It should come as no surprise that for this portion I have chosen "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It happens to be one of my favorite short stories because it is so questionable as to what the woman is doing and if she is being held against her will or if she is insane.
I feel this story fits in well with my topic for the overall blog which is the power struggle with women in the book and in this story. The way I read "The Yellow Wallpaper" was that the woman was being held against her will by her "husband"/doctor. I believe this demonstrates a power struggle with the fact of her being a woman and being held against her will by her male counterpart. She is constantly asking John, her "husband", to allow her to go downstairs and to allow her to see people, as if she needs permission. He must carry her from this room with barred windows (do I need to explain why I think barred windows resemble a prison?) and does not allow her to see her family or friends for the most part. He tells her that she is not strong enough to see them, and that she was "his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that [she] must take care of [her]self for his sake, and keep well," (Gilman 491). This statement is not only creepy, but it just entitles the fact that he owns her; that she must live for him. He does not elaborate to say that she loves life as well and to be completely honest, he doesn't allow her to anyway, what with the fact that she isn't allowed to write. She comments that the one time she is allowed to see anyone - the Fourth of July - that she couldn't do the 'wively' duties, and make the party come off without a hitch. In fact, I believe John's sister takes care of the party's festivities.
I believe that what I have described notes a power struggle within this story. I think that the main character is treated much like a child, being locked away and constantly watched over. This is evident in the fact that John carries her everywhere like a child and on one night, laid her in bed and read to her. She must ask him for permission to have friends over, and if she doesn't get what she wants, she cries over it, much like what a child would do.
This is much like the book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which the female characters are talked down to and treated like children as well. Men often refer to the women in the book as 'girls'. If anyone has taken any Women's Studies classes whatsoever, we can understand that the name of the classes are so because we are talking about women not girls. By calling a woman a "girl", you are degrading her, and thinking of her as equivalent to a child. Feminism is about equal rights, and if you indulge in this word, you are going against it, much like the two stories here.
We also see that we have two strong-ish women in these stories. For example, in Uncle Tom's Cabin, we see Marie St. Claire be able to justify treating her slaves as a white man can. While this is wrong, we see that she is able to find someone to treat the way she is being treated, which for her, is empowering. (*I would like to point out that I am not trying to justify St. Claire, but merely point out that she is attempting to come off as a strong-willed woman.) In "The Yellow Wallpaper", we see our main character striving to cleanse herself from this young child everyone strives to make her be. In the final scenes, she strips the walls of the yellow wallpaper she believe to be canvasing herself, and tells John that he can no longer keep her bottled. Now that, I feel is empowering.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. 485-497. Print.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Uncle Tom's Cabin, A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. 2nd. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. 1-408. Print.
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