Hysteric Woman: A Study on The Yellow Wallpaper

Shahnaz M S,Dr Rajani B

doi:10.24113/ijellh.v9i5.11057

Abstract

In an unquestionably patriarchal society, women who dissent, who had a voice of her own, one with strong affiliations towards social change were labelled as hysteric and mad. Their symptoms were thoughtfulness, deviation from social behavior, tendency to shout and express one’s emotion, even getting angry were considered as symptoms of hysteria. A hysteric woman is a hopeless woman, the lost one; who needs to be locked up in an attic. The men had two extreme approaches towards these conditions. They either treated women as fragile beings, who need to be cared and nurtured under the protection of men. Or they termed “women with disease” as monstrous, insane, dangerous and despicable beings. These two approaches were unhealthy and were designed to preserve the superiority of masculine self over the feminine. These tags which were labelled on women came from their existential fear; ‘the castration anxiety’.

Highlights

These tags which were labelled on women came from their existential fear; ‘the castration anxiety’
In an unquestionably patriarchal society woman who dissent, who had a voice of her own, one with strong affiliations towards social change were labelled as hysteric and mad
Their symptoms were thoughtfulness, deviation from social behavior, tendency to shout and express one’s emotion, even getting angry were considered as symptoms of hysteria

Summary

Introduction

One of America’s first feminists Charlotte Perkins Gilman brought to light the issues afflicting women in the late 19th and early 20th century. A good proportion of her diary entries from the time she gave birth to her daughter until several years later describe the oncoming depression that she has to face. This was an age in which women were seen as “hysterical” and “nervous” beings; when a woman claimed to be seriously ill after giving birth, her claims were sometimes dismissed.

Results

Conclusion