Thesis Statement
In The Yellow Wallpaper and A Doll’s House, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henrik Ibsen depict the symbol of domestic confinement through the stories’ protagonists to illustrate women’s oppression.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Downey, Georgina, Taylor, Mark, and Meade, Terry. Domesticity under siege: Threatened spaces of the modern home. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.
The first source, written by Downey et al., is essential for future study in terms of stressing the peculiarities of the symbol of confinement in literary works. Notably, the authors identify various literary pieces that focus on this issue. In addition, essential information is presented regarding the depiction of controversial and cruel attitudes towards women and the point of domestic violence in a specific period. As a citation from the source regarding domestic violence, such points as the “availability of contraception, advances in women’s political status and education, changing attitudes towards motherhood” are crucial (17). Notably, the ignorance of women’s mental health is a vast problem that was not considered enough in the period described by the authors.
Lovley, J. (2019). Women’s Mental Health in the 19th Century: An Analysis of Sociocultural Factors Contributing to Oppression of Women as Communicated by Influential Female Authors of the Time. The University of Maine, 502. Web.
The source considers the specifications of women’s feelings and health state during a specific period. Noteworthy, in the context of domestic violence or disrespect towards women, this issue can be triggered significantly. In other words, when a woman suffers a lot, she suddenly starts to realize the prompt need for changes and rethinking concerning how she lives. For example, from the book, one can cite, “The young woman is confined to an old nursery room with yellow patterned wallpaper, which becomes her obsession” (28). The book covers aspects of women’s lives, such as female emancipation and the limitations imposed on women in the period when The Yellow Wallpaper was written.
A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
Davis, Maria. Creating your own space: The metaphor of the house in feminist literature. Lexington Books, 2021.
The source is vital for the study due to the stressing of specific metaphors in feminist literature that can be valuable for understanding A Doll’s House and the place of women in it. Mainly, the book covers a question of the story’s protagonist, Nora, who makes a path from a subservient wife to a noble and self-sufficient woman. According to Davis, “many influential writers have used the space of the house to portray women’s conflicts with the society” (9).
Kiran, M. (2020). Contemporaneity in Ibsen’s Plays – an Overview. IJRAR, 7(1). Web.
The book by Kiran et al., 2020 illustrates the peculiarities of Ibsen’s plays in the context of domestic violence, family confrontations, and unfair attitudes toward women (2349). The authors Kiran et al. (2020) state, “some prevailing problems he legendarily addressed have been the constraints on the lives of women in A Doll’s House” (p. 2349). Therefore, this resource is essential for the research because it provides an opportunity to understand the meanings and secret symbols that Ibsen implemented in his literary work. Moreover, the book covers the theme of women’s oppression, which is also a part of both two chosen books.