The Struggle for Power in “The Yellow Wallpaper, ” “Daddy, ” and “Editha”

American Literature 9 March 2013 The Struggle for Power in The chicken Wallpaper, Daddy, and Editha Charlotte Perkins Gil parts piece, The Yellow Wallpaper (written in 1890, published in 1892), is a semi-autobiographical piece that, although believed to be a result of her severe postpartum depression, illustrates the difficulties faced by women during the Womens Movement. These difficulties argon further illustrated by the similarly semi-autobiographical poem, based on Plaths father and husband, Daddy by Sylvia Plath (written in 1962, published in 1965).These gender roles are past reversed in Editha, (written in 1898, published in 1905) which has been said to be William Dean Howellss response to the Spanish-American War. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Daddy by Sylvia Plath and Editha by William Dean Howells all illustrate the conflict in gender roles during the Womens Movement in 19th and 20th Centuries. F read- completely storage the beginning, the narrator in Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper allows men, especially her husband, legerdemain, to be superior to her.As a physician, he orders her to stay in bed and discontinue anything stimulating, such as being visionary or writing. Though she tactile propertys better when she writes, and feels it may be beneficial, she does not speak against John but writes in private Personally I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is wholeness to do? By asking the end question, she essentially states that she is not her husbands play hit and has no choice but to listen, and is accepting of this.She even follows Johns orders even when he is not present to enforce them John says the really pound thing I can do is to think close to my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it wholly and talk about the house. This reaction can be compa carmine to what many people experience today with doctors. Although people usually kat once what will make themselves feel better, they will most often follow the advice of a doctor sort of, simply because physicians are figures of authority. The narrator knows that writing and socializing would help and clearly wants to recover rom her infirmity, but she allows her husband and brother, who is also a respected physician, to control her treatment. The chars description of the wallpaper is symbolic of the evolution of her illness. The wallpaper, upon first introduction and description, amply illustrates how the woman regards her illness It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a small- senseed distance they suddenly commit self-destruction-plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. As Paula A. Triechler states in her paper, Escaping the Sentence Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper, Like all good metaphors, the yellow wallpaper is variously interpreted by readers to represent (among other things) the pattern which underlies sexual inequality, the external locution of neurasthenia, the narrators unconscious, the narrators situation within patriarchy (3). This portrays not only how the woman feels about herself and her illness, but also the effect of her husbands orders.The lame uncertain curves are likely a reference to her husbands treatment orders, and suicide could very well be the result if followed. The unheard of contradictions express the faultiness of Johns methods. At one point she describes his contradictions he says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me, yet, he does not allow her to do as she wills. She describes writing as a relief, but because John has instructed her to stop writing, she lets her imagination run with the lines of the wa llpaper.The to a greater extent she allows her mind to wander, the more confident she becomes, which is reflective in her description of the woman in the wallpaper. The initial description of this woman is of her stooping down and creeping about. The woman in the wallpaper is a direct reflection of the narrators confidence and feelings of inferiority, and the change they undergo. Initially, the woman in the wall symbolizes the narrators fear of presenting herself and her opinions, and being her husbands equal. She begins to display a building confidence in herself, and an almost amused invite of Johns orders.When John tells her that she seems to be doing well, in spite of the wallpaper, she has to stop herself from openly laughing. It is at this point, where she is building confidence in herself, that she begins to see the woman in the wallpaper more clearly. She states, I think that woman gets out in the daytime And Ill tell you why privately Ive seen her symbolizing her conf idence beginning to emerge. Finally, she allows herself to be fully confident she allows her mind to fully explore the wallpaper. The lines, then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor.It sticks abominably and the pattern just enjoys it, symbolizes the destruction of that which limits her. One may argue that she has had a psychotic break, but the intention of these lines is to show the narrator gaining confidence. As Gilman says herself in an phrase submitted to the October 1913 issue of The Forerunner regarding her treatment then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained I cast the noted specialists advice to the winds and went to work againwork in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasiteultimately recovering some measure of power. This is the same message as the last lines of the story Ive got out at last, she says to John, in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pushed off most of the paper so you cant put me b ack meaning she can no longer be told what she must do and she is now in control, creeping over the fainted John. Similarly, Sylvia Plath illustrates the path she took to break free, from the memory of her father, in her poem Daddy. Plat compares the confinement her fathers memory has created to a shoe, that for 30 years, she was trapped in, too scared to dare to breathe or Achoo. Throughout the