or gotten delusional.
The narrator husband, john believes he is meant to be the intelligent
partner and when the narrator tries to suggest anything, he waves her
off and calls her children names as evident on page 3 when she said
“Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose”
Gilman believes that men should not be able to impose their will on
their wives the way john always imposed his will on his wife to the
extent that she became delusional.