A Study of Feminist Issues in Susan Glaspell’s A Jury

of Her Peers and

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper

By: Bilal Abdulmalik

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Addis Ababa University

June 2013

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A Study of Feminist Issues in Susan Glaspell’s A Jury

of Her Peers and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow

Wallpaper

By: Bilal Abdulmalik

A Senior Essay Submitted to the Department of Foreign

Languages and Literature, College of Humanities, Language

Studies, Journalism and Communication Presented in Partial

Fulfillments of the Requirements of the Bachelor of Arts

Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature (English)

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Addis Ababa University

June 2013

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments……………………………………………….…………………………..i

Dedication…………………………………………………………….……………………..ii

Chapter One..................................................1

1.1. Background of the study.................................1

1.2. Statement of the problem................................3

1.3. Significance of the study...............................3

1.4. Objectives of the study.................................4

1.4.1. General objective.....................................4

1.4.2. Specific Objectives...................................4

1.5. Delimitation/scope/ of the study........................5

1.6. Limitations of the study................................5

1.7. Methods and procedures of the study.....................5

1.8. Organization of the study...............................6

1.9. Notes about the authors under study.....................6

1.9.1. Susan Glaspell........................................6

1.9.2. Synopsis of A Jury of Her Peers............................8

1.9.3. Charlotte Perkins Gilman..............................8

1.9.4. A synopsis of The Yellow Wall paper.......................10

Chapter Two.................................................11

Review of Related Literature................................11

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2.1. The Basis of Feminist Thoughts.........................11

2.2. The Concept of Feminism................................11

2.3. The Three Waves of Feminism............................13

2.3.1. First Wave Feminism..................................13

2.3.2. Second Wave Feminism.................................14

2.3.3. Third Wave Feminism..................................15

2.4. Major Divisions of Feminism............................16

2.4.1. Liberal Feminism.....................................16

2.4.2. Radical Feminism.....................................16

2.5. Patriarchy.............................................17

2.6. Feminist Literary Criticism............................19

2.6.1. The Basis of Feminist Literary Criticism.............19

2.6.2. The Concept of Feminist Literary Criticism...........20

2.6.3. The Emergence of Feminist Literary Criticism.........21

2.6.4. Major Divisions of Feminist Literary Criticism.......22

2.6.4.1. The Analysis of Images of Women in Works of Male

Writers.....................................................23

2.6.4.2. The Case against Phallic Criticism.................24

2.6.4.3. Perspective Feminist Literary Criticism............25

Chapter Three...............................................28

Textual Analysis............................................28

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3.1. Features of oppressive marital relationship in A Jury of Her

peers and....................................................28

The Yellow Wallpaper............................................28

3.1.1. Marital Entrapment in A Jury of Her Peers.................28

3.1.2. Marital Entrapment in The Yellow Wallpaper...............30

3.1.3. The Need for Freedom Symbolize through a Bird in A Jury of

Her Peers.....................................................31

3.1.4. The Feature of an Oppressive Husband in A Jury of Her Peers

............................................................32

3.1.5. The Feature of an Oppressive Husband in The Yellow

Wallpaper.....................................................33

3.2. Sisterhood in A Jury of Her Peers...........................39

3.2.1. Mrs. Hale............................................39

3.2.2. Mrs. Peters..........................................41

3.2.3. Bird as a Reason for Women’s Bond (Sisterhood) in A Jury

of Her Peers...................................................46

3.3. Men’s Stereotypical Attitude towards the Role and

Behavior of Women in A Jury of Her Peers..........................47

3.4. Patriarchal Hegemony and Women’s Struggle in the sense of

Sisterhood Reflected in The Yellow Wallpaper..................50

Chapter Four................................................55

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Conclusion..................................................55

Bibliography

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Acknowledgments

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Linda

Yohannes for the devoted guidance, help, and constructive

comments she gave me throughout the course of the paper. It is

very delight to work under her supervision.

My heartfelt thanks go to my instructor, Ato Qulqullu Ejo, who

inspires me to work on feminist theory. The discussions I held

with him insights me about the notion of the concept. I am

very much indebted to his kindness.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank my friend Yonas

Kenfe., for his assistance and W/ro Fikerte Dessalwe for

typing the manuscript.

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Dedication

This paper is dedicated to my beloved mom and her fellow

symbol of strong womanhood.

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Chapter One

1.1. Background of the study

Though the conditions which women are entitled such as rights,

power, and opportunities have been improved, still a social,

cultural, economic, and even psychological change is needed to

empower them.

Literature, as other mediums, can play its role by presenting

gender representation (feminist issues) and deals with the

lives of marginalized and oppressed women. By doing so, it

unveils the fate of those helpless women and how traditional

gender roles and gender inequality affect them. In addition to

this, it also present women’s struggle against patriarchal

system in a given society.

Throughout history, works of women writers were deliberately

devalued by male literary critics for various reasons. The

books which concern the life of an abused woman is not a

headache for a male critic, Cheri Register, et.al (1989:10)

put the situation as:

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Only experiences encountered by male character are called “universal” or

basic to “the human condition.” The “female experience” is peripheral to the

central concern of literature which is man’s struggle with nature, God, fate,

himself, and not infrequently woman. Woman is always the Other

In addition to this, Mary Ellman in her book, Thinking About Women

(1968:33) assert the claim as: ‘’The working rule is simple, basic: There

must be two literatures like two public toilets, one for men and the other for

women.’’

In this regard; we can easily understand that it is quite

impossible for a female writer to gain a wider acceptance if

her work is revolves around the life of an abused women and

deals with feminine experience, due to men’s stereotypical

assumption about the works of women.

Men’s stereotype about the role (being a “good” wife that

concerns only kitchen matters) and the behavior (passive,

timid, irrational, dependent, and hysteric, etc) of women

drives many female authors to expose the impact of patriarchal

domination on women and their struggle to break the chains.

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In the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, when the status

of women was far worse, two American early feminist writers,

Susan Glaspell and Charlotte Perkins Gilman produced profound

feminist literary pieces about the life of women trapped by

their oppressive husbands. Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers

(1917) is a story about a farm wife who is abused and lost her

happiness and hope by her dominant husband; meanwhile,

Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, (1892) is a story of a helpless un-

named protagonist who is in a the post-partum depression and

her physical and psychological confinement by her physician

husband led her to a total insanity.

Both writers of the two short stories widely considered as the

figures of early feminist literary movements and their works

as a stepping stone for modern feminist literary texts of the

Western world, especially for the United States.

Due to the above considerations, the researcher believes that

it is very essential to study the feminist issues reflected in

the stories and to analyze the similarities and differences in

the women’s experience.

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1.2. Statement of the problem

Most feminists consider patriarchy as the oldest and major

form of oppression which strives for the maintenance of male’s

domination over women by denying the means of empowerment of

the latter, as Lois Tyson puts it:

Patriarchy continually undermine women’s self-confidence and assertiveness,

then points to the absence of these qualities as proof that women are

naturally and therefore correctly by self –effacing and submissive. (2006: 86)

Similarly, the women in both stories are oppressed by the

patriarchal husbands who deny them the physical and

psychological independence, and made them submissive.

So as to identify the nature and extent of patriarchal

domination/oppressive marriages/ in the lives of the female

protagonists, this research aims to answer the following

research questions:

A. What feminist issues are revealed in both A Jury of Her Peers and

The Yellow Wallpaper?

B. What are the impacts of oppressive marriage in female

protagonists of A Jury of Her Peers and The Yellow wallpaper?

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C. How do the female protagonists struggle against their

oppressive husbands/ patriarchal domination/ in the stories?

D. What similarities and differences are reflected in feminist

issues of the stories?

1.3. Significance of the study

Studying issues related with gender representation (feminist

issues) can have many importance for all interested in and

concerned about the subject. It is known that there are many

feminist literary studies conducted by many researchers at

various levels. This research, by focusing on short stories

that have a semi-biographical account, solely about

oppressive marital relationships, manifestation of early

American feminist literary works, and overseen by most of AAU

researchers,(both in under and post-graduate programs),aims to

contributes in the following ways:

A. It gives a glance of the role women played in the late 19th

and early 20 th century America

B .It gives the glimpse of the impact of patriarchy in the

lives women in that period

C .It tries to show the features of Western Feminism depicted

in the selected stories

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D .It can also serve as a reference for those interested in

studying similar issues

1.4. Objectives of the study

It is known that the aim of any feminist literary study is to

analyze how the female characters are presented in a given

literary piece, i.e. assess the images of women in a given

fictional product. In addition to this, feminist literary

studies try to examine the presentation of common feminine

experiences of marginalization, oppression, and stereotype,

physical and psychological abuse of women in a fictional work.

The objectives of this particular research are also similar

with the above considerations.

The objectives are divided in to two: general and specific:

1.4.1. General objective

The general objective of the research is to study and discuss

feminist issues revealed in the two short stories: A Jury of Her

Peers and The Yellow Wallpaper.

1.4.2. Specific Objectives

The research will have the following specific objectives:

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A. Investigate the impacts of patriarchal hegemony in the

lives of female protagonists of the stories

B. Explore the reaction/ struggle/ of the female protagonists

with the male-dominated socio-cultural system.

C. Show the similarities and differences reflect in feminist

issues of the stories

1.5. Delimitation/scope/ of the study

Feminism is a very broad and complex concept which many issues

can be raised and discussed, in this regard; it is very

difficult to deal with all feminist issues in a single study.

Thus, this study is delimited to studying oppressive marital

relationship, sisterhood, men’s stereotype and women’s

struggle against patriarchal hegemony in A Jury of

Her Peers and The Yellow Wallpaper from a Western Feminist

perspective and does not include other issues in the

aforementioned stories.

1.6. Limitations of the study

A. Studying a wide and complex concept (feminist literary

theory) in a few available books and

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B. Lack of previous research works (especially in under

graduate level), are the major constraints of the study.

1.7. Methods and procedures of the study

This study is textual analysis in nature, i.e. the analysis is

text-based. The primary sources of the study-A Jury of Her Peers and

The Yellow Wallpaper, will be critically read and analyzed. In

addition to this primary sources, the secondary sources-

references and previous research works will be used to widen

the scope of the analysis and as an input for literature

review. So as to reach the conclusion, major issues in the

stories: oppressive marital relationship, sisterhood, men’s

stereotype and women’s struggle against patriarchal hegemony

will be analyzed from Western Feminist perspective.

