`` The Yellow Wallpaper `` By Charlotte Perkins Gilm...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s deconstruction of gender roles in The Yellow Wallpaper. AP English 12 Mr. AuCoin Shane Caswell October 1, 2015 Shane Caswell 1 Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is an interesting story told from the journals of a woman who progressively loses her mind being locked in her bedroom, but underneath the surface this short story shows us a woman who is at first confined by, but progressively freed from the gender roles and expectations put upon her by society and her spouse. This story is written in an epistolary format. This first-person narrative gives the reader an intimate portrayal of the social attitudes that were common in Victorian era England. From this perspective the story attacks the oppressed role forced onto women in Victorian society. The nameless narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining, patriarchal society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told; in the narrator’s insanity, she defies these roles in possibly the most exaggerated sense. The husband of our narrator, John, represents society as a whole, and much like society he is controlling and he determines what the narrator (women) should and should not be doing, leaving her incapable of making decisions for herself. John is a man and a physician, so his â€Å"I know best† attitude can be attributed to his social status. He is very factual, scientific and likes to focus