Figures in literature Essay

As figures in literature, the women portrayed in these stories atomic number 18 all worshipped of they be victims they are rarely just allowed to be themselves. Women of the ordinal century were generally regarded as being inferior to men and were inured with little respect. At the get goingning of the century, women enjoyed few of the legal, societal or g overnmental rights that are now taken for granted in western countries.This reckont that they could non vote, could non sue or be sued, could not testify in court, were rarely granted legal custody of their children in cases of divorce, were barred from institutions of high education and had passing limited control over personal attribute after marriage. Women were expected to remain subservient to their fathers and husbands. Their occupational choices were also extremely limited. Middle and upper class women generally remained at home, caring for their children and ladder the hearthstonehold while lower-class women often were domestic servants or labourers. whiley an(prenominal) women had to fight the battle of conforming to societys views against their own exemption and indep polish offence, an idea which The Yellow Wall publisher, The Womans Rose and 26 Men and a Girl discuss and explore. T presentfore women often could not be themselves. The Yellow paper shows the cashiers struggle to recognise with both mental and physical confinement. The bank clerk is mentally pin down by the views of society and her husband, butt. She is not allowed to be herself so she confides in dead paper. This allows the reader to see who she is a strong-minded and independent cleaning adult female, shown by the repeating of personally.Physically the fibber is trapped by the room which she is staying in, for the windows are barred. These barred windows earth-closet intend entrapment or a prison house cell. From the beginning of the text the score is actually personal as it is scripted in the firs t person. The cashier is very interesting as she writes utilize many one sentence paragraphs, making the story seem very realistic, Still I proudly declare that there is something queer intimately it. The realism scratchs from the narrators style of writing continuous streams of thought which could also suggest her state of mind.In the story the narrator shows us that she does not get anything she wants, John has complete control. John controls both aspect of the narrators life, even her thoughts. This becomes clear when she is writing, but accordingly stops and contradicts herself. The narrator finds herself stopping her line of thought for fear of what John would say, I know John would think it absurd. Everything in and around the house is transgressd and divided, boxed in, and locked like a prison, more than as she is held absorbed in her own room,there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people I neer s aw such a garden large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, In fact, the house itself seems de pointed for men. large mansions were typically symbols of masculine aggression and competitiveness, while its being a hereditary estate reminds us it was probably passed down to men in the family. It is immediately apparent in the story that the narrator is treated as being inferior to many men, particularly her husband John.Being a physician, he has made a schedule for her. She is told to stay in bed, abolish her imagination, and most importantly to discontinue her writing, even though it makes her feels better, but she does not say a word. Her schedule also makes her unable to show her avowedly personality. The readers are the only ones who really know what the narrator is like, Personally I disagree with their ideas, she writes, Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. From this repetition of personally we support assume that the na rrator is very independent. This statement, What is one to do? implies a lack of self-confidence and a feeling of inferiority. She speaks as though her opinions do not count in any way. However, she is very pass judgment of this, which was often the general feeling of women at the time. The narrator belittles herself several more(prenominal) times throughout the story I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already.The Yellow Wallpaper is driven by the narrators enthusiasm to interpret the wallpaper and realise that it symbolizes something that affects her directly. The wallpaper develops its symbolism throughout the story. At first it seems tho unpleasant it is ripped and an unclean yellow. The worst part of it is the formless pattern, which fascinates the narrator as she attempts to figure out how it is organized. After staring at the paper for hours, she sees a ghostly sub-pattern behind the main pattern visible onl y in a certain light.She then sees a cleaning cleaning lady, which could be a sign that her mental state is deteriorating, or it could be a projection of the narrator onto the wallpaper. This muliebrity puts an element of mystery and excitement in the narrators life and it gives her something to think about other than her own health. The desperate woman is constantly crawling and stooping, looking for an escape from behind the main pattern, which has come to resemble bars of a cage. The bars of the cage can symbolise the barred windows in the narrators room which in acidulate symbolise jail.The wallpaper can also represent societys view in which the narrator finds herself to be trapped by. When the narrator ultimately identifies herself with the woman trapped in the wallpaper, she is able to see that other women are forced to creep and hide behind the domestic patterns of their lives, and that she herself is the one in need of rescue. The horror of this story is that the narrato r must lose herself to deduct herself. She has untangled the pattern of her life, but she has torn herself apart by acquiring free of it.An odd detail at the end of the story reveals how much the narrator has sacrificed. Now she is horribly free of the constraints of her marriage, her society, and her own efforts to repress her mind. The narrator has no name which could show the lack of identity and recognition women were use to in the nineteenth century. However, the fact that the narrator has no name could mean that Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted the narrator to symbolise all women at that time. The narrator seems to nourish a lack of self esteem and is unsure about her thoughts and what she wants to say.This can be seen when she breaks up her sentences using hyphens, I wonder I begin to think oh I wish John would take me away from here The narrator is free of her constraints of her marriage as she has detached herself from her husband, John. While she would usually call hi m John or my husband she now refers to him as that man, which can underline the fact that her strength as a woman and also her strength as a character has increased. The end of the story shows a switch in power between the narrator and John. At the beginning John had all the power, however at the end the narrator has power over him.We can see this when John comes into the locked room and faints in her path, now why should that man have fainted? , I had to creep over him every time which can also suggest the fact that women can gain temporary control over men, but they will never seem to be free of them. At the end of the story the narrator believes she has won, Ive got out at last by setting the woman free from behind the main pattern of the wallpaper. By setting the woman free from behind the wallpaper it can also suggest to the narrator is being set free as well.The narrator made a huge sacrifice in escaping and as a result, at the end of the story, we see that she has lost her narrative her writing has become less still and fragmented, with no structured pattern. This can be seen on the last cardinal pages with the extensive use of exclamation marks. There would be many social consequences of the narrators actions. By setting free the woman, it implies that the narrator and the woman are very much the same, as they are both trapped the yellow wallpaper is trapping the woman, but the barred windows and society are trapping the narrator.