1.8. Organization of the study

This research is organized in four major chapters: chapter one

includes the background, statement, significance, objectives,

scope, limitations and methods of the study. Chapter two is

meant for review of related literature about the concept,

waves and major divisions of feminism. It also includes the

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concepts of patriarchy and feminist literary criticism.

Chapter three present the discussion and analysis (findings)

of the study. The last chapter, i.e., chapter four gives the

conclusion of the study.

1.9. Notes about the authors under study

In this part, the biographies of the authors of the two short

stories are presented and the synopses of the stories are

given.

1.9.1. Susan Glaspell

Susan Keating Glaspell was born in July 1; 1876.She was an

American Pulitzer Prize-Winning playwright, actress, director,

novelist, biographer, poet, and journalist.

A best-selling author in her own time, Glaspell’s novels fell

out of print after her death, during which time she was

remembered primarily for writing Eugene O’Neil and Trifles (1916), a

one act play frequently cited as one of the greatest works of

American theater.

Critical reassessment has led to renewed interest in her

career, and she is today recognized as pioneering feminist and

America’s first modern female playwright.

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A prolific writer, Glaspell is known to have published over

fifty short stories, nine novels, and fourteen plays. Often in

her native Iowa, Midwestern United States, these semi auto

biographical tales explore controversial issues such as

women’s rights, dissent and inequality, while featuring deep

sympathetic characters that take principled stands.

She wrote a biography of her late husband called The Road to the

Temple in 1927.In this period she wrote three novels: the best

selling, Brook Evans (1928), Fugitive’s return (1929) and Ambrose Holt

and Family (1931).She also wrote the play, Alison’s House, for which

she was awarded the Pulitzer prize, one of the most

controversial awards in the prize’s history.

Susan Glaspell died in July 27, 1948 at the age of 72.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org./wiki/susan Glaspell.

Feminist Obsession

Glaspell has become more widely known for her anthologized

works: the short story A Jury of Her Peers and her one act play

Trifles. These two works have, in the last twenty years, become

staples of women‘s studies curricula across the United States

and the world.

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According to Belasco and Johnson The Bedford Anthology of American

Literature, Glaspell originally wrote Trifles based on the murder of

John Hossack, which she reported on while working as a news

journalist for Des Moines Daily News. Hossack’s wife,

Margaret, was accused of killing her husband. However;

Margaret argued that an intruder had killed John with an axe.

She was convicted but it was overturned on appeal. (2008:782)

It is widely believed that this incident inspired her to make

her engage with feminist literature and serve as an input for

her play Trifles.

Bryan, Patricia L .and Thomas Wolf in Midnight Assassin, put the

relationship between Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers as follows:

Years later the hunting image of Margaret Hossack’s kitchen came rushing

back to Glaspell. In span of a one act play, ‘Trifles,’ a year later, she reworked

the material to a short story titled ‘A Jury of Her Peers.’ (2005: xii-xiii)

In this regard, we easily understand that A Jury of Her Peers is

adopted from the play a year after Trifles was written

1.9.2. Synopsis of A Jury of Her Peers

The story is set in the beginning of 20th century’s America, in

Dickinson County, Nebraska. The story starts with a

description of Marta Hale, a farmer wife’s, house description.

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It proceeds by narrating the purpose of Marta’s departure in

that bad weather condition, to accompany the sheriff’s wife to

a now suspect, for ages her best friend, Minnie Wright’s

house.

Mrs. Wright is detained suspected of killing her husband in

bed. Marta Hale, frequently accusing herself for failing to

visit her neighbor, closely understands the similarities of

her and Minnie’s life and how oppressive husband snatches what

the latter had before.

The other woman, Mrs. Peters, who asks Martha’s company, come

to Minnie’s home to collect clothes and other things for the

detainee. Mr. Hale, Mrs. Hale’s husband, was the eye witness

of the incident and come to the house to tell what he had seen

to the sheriff and the attorney. The two men, Mr. Peters and

Mr. Henderson came to the crime scene for investigation

purposes.

The story shows the different ways which men and women take to

uncover the crime leads them to the different outcomes.

1.9.3. Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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According to Herland (1979), Charlotte Anna Perkins was born in

Hartford, Connecticut, USA on July 3, 1860.Charlotte and her

brother grew up in an unhappy, cheerless home. Mother and

children live on the edge of poverty, moving nineteen times in

eighteen years to fourteen different cities.

As a young woman still living at home, Charlotte Perkins

supported herself as a designer of greeting cards, an art

teacher, and governess .In 1884, after much vacillation, she

reluctantly married Charles Walter Stetson, a local artist.

After having her first daughter ,Charlotte becomes so deeply

depressed and despondent that she consulted S. Weir Mitchell,

the well-known Philadelphia neurologist who specialized in

women’s nervous disorders .Mitchell’s famous “rest cure”

forbade Charlotte Stetson from ever writing and sharply

limited her reading time. The treatment almost drove her mad.

After she fled to California away from husband and child, the

depression lifted. When she divorced from Stetson, she moved

permanently to California, met Ellery Channing, whom she

finally marries.

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During these difficult times, she launched her writing and

lecturing carrier. In 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper appeared a bitter

story of young women driven mad by her loving husband doctor,

who, with the purest motives imposed Michelle’s rest cure. In

1893 she published a book of verse, In This Our World. In 1894, she

edited The Impress, a journal of the Pacific Women’s Association.

She wrote her most famous book, Women and Economy in

1898.Charrlotte wrote her Utopian Feminist novel Herland in

1915. She pursues her writing and published Man Made World, (Our

Andocentric Culture), in 1922. In 1923, she produces a long time-

taken book Study of the Faith of Our Fathers and the Work of Our Mothers.

In 1900, after a long and agonizing courtship, she married

George Houghton Gilman, her first cousin. Houghton died in

1934, two years after Charlotte Gilman had learned that she

suffered from inoperable cancer.

In 1935, Gilman completed her autobiography, The Living of Charlotte

Perkins Gilman. In this book she said goodbye to her family, and

with the chloroform she had been accumulating, ended her life.

The notes she left appears in the last pages of her

autobiography presents as:

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No grief, pain, misfortune or “broken heart’’ is excuse for cutting off one’s life

while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one

is assured of unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human

rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one…I

have preferred chloroform to cancer.(ibid: vi-ix)

1.9.4. A synopsis of The Yellow Wall paper

The story begins with the narration of the unnamed protagonist

about the house, which her physician husband rented for her to

cure from her post-partum depression. She gives a detail

description of a jail- like nursery and her husband and his

sister’s refusals her from writing a dairy, what she thinks

the only activity she can get relief.

Due to her confinement in a single room, the narrator impress

by the yellow wall paper of her bed room. Its strange design

and smell arouse her obsession. When her obsession on the

wallpaper increases, she sees the trapped woman whom struggle

to escape from the wall paper, but failed to escape. Having

decided to help the women to get rid off from the wallpaper,

she pursues pealed of the wallpaper and finally realizes that

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the woman whom she has seen in that wallpaper is not another

woman, but herself.

Chapter Two

2. Review of Related Literature

2.1. The Basis of Feminist Thoughts

Josephine Donovan in her book Feminist Literary Criticism put the

historical and existing male’s oppression is the cause for the

formulation of feminist thoughts as:

It is politically necessary to claim that there is a group of humans (women)

that is oppressed by ‘men’ or patriarchy, because no movement can constitute

without identity and communality. (1989: xi)

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In other hand, she claims that feminist movement is made by

not feminism needs women’s oppression, rather the historical

and prevailing mistreatment of women led to feminist

movements.

2.2. The Concept of Feminism

Due to the variation of women oppression factors (gender,

economy, race, culture, geography, etc), it is a bit complex

to define the term ‘feminism’ in simple terms; however, most

scholars agree that feminism is the advocacy of women’s

social, economic, political and cultural equality. Encyclopedia of

Feminist Literature (2006:194), defines feminism as ‘’a term for an

amalgam of positive, pro-woman philosophies.’’

This point to the major concern of feminism as the advocacy of

women’s rights. This point is further strengthened by Richard

J. Evans as: ‘‘Feminism is defined as the doctrine of equality for women,

based on the theory of equality of the sexes.’’(1977:39).

This shows the heart of feminism- struggling for the creation

of gender equality.

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Studying sex and the way it is related with gender is also one

of the major concerns of feminism. Ruth Robbins in her book

Introduction to Literary Feminisms assert the above claim as:

Feminism is the political movement that explores the conflation of the

condition of being female (a biological category) with being feminine (a social

or cultural classification), (2000:6)

This indicates the foundation of feminism: the relationship

between sex (the biological difference between men and women)

and gender (the socially and culturally constructed

discrepancy between masculine and feminine) and how this

relation is constructed in patriarchal system.

Presenting how lower economic status is a means of women’s

oppression and gender inequality is the other major concern of

feminism .Margaret Bengesten presents the situation as:

In a society in which money determines value, women are a group of people

who work outside the money economy .Their work is not worth money and it

is valueless, therefore, it is not even real work. And women themselves, who

do this valueless work, can hardly be expected to be worth as much as men,

who work for money. (1977:462)

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This shows economic factors (women’s economic dependence on

men) can cause their oppression.

In addition to the above issues, feminism also struggles

against the objectification of women (presenting them as

sexual objects), rape and other forms of violence.

Generally, feminism is not the question of deciding what a

woman is by nature .It is rather a question of examining what

a woman is assumed to be in a society or culture.

2.3. The Three Waves of Feminism

The history of feminist movements is classified in three major

waves (stages):

2.3.1. First Wave Feminism

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) taken

as the beginning of first wave feminism in Europe, especially

in the United Kingdom. However, due to various reasons, the

organized women’s movement is not started until mid-19th

century. (Margaret Walters 2005).

In the United States feminism emerged along anti-slavery

movements. In 1848, Women organized a Convention in Seneca

Falls, New York, and campaigned for rights, primarily for the

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right to vote (suffrage) and other rights like owning property

and access to education (ibid).

