The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman - 1423 Words

The terms â€Å"social status† and â€Å"influence† are two that go hand in hand. When one is given a high ranking on the social ladder, they are also given influence, a powerful tool that can be used for good, but also as a weapon if mishandled (which it often is). Many things in society make up social status and can also be found to have a direct relationship with influence, including wealth, sex, age, profession, education, and even race. In the short story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this correlation and abuse of influence is portrayed through an inside look into the deteriorating mind of a woman whose life is being controlled by her influential, high in social status husband. Although he believes that he is doing the†¦show more content†¦Even most college professors hold a doctoral degree. Society regards anyone with the title of â€Å"doctor† to a much higher standard than anyone else. An excellent example of thi s is in Gilman’s story, in which a doctor (who is also her husband) diagnoses her with hysteria and prescribes her a treatment of solitude. Although she believes otherwise, she must listen to her husband for two reasons: he is male and he is a doctor, two titles that deem him to have more influence than she does. However, this â€Å"treatment† only makes matters worse and her condition proceeds to decline throughout the course of the text. The concept of solitude was at that time known as the â€Å"rest cure.† It was recommended that women diagnosed with the condition of hysteria be isolated from anything that may set them off. In the story, the main character was not allowed to leave the room much, if at all. However, instead of curing her, it drove her crazy. This deterioration of her health can easily be compared to Michael Foucauld’s idea of panopticism. Panopticism was based off a real structure known as the panopticon. In the eighteenth century, it was a prison laid out in such a way that the prisoners could be seen, yet could not see whom it was that was looking at them. Similar in concept to the two-way mirror used in police stations, the prisoners knew that they were being watched, but could not see it for themselves. The