Discussion of Yellow Wallpaper Research Assignment

Discussion of the Yellow Wallpaper
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Discussion of the Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper is a text that has inspired and continues to inspire many scholars to this day. Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in the year 1892, the author wrote this short story chiefly as a cautionary tale as regards what supposed rest cures could actually do the patients’ mental stability. Since the Women’s Movement of the 1960s, this piece of writing has been anthologized as a text that illustrates nineteenth century attitudes toward the mental and physical health of women. This paper discusses the relevance of this text and its author. In particular, the reason as to why The Yellow Wallpaper still resonates today is discussed in detail.
The Yellow Wallpaper describes one woman who suffers a mental breakdown following 3 months of being trapped at home, having delusions as she looks intently at the patterns on the yellow wallpaper inside her room. The Yellow Wallpaper is a text that certainly addresses a number of crucial issues with regard to gender that still resonate in the present day. For example, Gilman’s argument in the text that women need economic independence is an argument that is still relevant these days. The tale demonstrates that at the time back in the 19th century, women fought to have their rights recognized and respected, and for the woman to be viewed as an individual and not merely as a fragile housewife. Even today, women in different parts of the world are still fighting the traditional, long-established viewpoints, for instance, that women belong in the kitchen and should be dependent on their husbands, and that they should be limited to roles defined by their gender such as nursing and homemaker. Women today are struggling to be viewed as people who can be independent.
The Yellow Wallpaper portrays the assignment of gender-defined, rigid roles to the main character and John, her husband. The main character is the fragile and emotional member of the pair, and her physician husband is the practical and rational one. John, along with the brother of the main character who is also a doctor, think that they can decide what is really best for her. The two men prescribe a rest cure for her although she does not want it and believes she would do better being active. It is worth mentioning that in their gender-determined roles, the wife becomes like a child and is not able to make decisions like an adult. The medical establishment which decides the way that the main character has to be cured is male-dominated. In the world today, there are a lot of cultures that make women the possessions of their brothers, husbands, and even fathers. A lot of societies and cultures around the world do not recognize the rights of women to make their own decisions or to determine their own futures. They also think that women are fragile human beings and people who are not worthy of getting an education. Additionally, the medical establishment in many cultures these days still runs in such a manner that it does not give women a say in their own care and treatment, and a...