Margaret stressed that the Seneca Falls Convention is widely

regarded as the beginning of first wave feminism in the United

States. She points that Virginia Woolf was the leading figure

of Western feminism of the period. In A Room of One’s Own (1929),

Woolf coined a phrase ‘500 per year and space to oneself’ to

prioritizing the need of women’s economic independence to free

themselves totally from men’s cast and able to write. Virginia

also condemns patriarchy for wasting the creative abilities of

women writers like George Elliot and Charlotte Bronte. To this

effect, Virginia invents Judith Shakespeare, sister of William

Shakespeare, as genius as her brother, but in her inability to

go to school, she despair and finally commits suicide. (ibid)

In Three Guineas, Virginia points the shadow of fascism and war

and compare women’s struggle with patriarchy with men’s

struggle against fascism as:

Those nineteenth century women were in fact the advance guard of your own

movement.

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They were fighting the tyranny of patriarchal state as you are fighting the

tyranny of Fascist state. (2005:2)

2.3.2. Second Wave Feminism

According to Margaret Walters (2005), second wave feminism

emerged after the Second World War. She points that there were

many Western feminist writers in the period. Among these, the

French feminist, Simone de Beauvoir was the prominent one and

her masterpiece, The Second Sex (1949) is widely regard as the

beginning of the second wave feminism. Margaret presents that

in her book de Beauvoir discusses how women have been denied

humanity and their rights throughout history. She also quotes

the following extract from the book.

Man remodels the face of the earth, he creates new instruments, he invents,

he shapes the future; Women on the other hand, is always the Other, she is

seen by and for men, always the object and never the subject.(2005:96)

This implies the essence of patriarchy- a male dominance in

every aspect of

life and how it enforced women to learn masculine standards

at the expense of the true female identity. She quotes De

Beauvoir’s famous quote ‘’One is not born but rather becomes a

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woman’’ to substantiate the latter’s claim of femininity is

learned from the society.

Margaret also mentions Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963)

as the other major feminist work of the period in Western

world. The book is about how the societal restrictions lead to

depression in the life of white middle class American women.

(ibid)

The third book mentioned by Margaret is Kate Millet’s Sexual

Politics (1970).The book is analyzes the relationship between

patriarchy and politics in the way the relationship between

dominant man and subordinate woman. (ibid)

Margaret also refers Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex

(1970), a book which Firestone argues that gender, not class

is a primary cause for women’s oppression. (ibid)

According to Cudd and Anderson (2005) cited in Thomas (2009),

the four major features of the second wave feminism can be

summarized as follows:

-The movement gives much stress about the personal experience

of a single woman- The Personal Is Political.

-It strives for full equality of women.

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-Unlike the first wave, it includes many issues like marriage,

motherhood and sexuality.

-It is more radical and visionary than the first wave.

- It is concerned about issues related with reproductions

(maternity).

2.3.3. Third Wave Feminism

According to Thomas (2009) third wave feminism began in the

1990s and extends to the present. Its primary claim is that

the second wave feminism ignored the fact of non-white women

and presented the case of middle-class white women as

universal fact. According to Oyewumi (1997) because of the

hegemonic power of the west, feminist thought is imposed on

the third world scholarship, so the social categories ‘man’

and’ woman’ have been imposed on third world feminist thought

system and enforce the gender-oriented oppression of the West

is work for all women in the world. In other words third wave

feminist advocators believe that the Western feminists fails

to acknowledge the cultural, economic, religious and social

factors played in facilitating women’s oppression and try to

impose their gender-based women oppression thought on other

non-white women.

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According to Cudd and Anderson (2005) cited in Thomas (2009)

third wave feminism taken as a counter –reaction for Western

feminism by stressing the role of racial, ethnic, class,

cultural and religious differences of women play in

facilitating women’s oppression in addition to gender.

Bryson (2003) cited in Thomas (2009) points out that third

wave feminism is criticized for giving much emphasis to

individual differences and denying the concept of women’s

collective experience.

2.4. Major Divisions of Feminism

The diversity of the causes of gender inequality initiated

different movements .The aim of all these movements (sub-

theories of feminism) is to find out the primary cause of

women‘s oppression.

2.4.1. Liberal Feminism

Barker (2008) cited in Thomas (2009) describes the primary

concern of liberal feminism is to show how the socio-economic

and cultural factors brings differences between men and women

and how these differences cause women’s oppression.

In addition to this, liberal feminists aim to bring equal

opportunity for women in every sphere of life without a

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drastic change in the existing legal and economic frame works.

(ibid)

2.4.2. Radical Feminism

According to Bryson (2003) and Donovan (1993) cited in Thomas

(2009) that the beginning of radical feminism is associated

with the 1960s and 70s Women’s Movement in the USA.

Eskinder (2009) mentions that the existing role of women (to

be a secretary, housewife, and prostitute, to serve the

political, domestic, and sexual needs of males) drove women‘s

struggle against the patriarchal system.

Radical feminists argue that a biological difference between

men and women is the cause of women’s oppression. In other

words, they claim that women’s child -bearing responsibility

weakens women physically and being the cause for male’s

supremacy. To overcome this problem, the women insist on the

abolition of the whole sex-role including marriage, family and

childbearing. (ibid)

Thomas (2009) presents Bryson’s distinctive characteristics of

radical feminism as follows:

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-Radical feminists identified patriarchy as the root cause of

women’s oppression.

-Due to universality of women’s subjection and

marginalization, they claim the necessity of terminating the

patriarchal system.

-Radical feminists seek the collaboration and communality

(sisterhood) of women to struggle for their rights and

freedom.

-They stress the need to create a separate institution and

relationship between men and women.

2.5. Patriarchy

Patriarchy is the focal point of feminism. John Stoltenberg

(2004) defines the term patriarchy as: ‘’ The cultural norm of male

identity consists of power, prestige, privilege, and prerogative as and against the

gender class woman’’ (p.41)

In other hand Lois Tyson puts patriarchy as: ‘’ any culture that

privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles.’’ (2006:85). Both the

above definitions assert the fact that patriarchy is the male-

dominated cultural system which gives superiority for men by

deliberately marginalizing women, in other words, it is a

26

discriminatory socio –cultural system which benefits men at

the expense of women.

According to Tyson, patriarchy works through constructing

gender and attributes every good quality for men and the

negatives ones for women, she explains the situation as:

Traditional gender role cast men as rational, strong, protective, and

decisive; they cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing, and

submissive.

(ibid)

To her these gender roles used to justify women’s inequality

as natural, i.e. women are told that they are inferior to male

by birth. The physiological difference between male and woman

present pejoratively used to justify women are physically and

emotionally weaker than men and it is unalterable

fact .According to her this kind of belief is known as

biological essentialism. She says:

Patriarchy is thus by definition, sexist, which means it promotes the belief

that women are innately inferior to men. This belief in the inborn inferiority of

women is a form of what is called biological essentialism because it is based

27

on biological differences between the sexes that are considered part of our

unchanging essence as men and women. (ibid)

Tyson also explains the difference between sex (the biological

difference between men and women) and gender (the socially and

culturally constructed discrepancy between masculine and

feminine) and how it is constructed through the process of

what is called social constructionism, i.e. both men and women

are shaped and reshaped by the cultural system to adopt the

characteristic traits which are traditionally associated with

being feminine and masculine.

She asserted the fact that the prevailing low status of women

in every aspect of life does not emanates from women being

born inferior from men. Rather, it is the effect of the

deliberate efforts of the patriarchal system to disempowered

women by denying them the educational and work opportunities

which help the women to stand on their own feet and to keep

them powerless. She says:

The belief that men are superior to women has been used ,feminists have

observed, to justify and maintain the male monopoly of positions of economic

,political ,and social power, in other words, to keep women powerless by

28

denying them the educational and occupational means of acquiring

economic, political and social power. That is inferior position long occupied

by women in patriarchal society has been culturally not biologically produced.

(ibid: 86)

She also discusses the essence of femininity in patriarchal

view point that a submissive, tolerant with family abuse and

view marriage as the reward, are the characteristics of a

‘good’ woman. She describes patriarchy’s perception of women

identity as:

Patriarchal ideology suggests that there are only two identities women can

have. If she accepts her traditional gender roles and obeys the patriarchal

rules, she is a ‘good’ girl; if she doesn’t, she is a ‘bad ‘girl. (ibid: 89).

This implies that the attribute of being ‘good’ and ‘bad’

girls is calculated in how the woman is related to patriarchal

order.

2.6. Feminist Literary Criticism

2.6.1. The Basis of Feminist Literary Criticism

A female writing (a book which is written by a female writer)

can not to be called as a feminist writing unless it depicts

29

women’s mistreatment and abuse by patriarchal system. Toril

Moi substantiates this clam as:

We can now define as female, writing by women ,bearing in mind that this

label does not say anything at all about the nature of that writing, as

feminist, writing which takes a discernible anti-patriarchal and ant -sexist

position; and as feminine, writing which seems to be marginalized,

repressed, silenced by the ruling social/linguistic/order. (1985:10)

This indicates that the text written by a female writer can

not suffice to be referred as a feminist text unless it

presents a typical feminine experience of marginalization,

stereotype and abuse of women by the sexiest cultural system.

Josephine Donovan in her book, Feminist Literary Criticism, put the

basis of feminist literary criticism as: ‘’Feminist criticism is rooted

in the fundamentals priori intuitions that women are seat of consciousness: are

selves, not alters.’’ (1983:17).

This shows the basis of feminist literary criticism is the

women’s need to get a real representation of themselves and

their lives.

2.6.2. The Concept of Feminist Literary Criticism

30

Our pervious discussion give us an insight that feminist

literary criticism is the study, analysis, evaluation, and

interpretation of women’s representation in literature written

by both male and female writers .A more elaborate definition

of feminist literary criticism is presents as follows.

Marcia Holly (1977) cited in Cheri Register (1989), presents

the notion of feminist literary criticism as:

Feminist criticism represents the repudiation of pervious formulation about

women. It has emerged from a radical perspective about literature and sex

roles, and it is a tentative beginning in the development of feminist aesthetic –

one is that is fundamentally at odds with masculinist value standards,

measuring literature against an understanding authentic female life.

(1989:46).

This implies the major concerns of feminist literary

criticism: stands to reject and correct the previous

stereotype about women, focus on how literature is influenced

by patriarchal thought, create a distinguished women tradition

which differs from the male one, and to asses’ literature from

women’s real life experience.

Josephine on other hand put the essence of feminist literary

criticism in this way:

31

Feminist literary criticism and the study of literature and history from a

feminist point of view are forms of praxis. They should enable women as

readers and as writers to break their culture of silence, to locate within a

political spectrum and to envisage and work toward alternatives. Moreover

the study of women’s literature and art inherently empowering women

because it strengthens our identity as women and thus creates a greater

sense of political solidarity. (1989: xiii).

