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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 6 page paper discusses the stories "Indissoluble Marriage" by Rebecca West and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman from a feminist perspective. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVWesGil.rtf
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"Indissoluble Marriage" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Discussion The two short stories are very different but they both deal with womens issues and relationships. In "Indissoluble Marriage,"
Rebecca West examines a marriage that is held together by violence, bitterness and mutual disappointment, along with the need of the woman to dominate and the need of the man
to be dominated. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives us a finely drawn portrait of a woman slipping into insanity. Before we consider the works, we should
perhaps consider what we mean by a feminist interpretation of literature. Rebecca West says that she has never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: "I only know
that other people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or prostitute" (Feminist Approaches 182). This wry but bitter comment probably characterizes the
feelings of many women who would simply like the freedom to express an opinion and have it taken seriously in the way that men freely express themselves. No one expects
a man to be wrong or silly just for making an observation, and yet women are routinely belittled in this way. Feminist criticism sees the nuances that others miss.
It does not necessarily make men evil or bestial, but it does recognize that we live in a patriarchal society and that the structure of that society informs its literature
(Feminist Approaches 182). "Feminist literary critics try to explain how what they term engendered power imbalances in a give culture are reflected, supported or challenged by literary texts" (Feminist Approaches
182). West says that men seek to dominate women because they fear "they are not doing well enough," so that "all save the few who have cut down the primitive
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