Monica Norris LIT2020 Jacob Kelly Coincidence or Comparison? ! Seeing and obsessing over the idea that there is a woman trapped behind ugly wallpaper is not a habit that many people would consider “normal.” Perhaps there is more behind the short story The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman .While it may seem that narrator is just a fictional, and mentally ill character, many details included in the story can be connected to the authors experiences in her real life such as the narrators mental illness, the treatments she received, and her relationships. The connection between Gilman and her character can also perhaps assist to explain why she lends herself to a feminist style of writing. !
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.
John refuses to listen to her feelings on the issues, instead of talking to find the problem. He isolates her and locks her away to think about her own thoughts. The wallpaper in her room becomes a symbol for her and she begins to see figures behind the pattern and tries to escape within herself. She compares her husband to the patterns and wishes "that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one." She starts to see women behind the pattern itself and starts to see that "in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard."
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER In Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow wallpaper” the narrator undergoes a nervous breakdown and was kept in a room with the intention of curing her sickness. It was quite obvious that the narrator needed people around her. She needed to go outside to see how much love is in the world but instead her husband, and therapist insisted that the only way to cure her from the sickness was to keep her away from the world, in an empty room pasted with horrible looking yellow wallpaper. Julian Fleenor argues that the method of treatment in which the narrator undergoes is not intended to cure her but to punish her. Overall, the narrator was a victim of cultural construction that, from a 21st century perspective appears to be punishment more so than therapy.
Considering all of these factors women were treated like objects during the 1930s. Racism was also present in the society of the 1930s and Blacks were still seen as inferior by white people Blacks were segregated in schools, stores, transport and were unable to vote. Blacks were also given the jobs such as servants and stable bucks and not given a decent amount of pay and the credit they deserved. Ageism was also present in the 1930 s society. Of mice and men explores the social issues going on at this time such as discrimination against woman and blacks.
John’s biggest downfall in this story is the fact that he is stuck with the unfortunate task of being not only his wife’s lover, but also her doctor. Instead of being a concerned husband and being there for his wife mentally, he took a more clinical attitude to the situation and there for our narrator was left to her own devises. Also John only knows the “pattern” of his wife and does not see the trapped woman with in. John truly care for his wife and is trying everything in his power to help and cure her. Unfortunately the only way he knows how to help her it by treating her as a medical patient or as an object and not as a person who needed love, not just care.
It is literally a prison that holds back the women behind the wallpaper as they try to escape and it is figuratively the jail that holds the narrator prisoner. The narrator's feels a sense of being watched by the wallpaper which accentuates the idea of a prison. It emphasizes the theme of how confinement and forced submission for women into the domestic life can drive any person insane. The wallpaper is a condensed version of all of society. It wallpaper traps the narrator as she comes to identify with, and later become, the woman in the wallpaper.
A villainous character is usually thought to be evil and immoral. In Alice Grace by Margaret Atwood, Grace Marks is a woman who is accused of two brutal murders. She is now serving a life sentence when we are introduced to her. Instantly, many assumptions are made about Grace Marks. However, Margaret uses different literary techniques that leave the reader questioning what exactly happened.
Despite the void of sensationalistic media coverage reporting domestic violence in this country, it is a present and growing problem. The prevalence of physical and sexual abuse females endure, it is evident that many women in correctional facilities are there because of an attempt to end their histories of violation and repression. While crimes against their abusers accounts for a major reason many women are in prison, the ongoing war on drugs policy is one of the central contributing factor to the mass incarceration of women in America today. Too, add to this I feel the most devastating effect is the subsequent denial of federal benefits that people convicted of felony charges are subjected to once release from prison. Because
Eliza had to go into hiding, and died alone rather than be subjected to the heinous treatment of the supporters of societal rules for woman. Women were suppressed and unable to express any true feelings of passion that they