FEMINIST RESISTANCE AND THE POLITICS OF PATRIARCHY IN CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN’S THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

Abstract

This study examines Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper through a feminist literary lens, focusing on twenty narrative events that reveal the experiences of oppression, confinement, silencing, and resistance endured by the narrator. Using qualitative thematic analysis, the study investigates how patriarchal authority, domestic confinement, and suppression of female creativity manifest in the short story and how the narrator negotiates and resists these constraints. The findings indicate that the narrator’s subjugation operates on multiple levels: physical, psychological, and social. Her secret journaling, perception of the trapped woman behind the wallpaper, and ultimate act of tearing down the wallpaper exemplify subtle and symbolic forms of feminist resistance. This research contributes to the understanding of The Yellow Wallpaper as a critique of patriarchal structures, highlighting the complex interplay between oppression and agency in nineteenth-century domestic contexts. The study also underscores the relevance of feminist literary analysis for exploring gendered power dynamics in both historical and contemporary narratives.

Keywords: The Yellow Wallpaper, Feminist literary analysis, Patriarchal oppression Female confinement