Revolt

“The Revolt of Mother” parallels “The Yellow Wallpaper” in a broad sense, with the revolt of the female protagonist against the domination of a male partner, and in some ways against the social norms and gender roles of the time period.

However, the two stories, even with a very similar structural plot, differ in many ways; “Mother” is overtly rebelling with a visible, thought out plan to achieve her clear and attainable desires, while the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” rebels from her oppression in more obscure ways, by writing in secret, creatively dreaming up patterns in the wallpaper without the knowledge of others in her household, and defying her bedridden orders by “creeping” in the night. She becomes free, in a sense, through the wallpaper, by identifying characteristics of herself in the wallpaper, and coming to the eventual realization that in order to truly free herself, she needs to show her previous rebellion by ripping down the wallpaper and freeing herself and the woman trapped behind the pattern.

Sara, in “The Revolt of Mother,” clearly states her desires to her husband, in the expected respectful manner, without receiving what she wants in the end. After being dismissed by her husband, she takes matters into her own hands, involving her family, and under the watchful eyes of her astonished community members. Her husbands realization of Sara’s revolt results in the characteristically “unmanly” response of tears. The gender roles and power dichotomy is reversed.

The unnamed narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” an incapable sick “girl” in the eyes of her husband, never directly states her discomforts of her situation to anyone but her journal. She is fearful of her husband, often standing up for him, even when she is herself irritated with his actions. The first time he becomes aware of her secretive rebellion, he finds that she has destroyed the room the  has been confined to, ripped down the wallpaper, and “creeps” around in front of him. The result manifests when John becomes unconscious after witnessing this event, again reversing the power and gender roles, though, again, in a much more obscure manner than the narrative in “The Revolt of Mother.”