Literature analysis research
Document Type:Research Paper
Subject Area:Arts
Often the society calls such people mad because they possess danger to the status quo. Notably, branding them as insane is the only way the society can assume control over them. Imagine how gross it sounds to call people insane because they resolve to break away from restrictive and retrogressive social norms in aspiration for change. Societies always inherently have a way of labeling social deviants or forces that tend to oppose and dispel status quo. However, in many cases, the perceived deviant individuals win the cause because they turn out to be the agents of change that is much needed for the society to take the right course. She must be submissive and heed her husband’s authority. The Yellow Wallpaper portrays a doomed marriage in which a couple; the narrator and her husband, are trapped on society’s gender roles with the wife the most entangled patriarchal web.
The patriarchal values h become innate aspects of the narrator’s psyche; she is deeply embedded in the values that she cannot recognize the events in her environment. The narrator does not know what is happening to her. She is incapable of rebelling and turns her frustrations into anger boiling inside her. Esther green is introduced as an intelligent nineteen-year-old working in New York as an intern with a popular women’s magazine. However, Esther feels socially isolated despite her ambition and academic promise. She is discouraged about the future. The early sign of depression is further worsened by the pressure which pushes her to conform to social norms and expectations as the society expects a young woman to be; to stay virgin until she is married, become a wife and eventually a mother (Nickell 18).
Her boss chides her for lacking a clear career focus. Esther life is on the line in search of her true identity so that she can develop a clear perspective to visualize her and the world right before her. In the play A Doll’s house Henrik Ibsen presents the significance of sacrifices women make in playing their roles in families. For centuries women have been perceived as the weaker and inferior gender in many societies. Ibsen however, takes a different view in the play by holding that in marriage men and women must take equal gender roles by doing their tasks so that they can enjoy their individual and married life together. In A Doll’s House, Henrick gives much attention to the sacrifices the central character, Norah Helmer makes sacrifices to maintain her husband’s health and keep her family happy (Dees 4).
How society responds to a mad person’s behavior is more important than the real behavior of that individual Looking at Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath, and Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” the authors influence the actions and behavior of the characters independent from their innate behaviors to portray them as mad. The society puts unusual expectations on women, and when the latter fails to conform to the norms, they get labeled as mad. Gilman for instance employs particular actions of the narrator as mad so that she can emphasize how the society is absurd in its expectations for women. The narrator is a young woman, a mother and newly married to a physician, John.
She is nervous and undergoing care for depression (Amro 146). She wanted to be an independent woman, giving her opinions and too sexual. These traits were deemed inappropriate and dangerous because they were outside social norms so that she was seen as mad. Such a woman would be locked under the authority of a male figure, but in case she was taken in for psychiatric therapy. In “A Doll’s House,” Nora is undergoing moral degradation because of her role in the family. Her husband consistently patronizes her. It was a recommendation by doctors to save Torvald because his condition was deteriorating. The trip would save his life. However, they did not tell Torvald the reason for the holiday. Her husband and old friend Christine, therefore, accuse her of being spendthrift.
Norah however, is secretly working. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child" (286). Being a strong woman who fends for her family, she does not fit the lens of social norms at the Victorian time. She eventually seeks self-determination and breaks away from the marriage, and for the first time in her life, she feels free and independent. How society contributes to the development of mental illness Gilman’s writing opposed how society considered normal gender roles, especially for medical interventions. The writer had personally struggled with her depression. The society therefore heavily contributed to her mental illness. In “A Doll’s House,” Ibsen shows how societal pressures make Nora mad gradually. Nora is a nice lady who is committed to her family and parents.
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