This signifies the role of feminist literary criticism played

in breaking the chains which is imposed on women to bear their

mistreatment and how it creates the way to express their

abuse. In addition to this, feminist literary criticism

strengthens women’s bond by depicting the communal

mistreatments of women characters and creates a feeling of

sisterhood between a woman writer and reader.

Lois Tyson, on other hand, says feminist literary criticism:

‘’Examines the ways in which literature…reinforces or undermines the economic,

political, social and ideological oppression of women’’. (2006:83) Tyson’s

definition stresses on the role of feminist literary criticism

played to magnify or devalue women’s oppression.

2.6.3. The Emergence of Feminist Literary Criticism

32

According to A History of Feminist Literary Criticism (2007), feminist

literary criticism formally begins with the second wave

feminist movements which was initiated in 1960s and 1970s in

the United States and Europe, but this does not mean that a

feminist literary criticism fully emerged from women’s

movement, rather it is a culmination of centuries of women’s

writing and men and women writing about women’s minds, bodies,

arts and ideas. (ibid)

Cheri Register(1989) in other hand ,mentions different

organization and publications in which feminist critics

exchange ideas in the USA, like Women’s Caucus for the Modern

Languages, International Institute of Women Studies, Women Studies

Newsletter, Alpha, The Velvet Glove, etc. which all play a

significant role for the art to reach the present stage.

2.6.4. Major Divisions of Feminist Literary Criticism

According to Elaine Showlater (1977) cited in Susan Manly

(2007), feminist literary criticism has two kinds of writing:

‘feminist critique’ and ‘gynocritics’. Manly puts it as:

Feminist critique …focuses on the analysis of women as readers and as

textual subjects, both of male –and female –authored works. In the other

33

words, feminist critique is concerned with woman as ‘the consumer of male

produced literature’ ,with what happens when we consciously reflect on what

it means to read as a woman, and to become aware of the significance of

sexual codes and stereotype

embedded within a given text.(2007:47)

About the second type of feminist writing ‘gynocritics’, Manly

says: ‘’it focus on the theory and practice of women as writers, i.e.’ woman as the

producer of textual meaning.’’(ibid)

In other hand, Cheri Register (1989) classified feminist

literary criticism in to three

Subdivisions:

A. The analysis of images of women in works of male writers,

B. The case against ‘phallic criticism’ and

C. Perspective feminist criticism

2.6.4.1. The Analysis of Images of Women in Works of Male

Writers

Cheri Register in her article American Feminist Criticism (1989)

mentions Kate Millet’s thought of the dehumanized example of

womanhood in the novels of male writers emanates from the

34

anti-female attitudes underlying the actual political

relationship between the sexes. She also points that the

tendency is as old as patriarchy itself and not bound by human

boundaries.

Feminist critics point that this proliferation of female

stereotypes and the lack of realistic woman characters in

literature have devastating effect in individual female

consciousness. (ibid)

Josephine Donovan presents the role men’s literature commonly

ascribed to women as:

Woman in literature written by men are for the most part seen as ‘Other’ as

object of interest only in so far they serve or detract from the goals for the

male protagonist. Such literature is alien from a female point of view because

it denies her essential selfhood. (1983:17).

This implies that woman in literature serve one purpose, - the

exaltation of the male protagonist.

Leslie Fiedler (1966) cited in Cheri Register (1989), assert

the above claim as:

There are only two set of expectations and a single imperfect kind woman

caught between them; only actual incomplete females looking in vain for a

35

satisfactory definition of their role in a land of artists who insists on treating

them as goddess or bitches .The dream role and the nightmare role alike

deny the humanity of women.(ibid:7)

This presents the fact that literature written by male

writer’s most often deny women’s dignity and present them for

the sake of flirting or sexual interests.

2.6.4.2. The Case against Phallic Criticism

According to Cheri (1989) phallic criticism /also called

biological put down criticism/ is the alleged critical

treatment of female writers.

Cheri points that phallic criticism has the following three

claims:

1 .Male literary critics fail to discuss female writers,

without regard to their sex

2. They ignore many female writers altogether and

3. They have a myopic tendency to make universal statements on

the basis of male experience.

Kimberly Snow (1970) cited in Cheri (1989), gives her

explanation about phallic criticism as follows:

The biological put down, in which women characters or authors are seen only

in biological terms, in perennial favorite in criticism. For example, one critic

36

divides Faulkner’s women in to cows and bitches and another relates the

poems of Emily Dickinson to her menstrual cycles. Male characters and

authors however, are not reduced to their biological functions or

characteristics. (ibid: 8)

Mary Ellman (1977) cited in Cheri (1989), substantiate the

Snow’s explanation in the following way:

The discussion of women’s books by men will arrive punctually at the point of

preoccupation, which is the fact of femininity. Books by women are treated as

though they themselves were women. (ibid: 8)

This shows that male literary critic doesn’t take female

writers as writers without considering about their sex.

According to Cheri, phallic criticism denies women’s ability

to write a classic book and if they do so, it claims it is

done unconsciously.

Thirdly, she points to male literary critics’ tendency of

making a universal statement on the basis of male’s

perspective and despise women’s experience. She quotes

Virginia Woolf’s thought as:

37

This is an important book because it deals with war. This is an insignificant

book because it deals with the feeling of women in a drawing-room.

(ibid: 10)

2.6.4.3. Perspective Feminist Literary Criticism

Perspective feminist literary criticism is the guide line to

take a particular literary work as a feminist or not. Kate

Millet (1963) cited in Cheri (1989), stress that female

writers should not be forced to bind to literary convention

and can use their own subjectivity to create their female

characters. Cheri puts Millet’s parameters of feminist

literary texts as follows:

To win a feminist acclaim, a literary work by a woman must first of all be

authentic it need not be politically orthodox ,nor even interpretative, so long

as it is a realistic representation of ‘’female experience,’’ ‘’feminine

consciousness,’’ or ‘’female reality.’’ (1989:12).

Cheri Register puts the essence of perspective feminist

criticism as:

Because of its origin in women’s liberation movement, feminist criticism

values that has some use to the movement. Perspective criticism then is best

defined in terms of the ways in which literature can serve the cause of

liberation. To earn feminist approval, literature must perform one of the

38

following functions (1) serve as a form of women;(2) help to achieve cultural

androgyny ;(3)provide role models;(4) promote sisterhood; and (5)augment

consciousness raising.(ibid:19)

1. Forum of Women (Gynocriticism)

Cheri stresses the forum of women aims to create self-

expressing ways of women and free from men’s intervene. She

quotes Ellen Morgan’s thought about the forum as:

Feminist criticism should, I believe encourage an art true to women’s

experience and not filtered through a male perspective or constrained to fit

male standards.(ibid:19).

This forum is known as ‘gynocriticism’ roughly defines as the

study and analysis of women’s work by other women.

Elaine Showlater(1987) cited in Cheri (1989), defines

gynocrticism as:

Gynocritic looks at women’s writing as it has actually occurred and tries to

define its specific characteristics of language, genere, and literary influence,

within a cultural network that includes variables of race, class and nationality.

(ibid: 19)

2. Cultural Androgyny

39

The term’ androgyny’ refers to the combination of masculine

and feminine characteristics, in our case it implies the role

of women’s literature in creating the fusion between men and

women’s culture. Shulamith Firestone (1970) cited in Cheri

(1989) stress the need of identifying female’s reality is a

prerequisite for women’s literature to create a cultural

fusion as:

The development of female art is progressive: an exploration of strictly

female reality is a necessary step to correct the wrap in sexually biased

culture. It is only after we have integrated the dark side of the moon in to our

world view that we can begin to talk seriously of universal culture. (ibid:

20)

3. Provide role models

According to Cheri, the presentation of role model women who

instill a positive feminine identity in literature inspires

other women to develop a sense of self –reliance. She points

that role models have a crucial importance for girls who

thought in children’s literature that boys are creative,

adventurous, and brave meanwhile, girls are passive, docile,

dependent and self-effacing, to know and evaluate the reality.

40

4. Promote Sisterhood

Women’s literature can create the senses of communality

(sisterhood) by making the reader identifying her feeling with

the character in the story, Susan Koppelman (1977) citied in

Cheri Register (1989), present her thought as:

We are all aware the agony of adolescence in our culture, the evasive

fumbling as we attempt to communicate about our fears and our needs and

our anxieties without actually mentioning to anyone what they really are: the

creation of elaborate private symbologies that enable us to grieve about our

pimples, our sexual fantasies, and our masturbation.(ibid:22)

5. Consciousness Raising (CR)

According to Cheri, consciousness raising (CR) refers to

literature’s role of providing factual information about the

personality, perception and relationship of women. In addition

to this, it presents the impact of sexism in women’s life and

widens the reader’s knowledge about their status.

41

Chapter Three

3. Textual Analysis

3.1. Features of oppressive marital relationship in

A Jury of Her Peers and The Yellow Wallpaper

3.1.1. Marital Entrapment in A Jury of Her Peers

A Jury of Her Peers is a story of an oppressed farmer’s wife,

Minnie Wright, who accused of killing her husband, John

Wright. In the story the couples haven’t ever appear, rather

we know about them by Minnie’s neighbor and friend, Mrs. Hale.

Through Mrs. Hale’s description, we learn that Minnie’s

husband, John Wright is such an oppressive husband who

snatches his wife’s happiness and hope, what she had before

marriage. By his unfriendly manner he secludes her from

outside contact and made her lose companionship, a thing she

is desperate for. This claim is asserted when Mrs. Hale told

Mr. Henderson why she is unable to visit her friend as:

He [Mr. Henderson] stopped and gave her keen look, ‘‘But you and Mrs.

Wright were neighbors .I suppose you were friends too.’’

Marta Hale shook her head

42

’’I‘ve seen little enough of her late years. I’ve not been in this house…it is more

than a year.’’

‘’And why was that? You didn’t like her?’’

‘’I liked her well enough...’’And then she looked around the kitchen

‘’ Yes? ‘’He encouraged.

It never seemed a very cheerful place,’’ said she more to herself than to him.

(Page 7-8)

This indicates that due to John’s unfriendly and unwelcoming

nature, Minnie lost her friends and their companionship which

would have helped her to mitigate her burden.

