Fighting for freedom from Oppression
The creation of a reflection or a shadow can mirror your fight for freedom, freedom from oppression. Women have been oppressed from society for many years and have had to fight to gain rights, ones that men already have. In the stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P. Gilman and “Professions for Women” by Virginia Woolf, the main characters find themselves feeling unequal and begin to form an “unconscious”. When the women feel oppressed they form a shadow or another personality to escape their real individuality which is influenced by society. This personality can be degrading to the mind causing the inner self to act mindless, and influence the true self.
Women are often paid less than men, women are expected to take the majority of the care for a child, women are supposed to cook the meals and keep the home tidy, these things are what the women try to live up to but struggle. Women weren’t seen as writers or doctors, they were seen as housewives. In Wolf’s “Professions for Women” there is an Angel of the House who takes over her when she’s trying to write and inhibits her thoughts. The Angel portrays the perfect house wife, unselfish, charming and very sympathetic, all the things Wolf’s true personality is not. When the narrator tries to write the Angel appears in her head and causes her to go into a trance, preventing her from freely writing. The Angel caused her imagination to rush away “it had sought the pools, the depths, the dark places where the largest fish slumber. And then there was a smash. There was an explosion. There was a foam and confusion. The imagination had dashed itself against something hard.” (“Professions for Women”) This Angel causes her mind to go through obstacles and wind into unknown thoughts. Wolf tries to break out of this trance, but cannot and it begins to drive her crazy. The narrator ends up killing the Angel to show that she can overcome anything even society. When the narrator kills the angel she is killing her innocence, but gains her imagination back, which allows her to write again. She had to kill the Angel because she believed the Angel would kill her first. The Angel in the house allowed the other sex to impede on her writing, so when the Angel was killed the narrator gained power and showed that not only men but women can write too.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” something takes over the narrator that is very similar to the Angel. While the narrator is sick and stuck in a room, she begins to see things in the wallpaper. Her husband John Gilbert thinks she is delusional because of what she sees in the wallpaper. She can see “behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day”, “it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.”(“The Yellow Wallpaper") This is symbolic in showing that only she can see the woman moving in the wallpaper because it is her shadow not Johns. The narrator forms a shadow because she is not allowed to do as she wants; she is kept up in a room because she isn’t seen as strong as a man. The shadow drives her crazy just as the shadow in “The Angel in The House” drives the narrator crazy. The shadow haunts her every day and is very bothersome to her. The shadow just creeps about the room and doesn’t allow her, her space. Then narrator realizes that the woman in the wallpaper is trying to do the same thing as her, “the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as she wanted to get out.” ("The Yellow Wallpaper") The narrator is trying to get out of the yellow wallpaper room, just as the woman in the wallpaper is working to escape the wallpaper; it’s almost like a jail cell. The shadows in the wallpaper torturer her until she finally scrapes all the wallpaper off and breaks loose. When the women in the wallpaper and the narrator gain freedom they show the gain of power and a loss of weakness. The men in the society tried to keep the narrator from leaving the room and in the end she showed him that she had enough strength to overcome him as well as the rest of society.
When the characters in the stories create a shadow of the “unconscious” they begin to think irrationally, causing many problems for themselves. The women deal with the shadow their own ways but reach many difficult points. They create the “unconscious” shadow to try to get over the problems they are facing but it doesn’t work that way. The women begin to go crazy dealing with many mental emotions. When the women start going crazy they begin to separate themselves from society. When the women are separating themselves from society they learn to find ways to deal with their shadow. For example the women in the wallpaper begin to creep on the narrator more and more when she finally locks her husband out until she over comes this shadow. The narrator of “The Angel in the House” began to think that, “Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” (“The Angel in the House”) In order to gain freedom the women had to kill what was restricting them and break out of the unconscious if they did not the unconscious would have killed them first. Both narrators had little interaction with society, but on their own they overcame the “unconscious” shadow and could be free again.
Everyone has a hidden personality, sometimes this personality prevails but usually in some way it helps you. The stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P. Gilman and “The Angel in the house” by Virginia Woolf both show that women have strength to prevail even when they are doubted. The stories are similar that both characters create a shadow which helps them break free from society. The shadows which the women form made them lose their mind and conquer challenges before they could gain freedom. The women achieved freedom by killing the “unconscious” which prevented them from doing as the pleased.
