How does the writer make you sympathise with one of the following characters? (The narrator/wife in the Yellow Wall Paper)
In the story, “The Yellow Wall Paper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman tells her story. It is told by a narrator in first person who we do not know the name. She has been diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression. The setting is around the early 1900's in a colonial mansion that the narrator and her husband have rented. She spends most of her time in her bedroom, writing, where there is also a mysterious wallpaper. In this story, there are many points where I would feel sympathy for the narrator which I will now bring to light.
First of all, back then in Victorian times, the relationship between men and women were very different compared to present time. Today, most women desire equality with their partner. The reader never even learns the name of the narrator, possibly to give the illusion that she could be any woman. On the very first page, Gilman illustrates the male dominating society and relationship. It was normal for men to think that they were the gender who knew when, what, how and why to do things. The narrator's husband, John is a doctor who's words and actions reflect the stereotype I previously mentioned: “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage”. This statement illustrates the way gender, at that time, was relevant. This makes me feel pity for the narrator who is oppressed by the circumstances of that time making her illness get worse.
