Cult Of True Womanhood (The Yellow Wallpaper)

Cult of True Womanhood

Prior to the twentieth century, men assigned and defined women’s roles. A woman was thought to be incapable of caring and making decisions for herself without a man to guide her. In the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, delineates the life of an intelligent, young woman who is a wife and mother. She assumes her role as the nurturing mother, yet is submissive and passive to the patriarchal head. The lady suffers from a psychiatric disease that makes her hallucinate, anxious, and depressed. The patriarchal head, John, is a physician and assumes full responsibility for his wife’s care and diagnosis. The main character’s older brother, whom is also a physician, makes a prognosis that concurs with John’s, thus leaving her no choice but to subject herself to the torment of the yellow wallpaper room. The reader presumes that John is not a psychiatric doctor by the side comment the main character makes “John is a physi...