Minnie’s isolation (lacking accompany) is pointed in

the following Mrs. Hale thought, she says: ‘’Not having children

makes less work,’’ mused Mrs. Hale, after silence, “but it makes a quite house...and

Wright out to work all day and no company when he did come in.’’

(Page 15)

The phrase ‘no company when he did come in’ has a crucial

factor in indicting John Wright’s abusive character who

doesn’t show his wife affection and care which would help her

to consul her disappointment about children and made her

43

happier in life. In fact the extract implies that John’s

presence at home is a trouble for Minnie.

Despite her love for Minnie, Marta was unable to make frequent

visits to the latter’s home, she tells the reason to Mrs.

Peters:

I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful…I have never liked this place, may

be because it is down in a shallow and you don’t see the road. I don’t know

what it is but it is a lonesome place, and always was. (Page 15)

In addition to entrap husband, Minnie’s home allude her

prison-like life. The description of isolated- looking house

and lonesome-looking trees implies the isolated/trapped/ life

that Minnie has had for twenty years. Her place is described

in the following way: ‘’It had always been lonesome-looking place. It was

down a hollow, and the popular trees around it were lonesome-looking trees ‘’

(page 2).

The lonesome-looking feature of her home and trees also a

feature of Minnie’s life that she is always isolated from the

outside world.

44

3.1.2. Marital Entrapment in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story of unnamed protagonist who tells a

story about her post-partum depression and the rest cure

arranged by her physician husband for three months. The

narrator’s husband aims to treat his wife by secluding her

from outside contact. His seclusion is symbolized by the house

he rents for his wife. The narrator’s description of the house

has a very crucial importance about the feature of marital

entrapment in The Yellow Wallpaper. The narrator has strange

feelings about her new home starting from her first day. She

says: ‘‘I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it. Else, why

should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted? ‘’ (page 1)

She is further asserted her feeling: ‘’There is something strange

about the house I can feel it.’’ (Page 1)

In addition to the strange look, the house also isolated from

other houses. It is presented as ’‘It is quite alone- standing well back

from the road, quiet three miles from the village.’’(Page1)

At this point, it is very essential to refer back to the

description of Minnie Wright’s house, in A Jury of Her Peers, it

present as: ‘’it had always lonesome-looking place.’’ In both stories

45

there is one word-‘alone’ is stressed to foreshadow the

trap/seclude/life both women in the stories are forced to

face.

In addition to the seclusion, the house which is rented for

the narrator by her husband has similarities with a jail.’’ It

[the house] makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are

hedges, and walls and gates that lock ,and lots of separate houses.’’(Page 1)

The words ‘hedges,’ ‘walls,’ and ‘locks’ denote one thing:

confinement /seclusion/.These signs help us to foresee the

prison-like life imposed on the narrator by her husband. In

addition to its seclusion, the house also is empty for many

years and lost contact from outside world .

Having in mind the narrator’s nervous condition, we can

assume that lacking persons to contact and this kind of

entrapment can lead her to a serious psychological disorder,

as really happens in the end of the story.

3.1.3. The Need for Freedom Symbolize through a Bird in A Jury

of Her Peers

In this point it is very necessary to talk about the role of

the bird in Minnie’s life. Through Mrs. Hale’s narration we

46

learn that the detainee has no child and due to her husband’s

severity, she is unable to get a companionship. Having in this

mind, we easily guess that Minnie is desperate for something

which shares her feeling. The association of Minnie and the

bird emanates from the former’s love to sing songs. This

reviles when Mrs. Peters asks Mrs. Hale that whether she knows

Minnie has a bird or not. Mrs. Hale replies:

‘’…I don’t know whether she did or not. ‘’She turned to look at the cage Mrs.

Peters was holding up. ‘’I’ve not been here in so long.’’ She sighed. ‘’There was

a man round last year selling canaries cheap …but I don’t know as she took

one .May be she did. She used to sing real pretty herself. (Page 14)

It is easy to infer the relationship between the canaries (a

song bird) with the woman who is found of sing a song,

especially when she is lonesome.

In addition to this, Mrs. Hale present Minnie’s character as

‘’…she was kind of like a bird herself.’’ (Page16)

As we see, Minnie’s life is filled with sorrow and stillness

that the bird that sings is meant a lot to her. Mrs. Hale

says: ‘’If there had been years and years of… nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it

would be awful’’ (Page 19)

47

Through Mrs. Hale’s narration, we learn that Minnie associate

herself with the bird and it is the only remaining companion

for her. Her husband, John, having understood his wife’s

relation with the bird, kills the latter. Mrs. Hale says: ‘’

Wright wouldn’t like the bird, ‘’she said after that …a thing that sing. She used to sing

.He killed that too.’’ (Page 18)

This implies that John’s action is not only intends to kill

the bird, rather to kill his wife’s thought about her happy

days which symbolize in her love of sing songs. As we learn

from the previous discussion, Minnie consider herself as a

bird; however, her identification of the bird as her symbol of

freedom emanates from not only her love for songs, but also a

memory of the free, happy, young woman of the choir,-the image

of Minnie twenty years ago, symbolize in her canaries.

The women find the dead body of Minnie’s bird when they are

collecting the quilt to bring it to the woman in the town’s

jail. While collecting the quilt in Minnie’s basket, Mrs. Hale

finds the kernel of the story,-a symbol of Minnie’s freedom,

and the cause for Mrs. Peters to turn her back on the ‘law’,

the answer of each question-the bird. Mrs. Hale says:

‘’It is a bird’’, she whispered.

48

‘’But Mrs. Peters! cried Mrs. Hale. ’’Look at it! Its neck…look at its neck! It’s all

… other side to.’’(Page 17)

The phrase ‘other side to’ denotes what Minnie is done on John

Wright. Through a feminine understanding, both women not only

understand John kills Minnie’s symbol of foredoom (bird), but

also Minnie avenges him in the same way he did on her beloved

bird.

3.1.4. The Feature of an Oppressive Husband in A Jury of Her Peers

John Wright is an oppressive husband who denies the

psychological independence of his wife. As a man of

patriarchal world, he is not worry about his wife wishes and

needs i.e. her feeling does not give him a sense. The

situation is in sighted in Mr. Hale’s speech about the crime.

He says ‘’…I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to

John...’’ (Page3). This is a reflection of patriarchal world in

that the men are ‘entitled’ to decide in every matter without

considering the interest of their wives.

In addition to his failure to address his wife’s needs, John

Wright is very harsh man to be with him. Mrs. Hale tells

49

John’s unfriendly character to Mr. Henderson: ‘’…I don’t think a

place would be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s bein’ in it.” (Page 8)

This indicates us to consider how difficult is to Minnie to

live with such a callous man. John’s ruthless character is

further strengthened in Mrs. Hale speech: ‘’He was a hard man, Mrs.

Peters. Just to pass the time of the day with him....” “She stopped, shivered a little.

‘’Like a raw wind that goes to the bone.” (Page 15)

Mrs. Hale’s shivering when she talks about John coldness

stress the severity of the detainee’s burden and how much

Minnie could suffer at the hands of this harsh man.

The impact of oppressive husband in Minnie’s life is further

indicated when Mrs. Hale compares Minnie’s shabby black skirt

with the pretty dress what the latter wore twenty years ago.

She says: “She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively… when she was Minnie

Foster, one of the town girls, singing in the Choir. But that…oh, that was twenty

years ago.” (Page 10)

This shows the impact of an oppressive husband in Minnie’s

life who once dressed as a princess, twenty years of

oppressive marriage changes her to wear shabby clothes. Her

husband’s abuse made her to loss happiness and confidence in

life, which reflect in the way she dress on.

50

3.1.5. The Feature of an Oppressive Husband in The Yellow

Wallpaper

Unlike Minnie’s husband in A Jury of Her Peers, the narrator’s

husband does not seem to be physically abusive. Rather, as

acknowledged by the narrator, he appears to be such carry and

loving. However, through careful inspection, we learn that he

is such a patriarchal man who doesn’t care about his wife’s

needs, feelings, wishes and concerns. The narrator told us he

is ‘practical in extreme’ and ‘has no patience with faith’ he

also ‘scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and

seen and put down in figures’. (Page1) His too much

scrupulous character made him to fail to understand his wife’s

concerns and situation properly and to refuses her demands. He

does not believe his wife’s sickness and even tries to

convince others not to take the narrator’s condition

seriously. She complains:

You see he doesn’t believe I am sick!

51

And what one can do?

If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and

other relatives that there is nothing the matter with one but temporary

nervous depression… a slightly hysterical tendency…what is one to do? (Page

1)

The narrator’s husband control the entire life of his

wife .The protagonist does not know what she takes for her

treatment. She says‘’…I take phosphate or phosphate whichever it is… ‘’

(page 1) it shows her ignorance about the way of her husband’s

treatment.

The other man in the story (her-brother) shares her husband’s

stand about her health condition. She says ’’My brother is also a

physician and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.’’(Page 1)

The narrator lives in such a patriarchal world that has a

fixed thought about women’s health conditions. This is

revealed when the narrator’s husband threatens sending her to

the famous doctor of the time about women health condition.

She says:

John says if I don’t pick up faster he will send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall.

52

But I don’t want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once,

and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so! (Page 1)

This does not only show the males’ attitude about women’s

health conditions, rather their mental fixation of the general

make up of women’s feelings, thoughts, interests, and

concerns.

Jane (the narrator’s-sister in law) has also a similar

attitude about the narrators’ health condition with the men.

The narrator says: ‘’…she [John’s sister] thinks it is the writing made me sick!’’

(Page 4) .The narrator’s description of her sister –in –law

further indicates a woman who is ‘happy’ in her traditional

role. She says: ‘’She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for

no more profession.’’ (Page 4) This signifies the traditional

women’s expectation about themselves. Jane’s delight in her

‘role’ and her belief

In her husband’s perception made the former to stand with her

brother and being a watchperson for the latter’s rest cure.

In spite of her inability to change things, the narrator does

not agree with the men’s way of treatment. She complains:

Personally, I disagree with their ideas,

53

Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would

me good

But what is one to do? (Page 1)

This indicates that she does not like the men’s way, but it is

a ‘norm’ that her husband is ‘responsible’ for what she does

eats, drinks, and when and how she rests, in other words, he

controls her entire life. She is restricted from doing

anything. A recurrent phrase, ‘but what is one to do?’’ stress her

passivity due to the strength of her husband’s burden.

