Femininity in The Yellow Wallpaper, and Woman Hollering Creek - Essay Example

assignment is due Literary works portray the themes of femininity, which is the reflection of the society in which the characters live. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman and Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros are two such works that depict feminism. Protagonists in both these stories suffer injustice from the hands of their husband and finally breaks away from the relationship. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story of repression of women. In the story the husband’s domineering nature has imprisoned the wife into a domestic prison. It is the tale of insanity. In this sad story, the narrator the young woman is driven to insanity by her dominating husband. Even though her husband John was very much caring and loving, he never realized that his wife is a human being. He was blind to her desires, longings and wishes. John the husband-doctor was too mechanical and never allowed his wife to come to her self. The subjugation that prevailed in the society made women treated as subhuman. They were just considered as vessels of fertility and had the mere privilege of a set of ovaries and a womb. The novel is all about women’s rights. The central character of the novel, the narrator fought for the same cause. The narrator attempts to become a strong individual even though she was being locked in a male dominated world. The feminist ideologies of the narrator are evident throughout her talk. She was found subordinate to her husband John who believed that women are frail and can never make decision of their own. The narrator’s great passion for life and her strong feministic beliefs do not allowed her to be in the controlled world of her husband. Her house appeared as a prison for her all through these days. The narrator was always under the care of someone, her brother and then her husband. Both of them being doctors do not understand her mind. They are least flexible and only look for her physical recovery. They do not allow her to indulge in something that she wanted to indulge in. She wanted to write; may be she wanted to pour out her depression into words. She was of the belief that more mental and physical activity would solve her problems. She never desired to have physical rest. However her husband and brother were not able to understand this and compelled her to be under complete rest that would make her free from any activity. They were not able to comprehend their self and did not even attempt to understand her. The male dominated world never wanted the husbands to understand their wives. The narrator’s husband and brother did not have any plan to listen to the narrator. The Yellow Wall-Paper shows a traumatized middle-class woman's exhibiting signs of trauma because of the society’s expectations on her (Aksehir 2008). Her traumatizing experiences as a female reflect as a hallucination of a helpless individual who is trapped in the yellow wallpaper in her room (Aksehir 2008). The period in the novel represents the period when women are inferior to men physically, mentally and intellectually. The cultural, racial, religious and other pressures subdued women to a good extent. Young girls were supposed to follow their mother’s path of cooking, cleaning and child caring and are supposed to become good house wives as they grow up. Women were considered as feeble compared to men. They were confined to the jobs that require less labor. Maternity, the biological and natural role of women has been considered as their one and only role. In the novel the narrator was confined to her and was not permitted to have any outside contact. This pushed her to depression and finally made her mad. We can see that this mental depression was enforced into the narrator by the society around her. Her life was like that of a butterfly that is trying to get out of the cocoon to show its true colors. We can see her striving, throughout the play, and finally collapsing. Even though the husband John loved her very much, the narrator was not happy with the false or restricting union of marriage and the burden of motherhood. The narrator can be considered as the upholder of women’s rights in the novel. She was not happy in the male dominated world. She was struggling with the selfish, stifling, oppressive and dominating attitude of her Husband John and the society which he represents. The narrator journey leads to her self-discovery as she mentally fought against the exploitation of women by men. John represents the orthodox society and the narrator is the advocate of feminism. John did not give any privilege to his wife and considered her as a silly being throughout the story. He was also very possessive and always tried to maintain his wife in his control. John never considered his wife equal to him. He thought that she is inferior to him. The feminist beliefs of the narrator rose up as she realizes that she has been a foolish doll in a toy-marriage. This makes her depressed and finally mad. Wife was just considered like any other possession of John. She was not given any humane privilege. The feminist beliefs of the author hated this attitude of John as she always wanted to reveal her self. Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek is yet another work that includes the strong theme of femininity. The story highlights the social role of women, their relationship with other women and men. The story also focuses on the role of women in Mexican American culture. Domestic abuse, violence, rape and the troubles associated with the traditional gender roles are encountered by the female characters in the novel. Women in the story are destined to meet the soul-deadening restrictions of the traditional culture. Women struggle to locate their identity; they fail to control their own destinies. They strive to save themselves from the patriarchal limits of the culture. Similar to the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper, the women in Woman Hollering Creek suffer because of societal constraints. In the story Woman Hollering Creek we find the young woman Cleofilas dreams a great relationship with a man. Cleofilas always expected her life to be like the girl in the telenovelas. Women in the telenovelas thrive as they experienced love in spite of all hardships, struggles and pain. The dreams of Cleofilas, however, got shattered as she entered into a married life. She feels that the love between a man and women is the best among all kinds of love. As she moves to her married life she understands that her new world is far away from the heights of perfect love (Thomson, 1994). She learns that her suffering is not like the noble sufferings of the woman in telenovela (Thomson, 1994). She recognizes that the love between a man and women can diminish if both of them do not do their best to maintain their love. She also understands that a hurt from either side will collapse the relationship between a man and woman. Like the wife in the Yellow wallpaper, she abides for sometime and recognizes her plight later. Women in both these stories understand the futility in a husband-wife relationship. Cleofilas understands that men are selfish creatures and they never treat their wives in a loving way. She thinks that as men do not love, why women should still love men. Apart from that, Cleofilas see the experiences of the bitter experiences of her female friends who have been betrayed and even killed by their husbands. Cleofilas suffer nothing but bitterness from the man who is her husband. Like the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper, she suffers pain from her husband. Both these women are not recognized by their husbands. The bitterness Cleofilas experiences in her life make her understand that there is no point in loving men. Women in both these stories suffer injustice in her marriage relationship. The experiences of these women say that marriage is a matter of gender inequality. After marriage, men feel that wives are their properties and they can do whatever they want to. They feel that they can treat their wives in a cruel way. Women in both stories finally understand the folly they suffer. They are awakened at the end. In the Yellow Wallpaper, te narrator recognizes her rights at last and is awakened. She stops pretending to be what she is not. She wanted to be a strong woman and desired to take control of her own destiny. John considered his wife as a status symbol and had a very narrow definition about marriage. He thinks that it is the duty of the wife to be good to her husband. She deems women as helpless creatures separated from reality and moral force. The author highlighted the self realization of the main character the narrator and the way she becomes an example to feminist ideology. Even though the narrator reached a bad end, she is a good example of feminist women. Similarly the women in Woman Hollering Creek also recognize her rights finally. She understands the hopelessness in a marriage relationship. Cleofilas makes the decision to leave her husband like the women in the other story. Women in both these stories understand that women do not need a man to survive. They both boldly break away from the relationships and decide to live a life of their own. Both of them yearned for freedom and became good examples of feminists. Works Cited Mahinur Aksehir (2008) Reading 'The Yellow Wallpaper' as Post-Traumatic Writing, Interactions. Jeff Thomson (1994) What is called Heaven: Identity in Sandra Cisneros's 'Woman Hollering Creek,'" by.  Read More