The creation of a reflection or a shadow can mirror your fight for freedom, freedom from oppression. Women have been oppressed from society for many years and have had to fight to gain rights, ones that men already have. In the stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P. Gilman and “Professions for Women” by Virginia Woolf, the main characters find themselves feeling unequal and begin to form an “unconscious”. When the women feel oppressed they form a shadow or another personality to escape their real individuality which is influenced by society. This personality can be degrading to the mind causing the inner self to act mindless, and influence the true self.
Women are often paid less than men, women are expected to take the majority of the care for a child, women are supposed to cook the meals and keep the home tidy, these things are what the women try to live up to but struggle. Women weren’t seen as writers or doctors, they were seen as housewives. In Wolf’s “Professions for Women” there is an Angel of the House who takes over her when she’s trying to write and inhibits her thoughts. The Angel portrays the perfect house wife, unselfish, charming and very sympathetic, all the things Wolf’s true personality is not. When the narrator tries to write the Angel appears in her head and causes her to go into a trance, preventing her from freely writing. The Angel caused her imagination to rush away “it had sought the pools, the depths, the dark places where the largest fish slumber. And then there was a smash. There was an explosion. There was a foam and confusion. The imagination had dashed itself against something hard.” (“Professions for Women”) This Angel causes her mind to go through obstacles and wind into unknown thoughts. Wolf tries to break out of this trance, but cannot and it begins to drive her crazy. The narrator ends up killing the Angel to show that she can overcome anything even society. When the narrator kills the angel she is killing her innocence, but gains her imagination back, which allows her to write again. She had to kill the Angel because she believed the Angel would kill her first. The Angel in the house allowed the other sex to impede on her writing, so when the Angel was killed the narrator gained power and showed that not only men but women can write too.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” something takes over the narrator that is very similar to the Angel. While the narrator is sick and stuck in a room, she begins to see things in the wallpaper. Her husband John Gilbert thinks she is delusional because of what she sees in the wallpaper. She can see “behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day”, “it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.”(“The Yellow Wallpaper") This is symbolic in showing that only she can see the woman moving in the wallpaper because it is her shadow not Johns. The narrator forms a shadow because she is not allowed to do as she wants; she is kept up in a room because she isn’t seen as strong as a man. The shadow drives her crazy just as the shadow in “The Angel in The House” drives the narrator crazy. The shadow haunts her every day and is very bothersome to her. The shadow just creeps about the room and doesn’t allow her, her space. Then narrator realizes that the woman in the wallpaper is trying to do the same thing as her, “the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as she wanted to get out.” ("The Yellow Wallpaper") The narrator is trying to get out of the yellow wallpaper room, just as the woman in the wallpaper is working to escape the wallpaper; it’s almost like a jail cell. The shadows in the wallpaper torturer her until she finally scrapes all the wallpaper off and breaks loose. When the women in the wallpaper and the narrator gain freedom they show the gain of power and a loss of weakness. The men in the society tried to keep the narrator from leaving the room and in the end she showed him that she had enough strength to overcome him as well as the rest of society.
When the characters in the stories create a shadow of the “unconscious” they begin to think irrationally, causing many problems for themselves. The women deal with the shadow their own ways but reach many difficult points. They create the “unconscious” shadow to try to get over the problems they are facing but it doesn’t work that way. The women begin to go crazy dealing with many mental emotions. When the women start going crazy they begin to separate themselves from society. When the women are separating themselves from society they learn to find ways to deal with their shadow. For example the women in the wallpaper begin to creep on the narrator more and more when she finally locks her husband out until she over comes this shadow. The narrator of “The Angel in the House” began to think that, “Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” (“The Angel in the House”) In order to gain freedom the women had to kill what was restricting them and break out of the unconscious if they did not the unconscious would have killed them first. Both narrators had little interaction with society, but on their own they overcame the “unconscious” shadow and could be free again.
Everyone has a hidden personality, sometimes this personality prevails but usually in some way it helps you. The stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P. Gilman and “The Angel in the house” by Virginia Woolf both show that women have strength to prevail even when they are doubted. The stories are similar that both characters create a shadow which helps them break free from society. The shadows which the women form made them lose their mind and conquer challenges before they could gain freedom. The women achieved freedom by killing the “unconscious” which prevented them from doing as the pleased.