Charlotte Perkins Gilman Use Her Husband's Oppression In The Yellow Wallpaper

Dating back to the early 1900’s, women being oppressed was still a common occurrence. Today, women oppression is still a big issue. In this story, the reader is not only shown the characteristics of women oppression, but also how certain illnesses like depression and nervous conditions affect oppression. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman develops the theme of women oppression by using her husband as an example and presents this theme by using conflict with person vs. person and person vs. self, first-person point of view withholding information from her husband, and uses a progressing plot to show the oppression. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper, there are two major types of conflict: person vs. person and person

As a result of a first-person point of view, readers can see the oppression from a woman's perspective. John does not know that his wife is struggling with gaining his acceptance. This is evident when the wife says, “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” (480). In addition, John does not know she writes, “I don’t know why I should write this. I don’t want to. I don’t feel able.”(483). How is John supposed to know and understand these things if his wife does not say anything? Some of the person vs. person conflict could have been avoided if the narrator had more confidence and was able to talk to her husband without the fear he would say, “ it is only because of your disabilities” and he would also say that everything he is doing is for the best interest of his wife. If John found out about the journal, the narrator’s only freedom would have been stripped from her. For instance, she would only write alone where she get could get away. As much as it is a good thing no one found the journal, everything that happens through The Yellow Wallpaper could have been