Oppression from Inside

Gustavo B. Wiggins

English 1302 - B02

Dr. Emily Monteiro

22, September 2015

Oppression From Inside

        Choosing these two stories to compare themes was very easy when you get to understand the story on a deeper level. Both the story and the play shows the reader how woman struggled throughout history and on both cases it pushes them to take action from oppression by their husband on a deeper level. In A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Gilman, relationships are easily torn apart when one side is being abused by one of the members, this is clearly shown by both author’s use of different disputes but yet maintaining to convey the identical message.

        In both the story and the play, the woman’s names are never given or they aren’t used. Therefor this leads the reader to question their true identity and their credibility. The author clearly does this so the reader has less of a chance to connect to either of the women from the writings. John, the husband from the “Yellow Wallpaper”, calls his wife “a little goose” (g) and the author never gives protagonist a name at all. However, in A Doll’s House Torvald, the husband, calls his wife “my squirrel” (A Doll House) even though her name is Nora. By both of the authors not giving the wife's credibility the reader can see how in the Victorian-era most women were trapped in a life style they neither wanted or were happy in. In addition, the author clearly provides the names and job description of both of the husbands which was just another way to support how women were inferior to men during this time period.

        Furthermore, both writings are related to an illness or some type of medical intervention. In the “Yellow Wallpaper,” the main protagonist is recommended to take the rest cure. The rest cure was a treatment where the person would just sit there and not do anything besides rest. This treatment was mainly for women because it was believed that the uterus was not attached and when women started acting up it was because their uterus was not in the right place. While, in A Doll House, Nora borrowed money from Krogstad so that her husband would get treated for his disease. However, Torvald always told Nora to never take a loan from the bank because he would rather die then to owe anyone money.

        However the biggest similarity from of these two works has to the be center focus of breaking away from the life they are stuck in. In the “Yellow Wallpaper” the main character has an internal conflict with herself from being trapped in a room. She struggles with becoming delusional because her husband will not let her be creative due to the rest cure. She finally gets her freedom and John faints at the end switching roles from the inferior to superior. While in A Doll House, the main character Nora realizes that her husband is more in love with the idea of her being around and helping then it actually happening. Nora however does foreshadow her rebellion will come when she eats the macaroons even though Torvald said not too. Nora’s switch in power from inferior and superior happen when she makes the decision to abandon Torvald and find her own independence.