What is the theme of "The Yellow Wallpaper"? a. It is the author's comment on male oppression of women. b. It is a cautionary tale that one should obey her husband. c. It is an example of what happens when someone fails to obey her doctor's advice. d. all of these none of these

The best answer is letter A. It is the author's comment on male oppression of women.

Explanation:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1892, but it was during the second wave of feminism in the 20th century that the story gained notoriety. The reason for that is the story's comment on gender roles and oppression. Women felt they could relate to the character's suffering under the dominance of men.

The main character and narrator is a woman who's been diagnosed as suffering from some kind of mental illness. As the story progresses, it becomes less and less clear if she is truly sick or if the hallucinations and paranoid thoughts are a result of her situation in life. She is not allowed to express herself - as a matter of fact, her husband even asks her to control her imagination. She is also not allowed outside the new house, which leads her to developing a fixation on the wallpaper. She sees a woman struggling to free herself from the strangling pattern on the wallpaper, which is clearly a representation of the narrator, of her desire to be free - to be and express herself.