Gender Oppression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is suffering from post-partum depression; however, her husband who happens to be a physician, ignores her and just assumes she needs rest. In doing so, the narrator’s illness progressed and eventually lead to her insanity. During the 1800’s men were superior to women and were expected to be a dutiful housewife and obey their husband. However, in the narrator’s case obeying her husband was detrimental to her sanity.

Gender oppression can lead to the mistreatment of depression as shown in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” based on how differently male brains function compared to females.

Men’s controlling behavior leads to overlooked issues pertaining to women such as post-partum depression. In Mahua Mandal journal “Men’s controlling behaviors and women’s experiences of physical violence” he examines the controlling behaviors of men. He states “Men in patriarchal societies are dominate over women and use control tactics such as isolation and intimidation to maintain power” (Mandal 2). Mandal also explains how these control tactics lead to depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. The narrator was suffering from post-partum depression so being put in isolation and not given the proper treatment lead too the narrators depression worsening. In the story the narrator states “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don’t when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone. And I am alone a good deal just now” (Gilman 7). This shows that the more the narrator is in isolation the more emotionally fragile she is becoming which is not good for her depression.

Isolation is known to have negative effects on the health and well-being of an individual. This is proven in Gerit Linneweber’s article “A simple computer vision pipeline reveals the effects of isolation”. Linneweber revealed that isolation has severe effects on health and disease. The article also states “Isolation is known to even affect the onset and progress of diseases” (Linneweber 4). This is proven in “The Yellow Wallpaper” when the narrator states “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out” (Gilman 17). This quote shows the state of the narrator’s mental health and how being in isolation has caused her to start seeing figures that aren’t really there. Also, this quote shows the readers how isolation slowly causes insanity in a person.

Male and Female brains function completely differently which could be the reason why the narrator’s illness was handled the way it was. The frontal lobe is responsible for various cognitive skills such as emotional expression. The frontal lobe is known as “control panel” of people’s personality and ability to communicate. The frontal lobe does not fully develop in males till later in life therefore, an immature frontal lobe can lead to the inability to express emotion. In his article Simon Baron-Cohen discusses a recent study at Cambridge that found “Boys starting at one-year-old show a stronger preference to watch films about cars than films with a lot of emotional expression” (Cohen 3). In “The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator states “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 10). This quote shows that john does not understand what his wife is really going through and that he is not emotionally cable of understanding her illness.

Males and females show a major difference in capacity for empathy as well. In his article Simon Baron-Cohen discusses how the female brain is hard wired to empathize while male brains are hard wired for understanding and building systems. According to his article “Recent studies show that baby girls as young as twelve months old respond more empathically to the distress of other people than males” (Cohen 3). This study shows that males are physically incapable of being empathetic towards other individuals. This is proven in the short story when john ignored his wife pleas for help. The narrator states “I did not make out a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had finished” (Gilman 26). The narrator was pleading to john to let her out of the room and he just ignored her and would not empathize with her.

Male and female doctors are known to prescribe different treatment plans for the same illnesses. In Adam Beaini’s article “Are Male and Female Doctors Really That Different” he discusses the difference between male and female doctors based on patient satisfaction and treatment plan. Beaini’s research found that “Male doctors tend to work longer hours than female doctors which resulted in a decline of productivity in male doctors” (Beaini 1). The narrator’s husband was a physician who often worked a lot of hours so the proper attention needed for the narrator’s depression was overlooked and passed as a temporary nervous depression. In the story the narrator says “John is a physician, perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. (Gilman 18). The narrator is saying that since John is her husband and her doctor, he does not take her illness as serious as he would with any other patient.

Overall, gender oppression leads to the mistreatment of depression based on how differently male brain function compared to females. Control tactics such as isolation lead to depression and anxiety so in the narrator’s case this was detrimental to her depression. Male and female brains function completely different which explains why they handle situations differently. If the narrator had been given the proper care and treatment for her post-partum depression it might have not exceeded to insanity. Also, if the narrator had been sent to a female doctor the outcome might have been different and she would have had someone who understood her illness better than a male doctor might of.

Works Cited

1. Baron-Cohen, Simon. “The Essential Difference: The Male and Female Brain.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum, vol. 85, no. 1, Winter/Spring2005 2005, pp. 23–26. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16574492&site=ehost-live.
2. Beaini, Adam. “Are Male and Female Doctors Really That Different?” Clinical Teacher, vol. 6, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 131–132. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1743-498X.2009.00287_1.x.
3. Linneweber, Gerit A., et al. “A Simple Computer Vision Pipeline Reveals the Effects of Isolation on Social Interaction Dynamics in Drosophila.” PLoS Computational Biology, vol. 14, no. 8, Aug. 2018, pp. 1–23. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006410.
4. Mandal, Mahua, and Michelle Hindin. “Men’s Controlling Behaviors and Women’s Experiences of Physical Violence in Malawi.” Maternal & Child Health Journal, vol. 17, no. 7, Sept. 2013, pp. 1332–1338. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10995-012-1137-1.

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