Her husband does not allow her to do work anything, even to

write in her diary, the only activity she is supposed to get

relief from the depression. She explains: ‘’I did write for a while in

spite of them…having to be sly about it or else meet with the heavy

opposition.’’(Page1) She also stresses this claim again: ‘’There

comes John, and I must put this away…he hates to have me write a word.’’(Page 2)

John’s rigorous nature made him fail to acknowledge his wife’s

wishes and what she thinks the correct of way treating the

depression. She complains:

I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more

society and stimulus…but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think

about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. (Page 1)

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As the men in A Jury of Her Peers, the narrator’s husband is

ignorant about women’s psychology and fails to take his wife’s

concerns seriously. His rigidness towards the narrator’s

interest is further strengthened in the following complain:

I don’t like our room a bit .I wanted the one downstairs that opened on the

piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned

chintz hangings but John would not hear of it.(Page 2)

It is known that the narrator of the story is suffers from

mental depression and needs excitement. To this end, the place

where she lives is supposed to be sociable and attractive. In

spite of his wife’s continuous dissatisfactions, John confined

her in his jail-like home. When the narrator asks John to do

something, he is tends to skip her demand by complaining her

every demand is a part of her endless needs and his inability

to satisfy it. This claim is asserted when the narrator asked

him to repaper the wallpaper. She complains:

He laughs at me about so about this wall-paper.

At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards …he said that after the

wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred

windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs. (Page 3)

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There are many instances in the story about John’s continuous

refusals of his wife’s wishes, ideas, opinions, and concerns.

He even doesn’t take her feelings seriously. His habit to

refuses his wife’s needs and his wish to lead her life in

his way is assumed to emanates from the male -dominated

socio-cultural system of the society which men are ‘assigned’

to take the ‘rational’, ‘wise’ and ‘proper’, decisions on the

life of a woman since the latter are ‘not capable’ of it. She

asserted:

I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell

him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and

Julia.

But he said I wasn’t able to go nor able to stand it after I got there and I did

not make out a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had

finished.(Page 5)

Unlike John Wright, the narrator’s husband doesn’t seem a

harsh man; however, as Wright he denies his wife’s interest in

more complex and ‘caring’ like manner

It also implies that the narrator’s husband continuous

refusals create the emotional breakdown –and makes her cry

which is the only possible way for an oppressed woman to

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mitigate her pain. She says ‘’I cry at nothing and cry most of the time.’’

(Page 4)

At this point it is necessary to points the similarities in

the cases of the two women, as we remember about Minnie

Wright’s case that her husband denies her other person’s

contact. The case of the unnamed protagonist in The Yellow

Wallpaper is the same. As Mrs. Peters puts ‘It is all just a different kind

of the same thing.’

The point worth mentioning about then narrator’s husband,

John, is his appearing to be caring and loving, it is even

approved by his wife many times, but the problem is his

rigidness to give attention to his wife concerns. She says:

‘’It is so hard to talk with John about my case… ‘’ (Page 6)

Here is another instance which further demonstrates John’s

refusals of his wife’s desire that either he repair the room

or let her to leave. She says:

The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted get

out

I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper did move, and when I

came back, John was awake.

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‘’What is it, little girl?’’ he said. Don’t go walking about like that…you’ll get

cold.’’

I thought it was a good time to talk, so I told him that I really was not gaining

here, and that I wished he would take me away.

‘’Why darling!’’ said he, ‘’our lease will be up in three weeks, and I can’t see

how to leave before.

‘’The repairs are not done at home, and I cannot possibly leave town just

now. Of course if you were in any danger, I could and would, but you really

are better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I

know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really

much easier about you.’’

‘’I don’t weigh a bit more,’’ said I, ‘’nor as much; and my appetite may be

better in the evening when you are here, but is worse in the morning when

you are away!’’

‘’bless her little heart!’’ said he with a big hug, ‘’she shall be as sick as she

pleases! But now let’s improve the shining by going to sleep, and talk about it

in the morning.’’

‘’and you won’t go away?’’ I asked gloomily

‘’Why, how can I dear? It is only three weeks more and then we will take a nice

trip to a few days which Jennie is getting the house ready. Really dear you are

better.’’

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‘’Better in body perhaps---, ‘’I began, and stopped short, for he sat up and

looked at me with such a stern reproachful look that I could not say any

word.’’(Page 7)

This implies many things: one John does not want to accept his

wife’s fears seriously by too much depend on his medical

knowledge. Second the repeated word ‘little’ denotes he is

treating his wife as a little girl. Third he is tends to

sophisticating things for his wife which make her to frustrate

to talk with him about her case. Fourth the phrase ‘let’s improve

the shining by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning.’’ Show his usual

manner of skipping her interests and concerns. Finally her

description of his reproachful look demonstrates how much he

is insensitive about his wife’s concerns.

In spite of John’s intention to treat his wife in as best way

as possible, his treatment creates a yoke for the narrator.

She says: ‘’John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no

reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.’’ (Page 2)

3.2. Sisterhood in A Jury of Her Peers

3.2.1. Mrs. Hale

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A feeling of closeness and communality between women

(sisterhood) is highly visible in A Jury of Her Peers. Since the

detainee is in the town’s jail, she must get defense and

protection from her fellow-sisters, especially from her

neighbor and friend –Mrs. Hale.

A description of Marta Hale’s kitchen which finds in the

beginning of the story has a very crucial importance to answer

why Mrs. Hale is being sympathetic with Mrs. Wright and how

her sympathy grows to as stand to defend the detainee:

As she hurriedly wound that round her head her eye a scandalized sweep of

her kitchen.

It was no ordinary thing that called her away… it was probably further from

ordinary than anything that had ever happened in Dickson County. But her

eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread ready

for mixing, half sifted and half unsifted (Page1)

It is mention in the story that Marta Hale departed to

accompany the sheriff’s wife to the crime scene, the place

where her neighbor and friend Minnie Wright has lived for

twenty years. When Marta arrive Mrs. Wright’s house, she

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learns one thing –the similarity in the condition between her

and the detainee’s kitchens as:

She looked around the kitchen. Certainly it was not ‘slicked up’ her eye was

held by a bucket of sugar on a low shelf. The cover was off the wooden

bucket, and beside it was a paper bag---half full. (Page 9)

This similarity in the condition of her and Mrs. Wright

kitchen shows the similarity in the life of them and creates

the sense of communality in Marta Hale’s mind. This sameness

in life undoubtedly leads Marta to defend the detainee

determinedly.

Her sympathy also reveals when her husband inquired about what

he saw in the crime scene. She hoped that ‘’he [Mr. Hale] would tell this

straight and plain and not say unnecessary things that would just make things

harder for Minnie Foster.” (Page 3)

In addition to her sympathy, Marta Hale condemns herself for

failing to make frequent visits to Minnie Wright, her regret

starts when she sets her feet in Minnie’s house:

Even after she had her foot on the door-step, her hand on the knob, Marta

Hale had a moment of feeling she could not cross that threshold .And the

reason it seemed she couldn’t cross it now was simply because she hadn’t’

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crossed it before .Time and time again it had been in her mind. ‘’I ought to go

over and see Minnie Forster.’’ (Page 2)

Mrs. Hale knows how much Mrs. Wright needs a companionship

(she knows very well about what kind of a person John Wright

is and Minnie’s not having a child). However, due to John’s

aloof behavior she is unable to make a trip to the detainee’s

house. Her regret and sympathy about Mrs. Wright leads her to

defend the detainee from men’s inspection and criticism. She

argues with Mr. Henderson about Minnie’s housekeeping ability:

‘’Dirty towels Not much of a house keeper, would you say ladies? ‘’

He kicked his foot against some dirty pans under the sink.

‘’There’s a great deal of work to be done in the farm, ‘said Mrs. Hale stiffly.

’’ To be sure .And yet worth a little bow to her…I know there are some

Dickenson County farm houses that do not have such roller towels.’’ He gave it

a pull to expose its full length again.

‘’Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men’s hands are not as clean as they

might be.’’

‘’ah, loyal to your sex, I see’’ he laughed. (Page 7)

This not only shows Mrs. Hale’s defense for the detainee, but

also the difference in women and men’s perception of

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domesticity. Mrs. Hale is able to understand how Minnie’s work

burden impede the latter’s to keep the towels clean, meanwhile

Mr. Henderson’s thought is a reflection of the traditional

male-oriented thought system about the role of women.

3.2.2. Mrs. Peters

Mrs. Peters, the Sherriff’s wife, comes to the crime scene

with her husband to collect clothes and other ‘small things’

for the detainee and she is the one who needs Mrs. Hale’s

company.

The first description of Mrs. Peters is presented in comparing

her with her husband both physically and in voice to magnify

their difference: ‘’She was small and thin and didn’t have a strong voice.’’

(Page1) Meanwhile, her husband present as: ‘’Peters made it looking

like a Sherriff .He was to a dot the kind of man who could get himself elected sheriff-

a heavy man with a big voice.’’(Page 1)

As we see in the story, Mrs. Peter’s diminutive physical

appearance is also manifested in the diminutive role she is

ascribed- being the cast of her husband and stands to the

fulfillment of his goals. In the story, Mrs. Peters shows a

great behavioral and attitudinal change about law. Here we

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carefully examine how and why the woman who stands to protect

the men’s ‘law’ changes to a one who strives to hide the

evidence.

At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Peters are presented as

she is considered by men as a part of their contingent and

even assigned to watch out Mrs. Hale’s activities. Mr.

Henderson refers her: ‘’… Mrs. Peters is one of us,’’ he said

in a manner of entrusting responsibility, ‘’and keep your eye

out, Mrs. Peters, for anything that might be of use.’’ (Page

8)

It is unquestionable that her association with the men

emanates from her marriage to the sheriff and it is a product

of a patriarchal outlook of woman that considers a wife can’t

have a different aims and feeling from her husband’s. This

claim is further strengthened when her husband asks Mr.

Henderson that whether the latter wants to check what his wife

is taking to the woman in town’s jail. Mr. Henderson says: ‘’

No Mrs. Peters doesn’t need supervising. For the matter a sheriff wife is married to

the law.’’ (Page 20)

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As expected, in the initial parts of the story, Mrs. Peters

tries to behave as the men expected her to be. This indicates

by her answer when Mrs. Hale complaining about the un- just

nature of arresting Minnie in the town and find out evidence

against her, she replied to her: ‘’But, Mrs. Hale...the law is the

law.’’(Page 12) Her reply manifests the role which the men impose

on her by ‘’marring to the law,’’ -magnifying the rule of

law’s supremacy rather than worrying about gender-affiliation.

