Chief Editors: Mr. Irshadullah Asim Mohammed, Dr. Yogesh Mohan Gosavi, and Prof. (Dr.) Vineeta Kaur Saluja
Associate Editor: Mrs. Sruthi S
Co-Editors: Dr. S. Rajeswari, Dr. Nikhil Saini, and Ms. Atreyee Banerjee
ISBN: 978-81-985805-1-1
Chapter: 8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59646/mrnc8/321
Author: B. Vidhya Lakshmi
Abstract
This paper examines and explores the struggle for creative and mental freedom in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1892). Woolf’s essay critiques the societal oppression on women and how women were denied with the freedom of basic human desires and their pitiful conditions. Women were considered only as mere puppets and their strings were in the hands of the family, they have to sit, walk, run, smile and dance according to the desire of the family only. This marks her as an obedient woman and qualified for entering the marital life. If this happens without any disturbances, then the parents of her was considered to be respectful and highly prestigious. This was the state of women during the early 20th century, in which the women were not allowed to think, act and live their life independently. In other hand, Gilman’s short story illustrates the psychological consequences that a woman undergoes when she suffers because of the domesticity and creative suppression. The intellectual suppression that was forced on the woman only leads to the outbreak of more severe actions from her. By comparing these texts, this study highlights how financial independence, personal space and a good mental state are crucial for women’s creative expression. Woolf’s argument in words about the vitality of a “room of one’s own” finds a tragic counterpoint in Gilman’s portrayal of woman under the same room, who descents into madness because of the patriarchal control. Ultimately, this paper argues that how both the texts demand for women’s autonomy, illustrating the consequences that takes place because of its absence among the physical and mental state of the normal woman.
References
- Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892.
- Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. 1929.
- Morgan Mushroom. (2017, May 9). How do Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in “A Room of One’s Own” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, use physical space to examine the position of women within society?
- Basirizadeh, F. S., & Soqandi, M. (2019). A Comparative Study of the psychoanalytical Portrayal of the Women Characters by Virginia Woolf and Zoya Pirzad. Britain International of Humanities and Social Sciences (BloHS) Journal, 1(1), 1-8.