Date of Graduation

Fall 12-16-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Thesis Chair

Dr. James Finley

Abstract

This paper makes the claim that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” encoded the medical system as part of the patriarchy used to control and harm women, especially within the 19th Century, and how this is a common theme within gothic literature and modern-day horror. Through the Feminist Literary Criticism framework and the methodology of textual analysis, certain literary devices Gilman uses, including the Gothic trope of the narrator’s environment in “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is analyzed to reveal women living in a patriarchal society during the 19thCentury and the medical system being a source of power. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is a Gothical Counterstory as it is a story based on Gilman’s own personal experience with the abusive medical treatment of the rest cure popularized in the 19th Century. Although this story is fiction and published in 1892, it is still relevant today as there is still not true gender equality, especially within the medical system.

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