The Yellow Wallpaper Patriarchy

Looking back through human history, people are often shown to discriminate and oppress others. Whether it is due to race, like slavery in the united states, due to class, like the discrimination in italy between the north and south or religion like during the holocaust, people often hurt others due to miniscule, unimportant differences. Due to the long history of oppression being intertwined with human history, a theme of oppression can be clearly seen in media and famous stories. However, in both media and the real world, oppression is followed more often than not by rebellion. Slaves were freed from plantations, people like Diego Maradona used sports as a means to challenge the class divide in Italy, and armies came to liberate concentration …show more content…
Oppression can also be found in relationships. The Yellow Wallpaper shows the oppressive nature of patriarchy. The story of The Yellow Wallpaper is told from the perspective of journal entries from the nameless narrator. In the story, her husband does not allow her to do anything due to her illness. However, the limitations he puts on her slowly causes her mental state to deteriorate. A big part of her oppression is shown by the sudden endings of some of the journal entries. This is first seen on page 649 when she writes “There comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word.” (Stetson, 649)During the short story, before she goes insane, we see how she begins to associate the wallpaper with being safe and away from her husband. She says that she is not flourishing with the wallpaper but flourishing because of the wallpaper, symbolizing her flourishing without the oppression of the patriarchy. However, out of all of these stories, Nineteen eighty-four shows the worst oppression. In this book, readers can see the oppression caused by the totalitarian government of …show more content…
Hamlet’s play and him finally killing Claudius. In the play, Hamlet actors reenact the scene of the murder of the former king. This is shown as a subtle act of rebellion before his plan to kill Claudius. In act five scene 2, Hamlet finally kills his uncle saying “Then venom, to thy work.” and “Here thou incestuous murd’rous damned Dane, drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother.” (Shakespeare, V, 2, 323-329) By killing the king Hamlet avenges his father and others who were oppressed by their fear to disappoint the monarch. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the nameless main character begins to believe that she came from the wallpaper and she rips apart the wallpaper in order to prevent her from going back. At the end of the story she says “ ‘I've got out at last,‘ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!’ ” (Stetson, 656)In this quote we see her fall into madness. In most cases, falling into madness would be considered tragic, however in her case, by embracing madness she breaks free of her husband's oppression. This is further symbolized by her tearing up the room that her husband put her in. Finally, Winston spends the majority of the Nineteen

Show More

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

ENGL123 Essay 0 1