In other several occasions also Mrs. Peters tries to keep her

role by watching Mrs. Hale’s actions carefully and objecting

when she believes latter’s actions are inappropriate. It is

clearly shown when Mrs. Hale tries to fix the ill-sewed quilt

of Minnie to hide what she thinks might cause a trouble for

the detainee, Mrs. Peters objects:

‘’Oh what are you doing, Mrs. Hale? asked the Sherriff’s wife, startled.

‘’Just pulling out a stitch or two that’s not sewed very good,’’ said Mrs. Hale

mildly.

‘’I don’t think we ought to touch things.’’ (Page 13)

Although, Mrs. Peters tries to behave the way what she is

assigned to, she is not a woman totally submit to patriarchal

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thought. Rather, there are some instances about her

association with other women. This is revealed from the very

beginning of the story in that she sympathizes about the

detainee’s worry of her fruit. Her bond with her fellow woman

also points when the county attorney and Mr. Hale express

their stereotypical opinion about the detainee in particular

and the women in general. Their action present as: ‘’ the two

women moved a little close together. ‘’ (Page 7)

Mrs. Peters’ ‘’marriage with the law’’ and her determination

to keep the law, fell in to question; however, is when she

learns closely what life Minnie had before her marriage and

the impacts of oppressive husband in the latter’s life. For

her behavioral change the following incidents are crucial, the

first one is the quilt. While the women arranging Minnie’s

kitchen matters, they see the parts of the quilt (A decorative

cover for bed or a blanket) in the Minnie’s basket. Through an

inspection of the quilt, the women obsessed about one strange

block that is ill-sewed; Mrs. Peter’s describe it:

‘’The sewing ‘’ said Mrs. Peters ,in troubled way ‘’all the rest of them have been

so nice and even ,…but…this one .Why ,it looks as if she didn’t know what she

was about!’’ (Page 13)

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The above extract clearly shows the sense of communal

understanding of women’s psychology that men fail to

understand. By doing so the women infer, Minnie sewed that bad

block when she was very nervous about something and ‘‘didn’t know

what she was about ‘’. This leads them to find out what made

Minnie nervous about and in help of other instances to know

why and how she kills her husband.

Having understood the block might case a trouble for the

detainee; Mrs. Hale ‘’had pulled a knot and drawn the threads.’’ (Page 13)

The second important thing which the women able to get from

the crime scene, a thing helps Mr. Peters to learn more about

the detainee’s life is the latter’s bird cage. Mr. Peters

gets the bird cage while she is looking for a piece of paper

and string to wrap the clothes for the detainee. She finds the

bird cage its door is forcefully broken. Mrs. Peters says:

‘’Look at the door,’’ she said slowly. ’It is broke. One hinge has been pulled a

part.’’

Mrs. Hale came nearer.

‘’Looks as if someone must have been …rough with it’’ (Page 15)

This show the women understand someone (most probably John

Wright) is broken the bird’s cage door violently. The woman

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also able to infer the anger and hostility reflect in the

bird’s cage is ultimately a feeling of Minnie’s husband. The

detainee’s neighbor, Mrs. Hale, especially understands the

value of the bird’s cage for the men’s crime investigation

since it shows some kind of antagonism and aggression (can

give a hint to the men to get the trajectory of the crime).

Mrs. Hales says: ‘if they are going to find any evidence, I wish they’d be

about it. I don’t like this place ’’ (Page 15). This quote reveals Marta’s

thought that discovering the bird’s cage can manifest the

Minnie’s intention for the men detectives.

Mrs. Peters presents the following thought to show the

similarities in the lives of all women’s and the burden they

carry as:

‘’We live close together, and we live far apart. We all go through the same

things –it’s all just a different kind of the same thing. If it weren’t …why do you

and I understand? Why do we know what we know…What we know this

minute?’’

(Page 19)

Mrs. .Peters thought stress the fact that even though there

are slight differences in the conditions of Minnie Wright and

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them; they also might face what the detainee has had for the

last twenty years. This thought leads the women to create the

bond to defend the detainee from men’s verdict and decide to

hide the evidence which might change the life of the woman

held in town’s jail.

After understand the detainee’s life, Mrs. Peters decide on

turn her back on her ‘’marriage to the law’’. Her turn

symbolizes her twist against the men’s wish and to defend her

fellow women. This extract shows the event:

Marta Hale sprang up, her hands tight together, looking at that other

woman, with whom it rested. At first she could not see her eyes, for the

sheriff’s wife had not turned back since she turned away at the suggestion of

being married to the law. (Page 21)

Mrs. Peters, having decide to protects her fellow women in the

expense of her husband’s wish and the traditional gender role

she casted as a shadow of her husband, acts when she hear a

sound in the outside door. The situation present as:

For a moment Mrs. Peters didn’t move .And then she did it. With a rush

forward, she threw back the quilt pieces, got the box, tried to put in her

handbag. It was too big. Desperately she opened it, started to take a bird out.

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But there she broke …she couldn’t touch the bird. She stood there helpless.

(Page 20)

Even though Mrs. Peter’s trial was unsuccessful, it is

accomplished by her sister, Mrs. Hale, as: ‘’Marta Hale snatched

the box from the sheriff’s wife, and got it in the pocket of her big coat just as the

sheriff and the county attorney come back in to the kitchen’’ (Page 20).

3.2.3. Bird as a Reason for Women’s Bond (Sisterhood) in A Jury

of Her Peers

After learning what happened in Minnie’s life, the two women

stand together as one to defend the detainee from man-made

‘law’. This reveals when the county attorney and the sheriff

came in from outside, the women’s action described as: ‘’Mrs. Hale

slipped the box under the quilt pieces in the basket and sank in to the chair before it.

Mrs. Peters stood holding to the table.’’(Page 17). This moment shows

sympathy for fellow women (sisterhood) is beyond ’marrying to the

law’ for Mrs. Peters. Once a ‘contingent’ of men detectives,

changes to defend the woman who the sheriff looks evidences

against her. This moment shows her dare to work against her

husband will and a search of true female identity.

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As happen in Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peter’s compassion emanates from

the similarity in her and the detainee’s experience .She knows

what really mean- to lose the son. She says:

When I was a girl, ’’said Mrs. Peters, under her breath, my kitten…there was a

boy took a hatchet and before my eyes…before I could get there…’’she covered

her face an instant. ’’If hadn’t held me back, I would have’’…she caught

herself, looked upstairs where footsteps where heard, and finished

weakly…’’hurt him.’’ (Page 18)

Mrs., Peters also understands what Minnie possibly fell when

she lose her son (the bird) She says: ‘’I know what stillness is, ‘she

said, in a queer, monotonous voice. ‘’When we homestead in Dakota and my first

baby died –after he was two years and to me with no other then…’’ (Page 19)

Mrs. Peters accepts the bird is as important as son for Minnie

Wright and the one who kills her son (John Wright) should be

punished. She says: ‘‘I know what stillness is repeated Mrs. Peters, in just the

same way. Then she too pulled back. ‘’The law has got to punish crime...’’ (Page

19) Her statement does not refer to the crime which Minnie

committed on her abusive husband, rather, her husband done on

her son (bird).

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3.3. Men’s Stereotypical Attitude towards the Role and

Behavior of

Women in A Jury of Her Peers

The men characters presented in this story are very snobbish

about womanhood and despised the women’s role in the

investigation process. In fact in the story both sexes are

presented as different groups who stand for defending the

dignity of their sexes.

The first stereotypical thought is sighted when Mr. Peters

assume that is his wife wants Mrs. Hale’s company ‘because she

was getting scary ,’’(Page 1).This shows Mr. Peter’s assumption

about women are generally lacking courage to be alone. This

instance foreshadows the proceeding stereotypical assumptions

of men in the whole story.

The sheriff is such a patriarchal man that tends to amused by

women’s matters ,this reveals when Mr. Henderson asks him

whether he is sure on there is no important things are left in

the kitchen, he replies :‘’Nothing here but kitchen things,’’ he said, with

little laugh for the insignificance of kitchen things. (Page 6) His laugh is

not only the reflection of his thought about the

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insignificance of kitchen things, but also the ‘insignificance

of women’ that traditionally associated with those

‘insignificant’ things.

Here is another instance about the sheriff’s snobbery on

women. When his wife told him sympathetically about Minnie’s

worry about her fruit, he broke in laugh and say: ‘’Well, can you

beat the women! Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves!’’ (Page 7)

Mr. Peters is not, however, the only man despising women’s

matters, feeling and thought, in fact, the other men in the

story are also snobbish about women. The other stereotypical

thought is reflected from Mr. Hale, Marta’s husband, when the

county attorney talk about Minnie should focus on serious

issues than worry about her preserves, he says: ‘’Oh well,’’ said

Mrs. Hale husband, with good-nurtured superiority,’ ’women are used to worrying

over trifles.’’ (Page 7) Mr. Hale’s sayings is not only a sign of

his personal despised of women, but also the general thought

system which give the identity to women-to worry about

’insignificant’ issues.

Mr. Hale’s despising women further reflects when the attorney

told Mrs. Peters to notify him anything important which help

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to the investigation, Mr. Hale, as a patriarchal man, very

skeptical about women’s ability to do such complex things,

asked himself that:

‘’but would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?’’ (Page 9)

In the latter part of the story; however, we discover that the

men‘s lack of acknowledging women’s desires, thoughts, and

manner of behavior leads them to a total failure in the work

they considered themselves as ‘experts.’

Now, let’s look the great irony of the story and how the men’s

stereotype leads them to a total failure. As we see earlier,

the two women find a pieces of quilts in Minnie’s kitchen and

understand her feeling (nervousness) when she sew the strange

quilt and they able to catch the trajectory of Minnie’s

act ,meanwhile the ‘detective’ men laugh on the women’s

obsession about the quilt fail to find out the source of the

puzzle.

Here is a very interesting word play between the women to fool

the ‘detective’ men. This extract indicates the situation:

‘’Well Henry,’’ said the county attorney facetiously. ‘’at least we found that she

was not going to quilt it .She was going to …what is it you call it, ladies?’’

