Masculine Physicians and Prescribers: Assignations for Women in Daisy Miller and “The Yellow Wall-paper”
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published 21/08/2007
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Summary
Both Henry James’ Daisy Miller and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper” depict male characters that are unable to understand their female counter-points. In Daisy Miller, the suitor Winterbourne fails to comprehend Daisy’s true character, and in “The Yellow Wall-paper,” the husband John cannot understand his wife’s ailment. In these stories, the two male characters attempt to remedy the respective female’s “problem.” In Daisy Miller Winterbourne attempts to culture Daisy by giving her advice and trying to tell her how to act and what to do, and in “The Yellow Wall-paper” John attempts to cure the narrator’s illness by containing her in a room and setting absolute rules for her to abide. The two works share a common theme: the men in these stories attempt to authoritatively impress their ideals and expectations on the women, but prove to be ultimately inadequate at prescribing solutions to the female “problem.”
Table of Contents
- In 'The Yellow Wall-paper,' the role of the male as physician and prescriber is a quite straightforward, more so than it is in Daisy Miller
- Despite the fact that she 'personally' disagrees with these prescriptions, she follows through with them anyway because it is what the men in her life dictate
- Daisy Miller, like Gilman's narrator, also values her independence from custom as a means of realizing her self
- It is, of course, Winterbourne's attempt to control her by prescribing his own ideals to her
- A lack of independence and a loss of self are the plight of the domesticated woman, as depicted in 'The Yellow Wall-paper.?
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