"The Yellow Wallpaper" Essay: Freedom Theme

The idea of restriction is prevalent through the treatment of female characters in both “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman to demonstrate the harsh realities that women faced in the critical Victorian period. Judy Simons suggests that wives in Victorian England were “literally the property of their husbands” and argues that the deeply embedded patriarchal society denied women of independent status[footnoteRef:1], thus restricting them of their freedom. As such, Bronte explores these key ideas through central characters such as Isabella and Catherine, who are victims of their male counterparts, addressing the socio-economic, mental, and physical aspects of their oppression. Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman addresses similar issues through the characterization of John, the husband, and carer of the narrator, whom Gilman crafts to have a commanding and authoritarian position in comparison to his wife. By devising a plot that sees a woman being completely controlled by her husband, a sense of oppression is created between John and his wife as he confines her to a single room and controls her movements as if he owns her; this again pertains to the ideas shared by Simons and also highlights the patriarchy present in Victorian society, which contributed to the restriction of women. Within both novels, female characters attempt conversely to try and bypass social boundaries and overcome their restraints, however ultimately with tragic consequences, a common feature of the gothic genre of fiction. Thus, both authors depict patriarchal values in the 19th Century as the main influence on the restriction of women, to attack the structure of Victorian society. [1: https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/articles/15439 The Women of Wuthering Heights]

Violence and the fear of men are key aspects in demonstrating the physical restriction of women. Victorian men were said to be self-sufficient and aggressive, while women were the opposite- dependent and passive; dependence was supposedly part of a woman’s nature[footnoteRef:2]. This ideology shared in the 19th Century concocted a perverse ideal of femininity, where women were expected to embrace submissive and obedient attitudes toward their husbands. Thus, in both texts, female characters experience the harrowing boundaries of their gender. Rachel Trudel argues that “violence can also take on a more subtle and covert form that does not always involve physical abuse”[footnoteRef:3]. As such, Gilman’s John could be read as an oppressive figure, who demonstrates less obvious types of violence through his misuse of patriarchal power to control his wife. This is illustrated by Gilman when the narrator explains “There comes John, and I must put this away”. The use of the imperative “must” indicates a sense of urgency in the narrator and implies that she has no choice but to obey. This theme of powerlessness is echoed throughout the novella using rhetoric;/: despite being against John’s methods, the writer/narrator simply states/questions “But what is one to do?”. Gilman’s deliberate use of the pronoun “one” in instances such as this/ these and when she states “but one expects that in a man” is also important, as it generalizes the suffering experienced by the narrator. It may suggest that all men behaved in such oppressive ways and women were always restricted by them and their expectations, a view acknowledged and shared by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in “Aurora Leigh”[footnoteRef:4]. Coupled with the use of first-person narrative throughout the novella, the reader gains a clear insight into the thoughts of the narrator, and subsequently, connotations of fear are induced into them. To a modern audience, it may be shocking that the narrator “must” pause her actions, and physically put away her “dead paper” due to the fear that the male figure, John, may find out. By having the narrator act in this hurried way, Gilman portrays the physical and somewhat mental restraint placed on women in the Victorian era; the narrator’s actions are suggestive that the slight notion of seeing a male figure triggers a mental response which translates to physical actions to revert back to being the “angel of the house” and conforming to the societal expectations of women. Her action to put away her narrative journal in which she confides is symbolic of how women were silenced at the hands of men, and ultimately we see the submissiveness instilled into the narrator, as a result of the patriarchal society she is exposed to. [2: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/16/books/victorian-women-including-victoria.html] [3: https://freebooksummary.com/violence-in-the-yellow-wallpaper-13767] [4: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ebb/farrell3.html]

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While themes of violence are more implicit in The Yellow Wallpaper, it is quite the opposite in Wuthering Heights. Susan Kent, in Sex and Suffrage in Britain 1860-1914, states “men possessed the capacity for action, aggression independence, and self-interest”[footnoteRef:5]. This is illustrated clearly through Bronte’s crafting of Isabella and Heathcliff’s abusive relationship. A sense of empathy is created for Isabella, due to the abuse she encounters in her marriage. The harsh treatment is made clear when Bronte writes/wrote: “he snatched a dinner knife from the table and flung it at my head”. [5: Susan Kent Sex and Suffrage in Britain 1860-1914]

In addition to this, (we must consider) the physical aspects of limitations placed on women who were prescribed the “rest cure” are also significant throughout TYP. The Yellow Wallpaper/ Gilman follows the story of a woman being treated for neurasthenia, what would be recognized today as post-natal depression[footnoteRef:6]. Devised by Dr. Weir Mitchell, the “bed rest cure” used to treat hysteria proposed that patients should be isolated from social interactions and anything stimulating[footnoteRef:7]; more importantly, there are implications of restriction here. The narrator is subject to this cruel treatment, as she is confined to a single room by John. Parallels can be drawn to Wuthering Heights, as it becomes apparent that the female protagonist is constricted to a single space, just as Catherine is in Wuthering Heights. While in The Yellow Wallpaper, there is physical confinement to the attic, Catherine endures a much greater sense of restriction, as she also has an emotional attachment to Wuthering Heights through Heathcliff: “I’ll not lie there by myself…I won’t rest till you are with me. I never will!” The use of exclamative combined with repetition (syndetic/anaphora) here exemplifies her intense connection to Heathcliff and therefore with Wuthering Heights. Through this dialogue Bronte evokes a sense of control Heathcliff has over Catherine, as she is revealed to be attached to Wuthering Heights despite already being married and presiding in Thrushcross Grange. In each case, the opinion shared b [6: https://www.gradesaver.com/the-yellow-wallpaper/study-guide/the-nervous-diseases-and-hysteria-medical-predecessors-to-neurasthenia] [7: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-the-rest-cure-in-the-yellow-wallpaper.html]