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Mrs. Hale’s hand was against the pocket of her coat

‘’We call it …knot it, Mr. Henderson.’’ (Page 21)

The women are using the double meaning word–‘knot’ to answer

Mr. Henderson’s question. The word may refers a fastening made

by tying a piece of string, robe or it may show tangle one’s

neck in robe .We can easily assume that the intention of Mr.

Henderson is the surface meaning of the word-to know what the

women to ‘find out’ from their studying the quilt of the

detainee that the latter was whether sewed or knot her

quilt, and to amused in the ‘insignificances’ of women’s

concerns , meanwhile, the women’s answer is points to the

implied meaning of the word that the detainee is killing her

abusive husband by knotting (wrung his neck).Mrs. Hale’s

reply is such a sarcastic attack on the men who boost on their

‘investigative’ abilities. The men’s’ disinterested nature in

women’s affairs lead them not to realize the similarity in the

Minnie’s quilt and the robe in John’s neck, the point they

search for the whole day.

In the story, not the ‘detective’ men answer the puzzle;

rather the women who come to accompany the sheriff’s wife and

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the one who came to collect clothes for the detainee are able

to uncover the mystery.

Through understanding of women’s psychology, the women are

managed to answer the riddle which the men are assigned to. By

doing so, they able to protect her fellow-sister from men’s

verdict through a feminist jurisdiction- it is such a great

ironic attack for men’s snobbery.

3.4. Patriarchal Hegemony and Women’s Struggle in the sense of

Sisterhood Reflected in The Yellow Wallpaper

As mentioned in the beginning, the narrator of the story

doesn’t like the jail-like house: its bedstead, barred windows

and the heavy gates .It made her to feel live in prison;

however, the thing with the great importance in the story is

the yellow wallpaper in her bed room. First the narrator

detests the wallpaper and insists her husband either repair it

or change her room. Due to her husband’s refusals and her

confinement in a single room; however, she is impressed about

its strange outlook and design. Her obsession on the wallpaper

gives her what she has unable to get -freedom. Her first

description about the wallpaper is this:

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The paint and the paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped

off…the paper in a great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far

as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I

never saw a worse paper in my life. (Page 1)

Her initial detest of the wallpaper which baffled by her

husband’s continuous refusals and derision aggravate her

curiosity about the paper and made her begins to like her

room. She says: ‘’ I am getting really found of the room In spite of the wall -

paper. Perhaps because of the wall-paper’’ (Page 4)

When the narrator’s obsession about the wallpaper increases,

she identified many things from the paper. She says:

There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or even will.

Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.

It is always the same shape, only very numerous.

And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that

pattern. (Page6)

From the above extract, the phrase ‘women stooping down and

creeping about the pattern’ is very crucial in our discussion

because it establishes the symbolism. The narrator’s curiosity

about verifying the existence of women in the wallpaper and

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what made her creep, force the protagonist to study the

wallpaper the whole day and night. First the narrator realizes

that the woman in the wallpaper is in a kind of struggle .She

says: ‘’The faint figures behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted

to get out.’’ (Page 6)

After realizing the fact that the woman is engaged in certain

kind of struggle, the narrator also knows the woman also

trapped by something. She says:

At night in any kind of light, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and

the woman behind it as plain as can be.

I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that

dim-sub pattern, but know I am quite sure it is a woman. (Page 7)

This extract consist the three major issues of the story:

patriarchal hegemony, women struggle against men-dominated

socio-cultural system and the feeling of sisterhood. Let’s

look bit by bit.

The outside pattern enclosed woman and refer as ‘bars’ is

serve for trapping the women like a prison. As we have seen in

this story, oppressive marriage is such a ‘bar’ which denies

the woman’s physical and psychological independence, thus the

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‘bar’ is the symbol of oppressive husbands (the general

patriarchal hegemony). The woman who sits behind the ‘bars’ is

a representation of all women who are trapped by the

patriarchal thought system, meanwhile, the woman’s struggle

against the ‘bar’ is the reflection of the women’s struggle

against patriarchal domination. The woman’s struggle further

presents as:

I really have discovered something at last.

Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found

out.

The front pattern does move …and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!

Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes

only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.

Then in the very bright spot she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she

just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.

And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb

through that pattern …it strangles so. (Page 9)

This extract reveals so many points: first ‘the front

pattern’, as we see earlier, refers to the patriarchal men as

general who deny the women’s independence, meanwhile ‘the

women’s shake of the pattern’ inferred their struggle against

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male-dominated socio-cultural system. The women’s inability to

climb the pattern, in other hand, denotes their unsuccessful

struggle to break the men’s chain.

Being sympathetic about the fellow-woman’s condition and

companionship (the sense of sisterhood) which is highly

prevalent in A Jury of Her Peers ,also finds in the story of the

unnamed protagonist .What is distinctive in here is the

sympathy raises for the woman in the wallpaper. Having

understood the woman in the wallpaper needs help the narrator

decide to help her. The situation present as:

That was clever, for really I wasn’t alone a bit! As soon as it was a moon light

and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to

help her.

I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had

peeled off yards of that paper. (Page 10)

The above extract manifest women’s struggle against

patriarchal hegemony through the feeling of sisterhood.

In this point there is a very strange and amazing fact

reveals. The narrator told us that she prepares the rope to

tie if the ‘poor thing’- the woman in the wallpaper, goes out.

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After dislocating our mind, the narrator shows the woman in

the yellow wallpaper is not another woman, but the narrator-

herself. This fact revels in the following extract:

‘’I don’t like to look out of the windows even…there are so many of those

creeping women, and they creep so fast.

I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?’’ (Page 11)

This implies that the woman who the narrator sees in the

wallpaper is she- herself, the ‘bar’ is manifestation of her

trapping marriage which denies her psychological independence

and the front pattern is a symbol of her husband. In the

meantime the woman’s shaking the bar is the representation of

the narrator’s struggle for freedom from her husband’s

oppression.

The women in A Jury of Her Peers are managed to break the men’s

chain through feminine understanding and communality

(sisterhood), the same is true here, the narrator, by creating

a feminine bond, able to emancipate herself from the ‘bar.’ In

both stories the women able to change from passiveness to a

symbol of women’s freedom. The narrator’s victory over her

dominant husband reveals in this last paragraph of the story:

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‘’…what is the matter?’’ he (John) cried. ’’For God’s sake, what are you

doing!’’

I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder.

‘’I’ve got out at last, ’’said I ‘’in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most

of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’’

Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path

by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! (Page 11)

As happen in A Jury of Her Peers, the above extract reveals how

men’s failure to acknowledge women’s concerns leads the

latter’s struggle against the rigid men’s thought.

The men snobbery about the women’s feeling creates their

downfall. The fainting and laying down of John is a

representation of the falling of his snobbery which made him

fails to give ear about his wife’s concerns. In other hand,

the narrator’s creep over her husband is an allusion of her

freedom from his control, which is gained after her endless

struggle. In this point we can assume that this situation

could symbolize the collapse of men’s snobbery about women

concerns.

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Chapter Four

Conclusion

Throughout history, female writers try to depict the life of

an oppressed and marginalized women’s life in their works. In 83

spite of the rigorous and scrupulous men’s obstacles, they are

able to give voice for voiceless women who are silenced by the

ruling social system.

As we know, the aim of any feminist literary study is to

analyze how the female characters are presented in a given

fictional product (images of women in literature). In addition

to this, feminist literary study aims to present the common

feminine experience of women’s marginalization, oppression,

physical and psychological abuse, etc. reflected in a given

fictional work.

The aim of this study is also similar with the above claims.

In the study, it is attempted to assess the feminist issues in

Western short stories. In this endeavor, the study is focused

on the early feminist literary works of American writers;

Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s

The Yellow Wallpaper. To set out a feminist reading, the study is

based on Western feminist perspective. It is narrowly defined

as a philosophical approach which claims gender is the primary

factor for women’s oppression.

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After a detail explanation given about feminist literary

theory and criticism, an attempt has been made to apply some

of the theories to analyze the texts.

The study is focused on four major feminist issues: oppressive

marital relationship, sisterhood, men’s stereotype, and

women’s struggle reflected in A Jury of Her Peers and The Yellow

Wallpaper.

Oppressive marital relationship is the dominant feature of

both stories that the female protagonists of the stories are

denied their psychological independence by their repressive

husbands. Minnie Wright of A Jury of Her Peers lost her freedom and

happiness by her abusive husband. As we see in the story, the

severity of her burden leads her to kill her husband. In the

story of the unnamed protagonist, meanwhile, we see the

marital entrapment of the narrator by her ‘loving’ husband and

how her seclusion leads her to a serious psychological

disorder.

The feeling of communality between women (sisterhood) is the

other major feminist issue discussed in this study. In A Jury of

Her Peers this bond (communality) is created among women in the

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crime scene through understanding the similarities in their

and the detainee’s life and being sympathetic about the

latter. In the story, we see how their sympathy grows to

protect the detainee from the men’s jurisdiction. This

compassion made a woman turns her back on her husband’s

interest and her gendered role to defend her fellow woman. In

The Yellow Wallpaper, this feeling of communality creates between

the unnamed protagonist of the story and the woman in the

yellow wallpaper. As it happen in A Jury of Her Peers, this feeling

of sisterhood made the narrator help to the woman who entrap

in the wallpaper.

Men’s stereotypical attitude towards the role and behavior of

women is the third major feminist issue presented in this

study. This issue is highly prevalent in A Jury of Her Peers that

the men detectives are very snobbish about the women’s role in

the investigation process. We see from this story how men’s

arrogance on women’s psychology leads the former to a total

failure. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the husband of the unnamed

protagonist has not taken his wife’s interests, fears and

concerns seriously and treats her as little child. As happen

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in A Jury of Her Peers, his rigidity on female concerns leads him to

a fall down.

Women’s struggle against patriarchal domination is the last

feminist issue raised in this study. This issue is related

with the women’s feeling of communality (sisterhood), which

ultimately directs them to collaborate and struggle against

men-dominated socio-cultural system in both stories.

Generally, both A Jury of Her Peers and The Yellow Wallpaper are not

frustrating stories which show the female characters are

either enduring their mistreatment or committing suicide due

to the severity of their abuse; rather they are stories of

courageous women who dare to break their chains. They are not

the stories of women who are a passive cast of men; instead,

the symbol of self-independent womanhood.

87

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