by Jennie Mc Donald

Created on: February 11, 2009

The novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront[1] (1847) and the short story, The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman[2] (1892) both highlight issues of gender inequalities. They discuss issues prevalent to both the early and late nineteenth century. Some such issues are that of gender stereotyping, class division, educational disadvantages and in general the subordination of women by men and society. This piece will show that many of the issues dealt with are still ever present in modern day societies and would almost certainly be relevant to a contemporary audience. Throughout the stories and with the use of the first person narrative, the authors show the repression of female individuality and sexuality.

It is a known custom throughout the Victorian era for women to be passive and remain within the domesticated sphere. However, these texts provide evidence that women strived to be freed from their societal prisons. The story of The Yellow Wall-paper takes place in an isolated colonial mansion. The house and its surroundings appear tranquil, but in true fact it is a place of confinement, and represents women's place in society. The narrator is a young mother who is suffering with what is known today as postpartum psychosis depression, however, she is diagnosed by her husband, a doctor, as suffering from a nervous disorder. She is instructed to abandon what intellectual life she does possess, and avoid any stimulating company, and to get as much rest as possible. However, this has adverse effects, and she plummets into a deeper depression invisible to those around her. As the depression progresses, she descends further into madness, suffering from hallucinations, sleep deprivation and utter isolation. Today this is still relevant, as according to the statistics of 2004 from the Association for Post Natal Illness,[3] one in ten women suffer with depression during or after pregnancy, and one in five with other forms of depression

Her husband and brother represent the power men held over women, they prescribe what treatment is necessary and what genuine sickness is or is not, Jane notes, He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction'.[4] The room is used to dramatise her status within society, being made sleep in the nursery shows how women were treated as children, with no legal rights and under the care and control of their husbands. The bars on the windows emphasise the control over these women. The main object in the room

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