‘Women must creep’ (Elaine R. Hedges) illustrates the thought that women shouldn’t be heard, but do only what they’re required to do, reinforcing how women were demeaned. The lack of power women had was not only present within their marriage, but also in society as males were perceived as the more significant gender, so women were patronised and dismissed by patriarchal control. Patriarchal control is represented clearly by John, the protagonist’s husband, which increases complexity within the novel as the isolation and ‘The resting cure’ he enforces upon her, causes her mental state to degenerate further, despite John believing it is helping his wife. There are a number of methods used to increase the characters complexity in The Yellow Wallpaper. For example, the use of epistolary displays a 1st person narrative and is in the present tense, “I never used to be so sensitive.” This is present when the protagonist writes to herself, Gilman uses this technique in order to show the
In the poem “Medusa” gender conflict through control is also illustrated when she says: “a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy”. This depicts that she feels ownership over her husband and wants him to “be terrified” if he does not obey her commands. However, in “Les Grands Seigneurs” the narrator conveys that after she was “wedded, bedded … a toy, a plaything … wife” she is nostalgic for the first three stanzas to how men were towards her before she was married as she is now powerless. We can depict that there was less gender conflict before she was married. Moreover, in “Medusa” powerlessness is also portrayed when she rhetorically questions herself “Wasn’t I beautiful?
This mental illness would be diagnosed based upon her hostility, her criticism, her self-important image and her lack of empathy towards Jane. In fact, Aunt Reed was a candidate for mental insanity just by being herself. Studies by the American Psychological Association show that internal mindsets of an individual, such as hereditary disposition, has an influence on the development of insanity. Aunt Reed was born into a high class family, and when her brother married ‘beneath himself’, it disabled her to love Jane. Even in today’s society, children are judged based on the amount of money and the social status of their parents.
As the story transpires, Jane's unknown figure becomes all that is known to her; however, because of what is expected of her as a woman it is difficult for her to acknowledge her own self as she is afraid of her own monstrosity. Her repression is what initiates her transgression of becoming this unknown figure, and through excessive behaviour and desire she is able to recognize her situation as everything she is initially told is meant to keep her in the dark. Living in the nineteenth century, Jane has an extensive amount of pressure to be the perfect housewife and comply to her domestic expectations. Women have little rights and respect, and they must pursue their roles as women and tend to their husband and children's needs without complaint. Jane is very aware of these pressures placed upon her, as she is constantly describing how she must make John happy, and get well for John and the baby.
In Lepines’ letter, he sites how feminists had ruined his life and they were the reason he committed this crime. Feminist theory on crime explains this thought clearly. Lepines’ ideas about the roles of women were formed by a patriarchal society leading him to believe in some that women were not equal to men and should not be given all the opportunities of men (Knuttila, 305). These women wanted to be educated and become engineers; Lepine could not cope with this fact and blamed women, namely feminist for his short comings in life. Did Lepine come up with these ideas himself or was he a product of a society that dictated classical roles and oppression of women?
She is introduced as a temptress or “looker” but later reveals a deeper character in the novel. Curley’s wife is powerless due to her gender. In the book, women are portrayed as troublemakers and Curley’s wife is defiantly included in this portrayal. She is described as a “tart”, “bitch”, and a “tramp”. The workers speak of her, basically, as Curley’s problem that needs to stay at home away from the other workers.
It first influences Osan by her telling Jihei “you’re acting outrageously, Jihei. You shouldn’t have signed that oath if you felt so reluctant to leave her”. We notice Jihei just signed the oath because he felt forced now in this quote we see how Osan is putting up with Jihei somewhat having feelings for another women this shows us how society view of a married women influences Osan so much to a point where she accepts what her husband is doing and in doing so she save her marriage. Osan also says to Jihei “I felt so unhappy that I wrote a letter, begging her as a woman to another to break with you, though I knew how painful it would be”. It is clear that Osan knew about everything and in doing so, she writes a letter to Koharu and keeps it a secret.
I’ll start off with General Strain theory, it states that strain can be caused by failure to achieve positively valued stimuli, the loss of positively valued stimuli, and presentation of negative stimuli. In Compelled to Crime, the African American battered women were overwhelmed with strain, in response they acted out by committing an array of different crimes. The reasoning behind this could be because of their low levels of social support. The African American battered women did not have a lot of support; they were most of the time cut off from their families and friends. Another example of how strain applies to these women can be seen in Agnew’s writings when he said “Data suggest that child abuse and neglect negative school experiences, chronic unemployment, and residence in deprived communities are important causes sate anger and that such anger explains much of the effective of strains on crime.” (Agnew, Chp.
Gilman provides the point of views of these women who know nothing of marriage to allow us to see our own society’s faults in the way we think things should be. By denying the men’s proposition of name change, the women point out the idiocy of the concept we accept to be the norm in our society. This problem of possession and power shows up in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” as well. The husband in that piece has possession of his wife by controlling her every move. The men in “The Yellow Wallpaper” make the decisions and control their households.
This aggravates him and he accuses her of having no faith in him. He says “Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?” (Hawthorne pg. 298) Georgiana retorts saying “"it is not you that have a right to complain. You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the anxiety with which you watch the development of this experiment.