respond in 150 words

The themes in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are still relevant today and could easily be modernized for today’s world by simply updating our narrators' way of speaking and tossing in an iPhone. Unfortunately, women’s ideas are still being diminished and infantilized by men in traditional power structures, women’s bodily autonomy is still being challenged and disregarded and the ideas of traditional domesticity can still be likened to a prison.

This story opens with our protagonist reading like a subtly ransom note explaining her place, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (Gilman 49) and of her husband's authority, “If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency– what is one to do?” (Gilman 49) Creating a power dynamic where men are seen as an authority and despite her thoughts and ideas about what might cure her better, she acquiesces. Though not as commonplace in our modern times, with the rise of strong female characters, this dynamic certainly still exists in relationships. In a retelling of this story we might find our protagonist had been abused, rather than assuming the place of a modern woman in Victorian times, but I suppose that depends on where one might live. This disregard for our protagonist goes even further the more she goes on about the discussion she has with her husband about her progress, of which she believes she is making very little, if any and he replies, “Bless her little heart!” (Gilman 57) Both diminishing her thoughts and treating her as if she were a child, farthing the divide in power dynamics. Again, with a modernization of language, we can see “sweet” John just doing what’s best, because he is a man, and his mother likely told him he knows best. His male superiority aids in him falling fast asleep in their vacation rental house which might feel idyllic like the house in the original Beetlejuice movie. A modern audience might ask thought, why is she with him? For the money? And if so, at what cost?

Throughout the story, her doctor, who also happens to be her husband, repeatedly denies her requests for anything other than the rest he has prescribed her and has even taken to putting her in a room that she finds aesthetically displeasing. “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.” (Gilman 59) Her doctor/husband also keeps her from tending to her baby, which is something subtle in this text but in a modernization I feel could be amplified. With this comes the exploration of postpartum depression, mental health in general, and the continued practice of doctors not taking women seriously. Many maladies of the Victorian era chalked up to being nervousness and hysteria were common, but those practices aren’t so far removed from that which we see today. Nothing that a pill can’t fix is the modern equivalent of bed rest, which could add another layer of isolation.

With this continued isolation from her autonomy, child, and the outside world we see our protagonist slowly slip into madness, being taken by the wallpaper and obsessed with the details of the room. It is here when we really start to see the room as a metaphor for the trap of domesticity. Mind numbingly trapped in a house, reduced to menial tasks, and gaslit the entire time into thinking you are living the dream. She eventually loses sight of her personhood and reality as she becomes one with or at least a doppelganger of the women she now sees in the paper– fated to creep and creep around the house. Our protagonist even goes so far as to threaten to tie up the woman who tries to escape, as she contemplates her own “escape.” “If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her!” (Gilman 62) Succumbing to the strangling and bulbous imagery in the wallpaper. Understanding the only real freedom from the patriarchy is death. Feels like it could be a Sofia Coppola movie at worst and at best something by Yorgos Lanthimos.

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hellenmonicah8 hellenmonicah8

22-07-2024
History

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respond in 150 words

The themes in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are still relevant today and could easily be modernized for today’s world by simply updating our narrators' way of speaking and tossing in an iPhone. Unfortunately, women’s ideas are still being diminished and infantilized by men in traditional power structures, women’s bodily autonomy is still being challenged and disregarded and the ideas of traditional domesticity can still be likened to a prison.

This story opens with our protagonist reading like a subtly ransom note explaining her place, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (Gilman 49) and of her husband's authority, “If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency– what is one to do?” (Gilman 49) Creating a power dynamic where men are seen as an authority and despite her thoughts and ideas about what might cure her better, she acquiesces. Though not as commonplace in our modern times, with the rise of strong female characters, this dynamic certainly still exists in relationships. In a retelling of this story we might find our protagonist had been abused, rather than assuming the place of a modern woman in Victorian times, but I suppose that depends on where one might live. This disregard for our protagonist goes even further the more she goes on about the discussion she has with her husband about her progress, of which she believes she is making very little, if any and he replies, “Bless her little heart!” (Gilman 57) Both diminishing her thoughts and treating her as if she were a child, farthing the divide in power dynamics. Again, with a modernization of language, we can see “sweet” John just doing what’s best, because he is a man, and his mother likely told him he knows best. His male superiority aids in him falling fast asleep in their vacation rental house which might feel idyllic like the house in the original Beetlejuice movie. A modern audience might ask thought, why is she with him? For the money? And if so, at what cost?

Throughout the story, her doctor, who also happens to be her husband, repeatedly denies her requests for anything other than the rest he has prescribed her and has even taken to putting her in a room that she finds aesthetically displeasing. “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.” (Gilman 59) Her doctor/husband also keeps her from tending to her baby, which is something subtle in this text but in a modernization I feel could be amplified. With this comes the exploration of postpartum depression, mental health in general, and the continued practice of doctors not taking women seriously. Many maladies of the Victorian era chalked up to being nervousness and hysteria were common, but those practices aren’t so far removed from that which we see today. Nothing that a pill can’t fix is the modern equivalent of bed rest, which could add another layer of isolation.

With this continued isolation from her autonomy, child, and the outside world we see our protagonist slowly slip into madness, being taken by the wallpaper and obsessed with the details of the room. It is here when we really start to see the room as a metaphor for the trap of domesticity. Mind numbingly trapped in a house, reduced to menial tasks, and gaslit the entire time into thinking you are living the dream. She eventually loses sight of her personhood and reality as she becomes one with or at least a doppelganger of the women she now sees in the paper– fated to creep and creep around the house. Our protagonist even goes so far as to threaten to tie up the woman who tries to escape, as she contemplates her own “escape.” “If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her!” (Gilman 62) Succumbing to the strangling and bulbous imagery in the wallpaper. Understanding the only real freedom from the patriarchy is death. Feels like it could be a Sofia Coppola movie at worst and at best something by Yorgos Lanthimos.

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