Even when a woman escapes an abusive relationship, the emotional scars .
last for years afterward and are manifest in patterns of thinking and behavior. In The .
Yellow Wallpaper, an essay written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman struggles .
with the expectations of others and her true identity. She creates a world for herself in .
which she expresses her true ideas and feelings. This world is centered around the .
wallpaper, that, in the end becomes the symbol through which she describes emotional .
emancipation. The Lady With Cello that Thomas Wilmer Dewing creates with paint on .
canvas is also in her own world - a world in which woman do nothing and do it .
beautifully. .
Both women are products of a patriarchal society that dictates what is expected of .
women in the 19th Century and in previous centuries. However, the woman in The .
Yellow Wallpaper is created by a female author while the woman playing' the cello is .
constructed by a male artist. Dewing portrays the woman with the cello in an idealistic .
manner. She is elegant yet passive and absorbed in an ethereal environment. The artist .
imposes a time on the subject when women "knew their place- at home. She is .
engrossed, even contemplating, perhaps, but what is she thinking? Is this woman capable .
of any thoughts beyond what a beautiful sound this would make if I were actually .
playing'? Gilman shows the harm this ideology, this view of women, can really do. .
In the beginning of the essay, her husband John is introduced. The first .
impression of John is that he is a controlling person. He doesn't take his wife seriously .
and speaks to her in a condescending manner. Merely by giving her a look, he is able to .
completely distinguish any flicker of self-expression she may attempt. -Better in body .
perhaps ""I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a .
stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word' (Gilman p.
