How Does The Yellow Wallpaper Relate To Feminism

Perkins Gilman has written several stories surrounding the women’s movement. In The Yellow Wallpaper there have been main points surrounding the main characters feelings and thoughts about the wallpaper. There have also been main points concerning how the feminist approach has been used in The Yellow Wallpaper. Questions have arisen when discussing how the women in the story were being portrayed. Feminism is having the same rights as men and being viewed as someone who is important in life. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character had many issues with the wallpaper in a room. She felt that it had moved from the bedroom to the living room. The main character was represented as a person that suffered from post-partum depression because she was never near her baby and did not talk about the baby. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”

The main character was in the upper class since her husband was a well-known physician. The husband hired a nanny since he was caring for his wife and wanted no harm to their child. Furthermore, the main character was seen as a child as she was cared for by her husband who constantly told her that she was fine just imagining things. The main character was inside the house at all times and felt like she was going crazy because all she saw was the yellow striped wallpaper that surrounded her. Also, the women in the story were not taken seriously by their husbands because they just depressed them with their thoughts about how they felt or how they should feel. In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins-Gilman writes, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do?”(Perkins-Gilman 655). The author is implying that women were not heard during the 1800s, especially when they felt ill because the men thought that it was all in their head and that they were