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The Yellow Wallpaper Sociological Analysis Essay

873 Words4 Pages

Temidayo Akinwande
Christopher McBride
19th March, 2017
Sociological Approach in the critical analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Introduction
By tradition, the men have held the positions of power in the society. On the other hand, women are treated as second-class citizens possessing no legal rights and not receiving the same respect as the males. All this is greatly attributed to culture, which in a way, dictates the gender responsibilities, training the women to understand their inferior position while encouraging the youthful men to learn how to be in control. Social analysis requires that fictions either agree to the society’s structural arrangement or enable social appreciation with the aim of changing this hierarchy. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s book “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates the struggle of one woman to break from the traditional female roles which the society tries to force her into adhering as well as the social reaction to the act.
At the start of the book, the narrator, Jane is seen to have developed psychological problems. There is no insight into …show more content…

Perkins implies that the ill treatment John gives to his wife is not related to her sickness, but rather, it is because of the culture which despises women and treats them like children. That is why he speaks to Jane as he would a child besides calling her his “little girl.” The reader can see how the treatment of the narrator by her husband and society has adverse effects on the woman. Even when she challenges her husband’s treatment, some part of her still makes her believe that by being a woman, she has to listen to the john, who is the authority, a doctor and the one in authority. In a way, the society makes it impossible for the women to think and act for themselves because they believe that they cannot do anything

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