「누런 벽지」와 19세기 후반 미국사회의 여성

Abstract

Since its republication in 1973 by The Feminist Press, “The Yellow Wallpaper” has been an important feminist work. Even in the feminist view, it is crucial to take into account the social historical background of the text. It helps to understand the nature of the relationships and the symbols of the text better. Women in the late 19th century in America became freer and had more choices than before, but they were forced restrictive sex roles yet. Their consciousness was awakening, but their status in marriage and in the family was comparatively unchanged. This role conflict and psychic discontinuity caused 'hysteria' for many Victorian women. In that sense, the nervous breakdown or hysteria the narrator is suffering from in this story is typical in the age. That is the symbol of women’s suffering caused by limiting sex roles. John, narrator’s husband, is a reasonable man, who believes only in science and distrusts superstition, faith, and even imagination. Like most men in the society he doesn’t treat his wife as an equal companion. He sees her either as a child to protect or a student to guide. The narrator, by interacting with the wallpaper and the woman trapped in the wallpaper, or creating the meaning of the wallpaper, frees herself. She becomes completely mad in the end, but by the madness she shows resistance to oppressive gender roles. It cannot be a complete victory. It has so obvious a limitation. However, it is a start for women’s liberation. The true liberation which was not self-destructive was not possible yet.