Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Feminist vs. Ghostly

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is no doubt a feminist story, although it does seem to fall into a ghostly story as well.
We know the narrator is sick with postpartum depression throughout the story. John, the narrator's husband,as a physician brings her away in order to cure her. "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would to me good" the narrator explains
(Gilman 394). Instead, John locks her up in a nursery and orders her to rest. He is doing what seems like to be the best thing for her, but he is not really trying to understand his wife's needs. Taking into consideration the time period, we know that men had much more power than women. John shows us his power in paragraph 133 when he refers to his wife as a "little girl".
We find throughout the story that this "cure" is not working so well for our narrator, with the vulgar descriptions of the wallpaper and such. The wallpaper seems to have taken the narrator's identity at the end of the story, creating a ghostly description of herself; "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight" (Gilman 403). Creeping is an activity usually taken on by a ghost.
In conclusion, the lack of freedom given to the narrator by her husband John, leads to a ghostly description of her character.

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