The Giant Wistaria Essay

that time, a young lady who had an illegitimate child is unacceptable. Therefore, her parents thought that the child was a big shame for her family and also an obstacle for her future. Her father punished the woman by forcing her to get married to her cousin whom she did not love and go back to England without her child. On the other hand, her mother seemed to be more understanding than her father. Her mother worried about her marriage with the cousin because he was a rude, terrible person. But during the old time, women’s voices were usually not heard by men; men were the ones who controlled everything in the house and women had to listen to them all of the time. For that reason, the mother finally agreed to the father’s opinion about their daughter’s marriage. How painful it is that no one sympathized for this young woman, especially her family who were the closest and most important people to her. The woman could not make decisions for her life by herself because of the enforcement of her father. All parents in the world love their children, but sometimes the way they think is not supportive and understanding for children. The father in “The Giant Wistaria” loved his daughter so he chose to be strict with her in this situation because he believed that it was best for his daughter’s future. But the father’s lack of understanding may have led the woman to live an unhappy life and it was very unfortunate for her. However, the father’s strictness and pressure on his daughter and wife shows how unfair it was for women in the past. Women should have the right to choose how to live their own life. Bearing an illegitimate child was not right but the child did not do anything wrong. That is the reason why the father should not take the baby away from her, especially when she wanted to take care of her child. No matter what happened, every child deserves to be cared for by the mother.

Perhaps the second part of “The Giant Wistaria” took place in the future, during the time the author lived. At the beginning, the men had already disagreed to the women about the house having a ghost. The first time they came to see the house, Jenny was so excited about how scary the house looked, and she was also curious about the wistaria vines. On the contrary, her husband George did not really care about the house; he just came because of his wife. In addition, when Jenny’s sister told them that this house is “a real ghostly place” and the trees looked like “a crouching, hunted figure”, Jim said “It looks to me like a woman picking huckleberries”. This detail showed the disrespect of this man to the woman’s viewpoint; it seemed like he only saw women as a joke. But it also showed that the sixth sense of the women was great. The women already felt something wrong with the house; meanwhile, the men did not. All the women – Jenny, Kate and Suzy – felt in the same way that this house is haunted, but instead of believing them, the men just made fun of the women’s opinion. The women were teased about the haunted house by the men until the house no longer allowed their behaviors. They all had scary experiences with the ghost at night, so they decided to discover the truth or the secret of this house. They eventually found a little baby preserved in limewater and “in the strangling grasp of the roots of the great wistaria” was the bones of a woman. Now the men knew that they should respect the women and not underestimate their feelings. At the end of the story, women finally proved that they were right about the ghost and all women had great sensitivity that they could feel what was wrong with the house.

Additionally, the wistaria is like the symbol of women; like the wistaria, all women have outstanding beauty and they all have power to do everything by themselves. At the beginning, the big wistaria covering the house attracted Jenny because it was both beautiful and scary. The wistaria taking over the house makes readers feel that this plant must have huge power. Moreover, it seems like the giant wistaria represents the young woman in the first part of the story. The scarlet cross on the bones’ neck is evidence proving that the bones under the wistaria belong to that young woman. This creepy detail makes the readers wonder what happened to her and her child after her parents’ conversation. Why did they not go back to England? Did something horrible happen to them? How did the baby end up in the basement? Was the baby killed and did the woman commit suicide? These are all big mysterious questions that the story has not answered for the readers.

In conclusion, the author has illustrated the fact that to some extent, women were still underrated and disregarded by men in the late nineteenth century. Through Gilman’s words, the readers can clearly see the inequality between men and women in this story. However, nowadays many women are becoming stronger and more independent, it is so great that women have the ability to do anything they want.