Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Yellow wallpaper, A jury of her Peers

   For the last week of reading, it was fairly straightforward. Both of these stories had a strong element of female literature. The yellow wallpaper was the most obvious expression of this. She was confined in her room by her husband, and was concerned for her physical health. After some time, he beings to notice her declining mental health. He puts her on the notorious "Rest Cure" that basically confines her to a room without anything in it in an attempt to cure her mind. She slowly starts to loose her mind as shown by the mysterious images and objects that "appear" in the wallpaper. They continually get worse and worse just as a woman is supposed to feel when confined by men. This is an obvious punch at the idea that men are superior to women, and gives a little suggestion towards equality among men and women.
   A Jury of her Peers is slightly more subtle about their attempts to make an obvious jab at the social norms of the time. The women figure out what has happened at the murder seen far before the men do. They know that the woman of the house has murdered the man, but it goes to show that the women are able to figure it out due to the close relation between their life styles.
   Both of these stories are obvious jabs at the current establishment of men as the dominate figure in society. One, in my opinion, slightly more obvious than the other.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree that these two stories represent male power but I do not fully understand how you got the idea that The Yellow Wallpaper shows men and women's equality. I understand that it show how men simply imprison women and exert their power and that can be interpreted as being a battle of equality but I think it leans more towards the power dynamics and not equality. Nonetheless, I do agree that these stories were about men's dominating figure over women.

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