poem, Plath uses similes and metaphors to reveal a dramatic view on the relationship between herself and her father. Plath aligns gypsies and Judaic people with the female figure, and she aligns German Nazis with both male figures, she employs these comparisons to draw women as victims and men as persecutors. Plath continues this description of confinement by saying she is a Jew in Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. She continually describes her father as black, and even tells her father You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you,A cleft in your chin instead of your foot B ut no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two. She resents her father for abandoning her, yet she still feels bound to his memory, so much so that after burying him at the age of ten, she attempted suicide at twenty trying to get back, back, back to him (Daddy 59). Plath further illustrate this confinement to his memory by explain she married a man who, essentially, was her father but after 7, metaphorically, killed her husband thus freeing her of the memories of her father. As Guinevara A.Nance and Judith P. Jones explain in On Daddy, Plath accomplishes, through the use of relative chronological sequencing of childhood memories, and on through the attempted suicide to the point at thirty when the woman tries to extricate herself from her image of daddy, is a dramatization of the process of psychic refinement in the speaker (par. 3). While The Yellow Wallpaper and Daddy are stories illustrating women breaking free, Editha, by William Dean Howells, is a story of a woman who desires to catch up with her betrothed and by doing so pushes him into struggle.Editha wants a hero in William Dean Howellss Editha and will not stop short of persuading her betrothed to go off to war to achieve this dream. In this short story gender differences are at play, but in reverse Editha feels a patriotic duty to her rural area even if that means going off to war, while George sees war as absurd. In addition, as Philip Furia from the University of Minnesota states in Editha The Feminine View, Edithas idealistic mind set is tainted by her unconscious desire to disarm her lover (279).This unconscious desire is illustrated by her excitement in regards to the war, the possibility of George being maim and her belief that he will be complete(a) if he enlists. Upon hearing of the war declaration Editha immediately thinks of George and how glorious it would be if he were a war hero. She feels it is a mans patriotic duty to serve his cou ntry, in war however, she hardly perceives the sacrifice of enlisting, in most cases that sacrifice being the enlisteds life. Editha is focused on a picture of perfection and how she will appear to others as the woman betrothed to a heroic solider.She believes he would be perfect and worthy of her love if he enlists. Georges feelings about war are quiet opposite and he voices this when he asks is it glorious to break the peace of the humanness? (Editha par. 9). He clearly finds war to be unnecessary but this belief vanishes after he goes drinking with friends. He then returns to Edithas house, drunk, to boast about enlisting and his title of Captain. Editha is delighted with his enlistment, even after George tells her of his father, who lost an arm in the Civil War.This story, instead of scaring her as George intends, thrills Editha she becomes fascination with the idea of George needing her two arms, which would give her superiority (Furia 280). Edithas preoccupation with overpow ering George is evident in her reaction to him, drunkenly, recounting enlisting after which he kisses her in a manner very unlike him, that made her feel as if she had lost her old lover and found a stranger in his place, she finds that within her wilfulness she has been frightened by a sense of subtler force in him sic (Editha para. 4). After George has announced his enlistment, Editha is delighted with his near-perfection, but this near-perfection is lost when Georges name is on the list of those killed. She reels not only from grief but from disbelief because her idealistic picture did not include this and, for that reason, she cannot grasp how it could possibly be. Editha goes to visit Mrs. Gearson, as George had asked before deploying, it is then that Editha cries however, Editha cries with relief because she feels in Mrs.Gearsons accusation, that girls and women think the soldiers will come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went, or if its an empty sleeve, or even an empty pantaloon, its all the more glory, and theyre so much the prouder of them, poor things she has been understood (Editha par. 118). These trio pieces delve into the theme of gender inequality which, during the time these pieces were written, was being questioned and changed through the Womens Movement.These pieces provide three different views of gender conflict wife versus the superior husband in The Yellow Wallpaper, daughter versus father and later wife versus husband in Daddy, and man versus the woman who desires superiority in Editha. Works Cited Daddy by Sylvia Plath. Internal. org Poets. N. p. , n. d. Web. 2 Mar. 2013. Editha. William Dean Howellss Short Story. Readbookonline. net, n. d. Web. 2 Mar. 2013. Furia, Philip. Editha The Feminine View. American Literary Realism, 1870-1910 12. 2 (1979) 278-282. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2013. Gilman, Charlotte P. Gilman, Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. The Department of History. The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 08 June 1999. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. Nance, Guinevara A. , and Judith P. Jones. On Daddy Modern American Poetry. University of Illinois English Department, n. d. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Electronic school text Center. University of Virginia Library, n. d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. Treichler, Paula A. Escaping the Sentence Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow WallpaperTulsa Studies in Womens Literature. 3. 1/2 (1984) 61-77. JSTOR. Web. 01 Feb. 2013.