Research Paper on:
Feminism as Seen in Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
is a woman who is restless, anxious and depressed about her domestic role in society. The characters within the story react in stereotypical manner and send her to "rest" in  the hopes that she will once again become happily submissive in her role as wife and mother. Instead, as she is resides in the room with yellow wallpaper, she imagines  she sees images of women creeping around behind the wallpaper and in the evening they looked as if they are trapped behind bars from the shadows. The images of women  trapped, caged, within rooms, and nameless are all effective elements used by Gilman to present the feminism movement which was beginning to assert itself during the latter half of the  19th century in literature, society and political life. Charlotte Perkins Gilmans story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892, 1996) tells the tale of a woman  who is experiencing depression and is taken by her physician husband for "rest therapy" at a summer vacation home. Instead of recovering however, her depression and nervousness only increases and  she begins to see faces in the wallpaper in her room. The images are of women "creeping" behind the wallpaper and her fixation on the images increases as they seem  to appear more frequently. Eventually she locks herself in her room and tears the paper from the walls (Gilman, 1996; Yim, 1996). Gilmans work soon became an example of  the plight of the female housewife and the developing feminist movement within the late 19th century which reflected the restlessness which overcame women during their lives of silence and oppression  from the world of men. One of the most obvious feminist images within the work is how the images seemingly were placed behind bars with the shadows from the night.