In Sweat, by Zora Neale Hurston, and The Yellow Wallpaper ...



In Sweat, by Zora Neale Hurston, and The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, social constructs of the ideal image of women and dynamics of authority in the family greatly affected the actions and self-image of the main characters in both stories. The character, Delia Jones, in Sweat and the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper are both individuals that are greatly influenced by what their societies deemed as acceptable roles and behaviors for married women. However, they also challenged these notions in order to survive and overcome the hardships in their lives.

In Sweat, Delia worked as a washwoman in order to provide for her family. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, most women of the time period either stayed at home or joined their husbands in working. However, as a wife, Delia was the sole financial provider of her household. Her husband, Sykes, did not work at all and also challenged social norms of the time by freely spending the money that his wife earned. Since Delia had married someone who threw out social customs and rules in order to live an easy life, she had no choice but to also go against these artificial social constructs in order to support herself. The dirt that was scrubbed out of the laundry and the money that she earned knew no gender and she too ignored what stood in her way of survival. Since Delia’s job took much of her time and energy, she often gave herself a head’s start by soaking the soiled clothes that she had picked up the day before when she returned from church. Although it was against the Sabbath to work on a Sunday, Delia again ignored social norms and customs of the time in order to survive the workweek. Sykes would berate her and say that she was “nothing but a hypocrite. One of them amen-corner Christians- sing whoop, and shout, then come home and wash white folks’ clothes on the Sabbath” (129). This is ironic for Sykes to say since Delia is breaking the Sabbath in order to follow what the Bible teaches – to support oneself through honest means – while Sykes breaks the law of Christianity for his own pleasure – having an affair with another woman. The white clothes that Delia washes on Sunday is symbolic of the “washing of sins” that is taught in Christianity. Although she is breaking the Sabbath by working, she has good intentions of supporting herself and her husband and the act of laundering is reflective of the forgiving nature of her actions.

At a time when images and memories of slavery lay fresh in the minds of Americans in the United States, Sykes abuses Delia and treats her almost like a slave. Without working himself or contributing to the household finances, he uses everything that Delia has and reaps the benefits from all that she earns. It is ironic that he chastises her for washing white people’s clothing for a living, yet the money that they give Delia for her services feed and clothe him. It is also ironic that despite his financial dependence on Delia, he has physical dominance over her. Sykes’ negative behavior towards Delia has also caused her to work hard and become both emotionally and financially independent. At a time when property was a way out of poverty, Delia had owned her own house as well as surrounding land. If Sykes would have been a more supportive and loving husband, there is a high chance that Delia would not be as hard working and independent as she was. His negative attitude and abusive behavior is actually a blessing in disguise, allowing Delia to become independent in our own right.

While Delia went against many customs of her time that applied to herself as a married woman of Christian faith, there were some social taboos that she could not overcome. Her husband was an abusive man and often verbally and physically tormented Delia, even when she was busy working on cleaning clothes that would ironically end up being spent by him. Well aware of her fear of snakes, Sykes would slither a bullwhip across Delia’s neck in order to scare her. He was notorious for brutally beating her, “’nough tuh kill three women, let ‘lone change they look” (131). In addition to abusing Delia, Sykes was also having an affair with another woman whom he paraded around town without shame or fear that the people of the town would find out. Delia had serious problems in her marriage yet was constricted from getting help or even divorcing her husband due to the social taboos concerning spousal separation. The people of the town knew about the abuse and the affairs but were also restricted by the same social constructs that did not allow Delia from escaping her torturous life with Sykes. The community did not want to meddle in the private affairs of the couple and with the negative social implications of divorce; Delia did not feel like she had a way out of her tumultuous marriage. The social constructs of Delia’s time were lenient enough to allow her to provide for herself while strict enough to prevent her from being helped by others.

The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper was also controlled by similar social norms and restrictions. As a woman who was perceived to be sick, her opinions and feelings were ignored and she was forced to follow the medical advice of her husband, a practicing physician. Modern medical practice places much significance on the feelings and needs of the patient. However, during the time period that the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper lived in, the patient was seen as an inferior entity that was not as knowledgeable as the medical team that was treating them. The husband being a doctor was symbolic of the many layers of authority that men often had over women, especially in earlier times. His position as a physician elevated him to a much higher level than his default position as a husband. Without actually paying heed to the substance of what he was prescribing and saying, those around him, including his wife, blindly followed. This significance of positions in society greatly influences the woman as she is less keen to challenge anything her husband says, regardless of how miserable she feels. He forces her to stay in a certain room, does not let her visit or see her relatives, and allows her to sleep all day. After being cooped up in her assigned room in the house, she becomes fixated on the wallpaper. The woman has an unhealthy view of the wallpaper as she uses language such as “the color is repellent, almost revolting” (18) and her detailed descriptions turn more lively and psychotic as the days pass. After initially focusing on the color and physical characteristics of the wallpaper, she develops personified descriptions of it. She begins to see a woman in the wallpaper and soon begins to see more than one. She writes in her journal that “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” (26). The woman describes that her husband “laughs at me,” (16) suggesting a condescending attitude towards her opinions and feelings. The wallpaper is symbolic of the fact that the woman covers up her true self and thoughts while displaying a façade to others. This symbolism can be seen in the last scene as well when the woman tears down the wallpaper, attempting to attain mental salvation and freedom. The husband’s patriarchal and controlling nature is also seen in the fact that he would not allow his wife to change the wallpaper that she expressed was bothering her. He saw it as unnecessary to change anything in house that they were staying temporarily in and claimed 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, and so on” (19). His attitude towards his ill wife’s needs was dismissing and he saw it as a burden to have to cater to her whims and fancies, even if it had the potential of making her feel better and recover early from her sickness. The woman does not dare describe any of her initial descriptions of the wallpaper to her husband due to his reaction to her. The husband’s apathy and ignorance of his wife’s feelings prevents him from knowing of her progressively unhealthy and deranged thoughts about the wallpaper. If he had known about her thoughts about the wallpaper as soon as they moved in or even read her writings, he could have measured the changes in her attitude and description of the wallpaper and thus been better equipped to help her. In addition to his prescription of keeping her in the room, the husband’s failure to pay heed to his wife’s thoughts and feelings exacerbated the woman’s condition. The husband’s supposed remedy for his wife was in actuality a poison for her. As a wife she was expected to obey her husband and as a patient she was expected to submit to her doctor, confining the woman to a suffocating lifestyle and degenerating mental health.

The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper also challenges the common notion of her time that a woman, especially one who was suffering from a nervous depression, ought not to think too much. She describes in her writings her feelings when her husband approaches her room, “There comes John, and I must put this away,- he hates to have me write a word” (18). While her husband forbade her from having to engage in high cognitive thinking, the woman secretly kept a journal and wrote her feelings and detailed descriptions of her thoughts. Her writings in her journal are symbolic of the freedom that she yearns to have. Unlike her life in which she is not allowed to socialize, go out and even choose what room she stays in, the woman’s writing knows no boundaries. The woman’s husband had said that with her “imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like [hers] is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that [she] ought to use [her] will and good sense to check the tendency” (19). Instead of being allowed to let her creativity flow in her writing, she may have turned to the wallpaper as a way out of her mundane and stifling lifestyle.

Delia Jones and the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper are two characters who worked with and against the social constructs of their time as well the figures of authority in their lives in order to overcome their hardships. While Delia worked hard to support herself, the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper attempted to stay sane and healthy. Their struggles, successes, and failures were all influenced by society and the people who had power in their lives, especially their own selves.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download