Introduction
It is important to note that a family unit has always been the most resilient form of a social unit of a society, which was embedded in the institution of marriage. An array of social constructs and cultural beliefs deceptively convinced the masses that marriage is about a happy union of two individuals seeking to build a family. However, it tends to be forgotten that patriarchal centers of power established this institution to raise children in their values from birth. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a criticism of the patriarchal institution of marriage; the primary purpose was never about the freedom, happiness, and well-being of both partners involved.
Family vs. Marriage
The institution of marriage is a patriarchal trap sold to the public as a source of happiness. For example, the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” states: “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 649). The quote showcases that happiness is not present in marriage, which is also true for a larger society.
One should understand that the criticism is not aimed at a family unit, which can be a powerful source of meaning and happiness, but at marriage itself. The latter is a tool used by the patriarchy to inject its values into the family and frame it as such. Patriarchal intervention into the sacred family union erodes the bond between partners to the point that they no longer understand each other.
Corruption of Healthy Human Needs
Family is built based on love, affection, and connection between its members. This means there should be honesty, truthfulness, and openness, including communication. However, the main character of the story “does not feel free to speak truthfully ‘to a living soul,’ she confides her thoughts to a journal – ‘dead paper’ – instead. The only safe language is a dead language” (Treichler 61). The patriarchal institution of marriage subverts the most important aspects of the family to trap its members.
A similar analogy can be given about the truthful happiness of having a home corrupted by mortgage entrapment. In a sense, a center of power, such as a financial institution, comes and sees an intrinsic human need to have a place to live. It intends to inject its own entrapment system into a healthy need for a home as a form of a debt trap. It is true for education, social media, banking, guns, crime, food, work, and many other areas of life.
Patriarchy Harms All
Not only does the patriarchal institution of marriage subjugate women by depriving them of happiness, but it also does the same for men. Gilman writes, “He loves me very dearly and hates to have me sick” (651). There is an acknowledgment that it is not husbands who are sources of ‘evil’ or ‘patriarchy.’ They are the victims of the institutions just as the wives are, which showcases how the patriarchal system makes everyone involved miserable.
If there are happy marriages, they are as such not because of it but despite it. What husbands and wives truly value does not come from the institution of marriage but from their families and the relationships they engage in within it. Neither men nor women seek to build a family unit with a desire to bring unhappiness and oppression to each other. The latter elements are enabled by the institution of marriage, which uses its centuries-long propaganda to standardize the family unit into one image of a subservient wife and a masculine husband. The reality has always been divergent from this patriarchal “ideal,” but human beings are unique and different.
Artificial Power Structure
Patriarchy imposes an artificial and static power structure in a natural and dynamic family unit. Instead of allowing a family unit to have its own system of communication and relationship-building, it tries to mold into an ’employer husband’ and ’employee wife’ with “customer children.” Ironically, in the story, the wife’s insanity is exaggerated by John’s efforts to safeguard and help her through room imprisonment (Gilman 647).
These “rest cure” methods were “used to treat women with nervous ailments. But it was too sadistic, controlling, and intrusive” (Bassuk 245). Victorian doctors made sexist and misogynistic assumptions about women, based on which they designed so-called “cures.” As a result, husbands like John harmed and hurt their wives by seeking to help them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a broader criticism of the male-dominated structure of marriage, which deprived both partners of their freedom, happiness, and well-being. It demonstrates what the imposition of the artificial power structure on a healthy family does to its members. Although John loves his wife and wishes her well, he makes her suffer from this patriarchal “rest cure” designed by Victorian sexist doctors. Similarly, the main character wants to be a good wife. Still, in trying to fit into this patriarchal “model,” she becomes entrapped and unhappy.
Works Cited
Bassuk, Ellen L. “The Rest Cure: Repetition or Resolution of Victorian Women’s Conflicts?” The Female Body in Western Culture: Semiotic Perspectives, vol. 6, no. 1/2, 1985, pp. 245-257. Web.
Gilman, Charlotte P. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The New England Magazine. Web.
Treichler, Paula A. “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Feminist Issues in Literary Scholarship, vol. 3, no. 1/2, 1984, pp. 61-77. Web.