The Yellow Wallpaper

Gilman seems to be trying to point out the differences in how gender plays a role in regards to intellect. We already know that men in the time period are seen almost as a higher status, the breadwinner, the intelligent decision-maker of the household. Women on the other hand are seen as a lower status, a housewife who is in charge of the cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children; a.k.a. ignorant when it comes to making decisions regarding almost anything.

Gilman portrays John as an unlikable character who treats his wife like “little girl” (p 360) instead of his wife. In a way, John could be compared to the wallpaper holding the woman away like he holds his wife pretty much captive in the house because she is “sick”. Since she did not follow the norms of being a mother (post-partum depression), she is not only seen as a woman in a lower status but now she is seen as ignorant because she is not able to take care of their child because “it makes [her] so nervous” (p 357). When the woman in the wallpaper/the wife is finally freed, this could be seen as Gilman’s writing to affect a change in a way that forces those in society reading this text to see how women are thought of as ignorant or not as intellectual as men. The change of course would be that she is encouraging that women pick themselves up and do something about it.

In Alcott’s A Whisper in the Dark, Sybil and her mother are held captive (like the wife and woman in the wallpaper) by men (like John) for no other reason than the convenience of not having to deal with the women because the men are the intellects and know how to handle things and don’t need the women around. Alcott’s message could be taken the same way as Gilman’s. Women are being encouraged to speak up for themselves and not let women be labeled as ignorant beings who should follow their husband’s, brother’s, guardian’s, etc, command without giving thought to it first.