Cameron and Greenwood both essentialize women, whether it is emotional or biological. This is problematic because according to Barthes, "thinking in essences underpins bourgeois mythologies of human kind” (Gates 12). Greenwood states that a woman cannot be both a wife and mother in his text. If a woman is a “mother-woman,” the husband has to accept it because she will not be able to become a "wife-woman," which is the ideal for any husband. As we know today, different categories of people, such as men and women, do not have intrinsically different dispositions. Greenwood also states that, “Wisdom and foresight are never the attributes of the wife-woman” (Greenwood). The fact that Greenwood believes there are certain attributes which belong to women, shows how deep his essentialist view is rooted. Confining certain groups to restrictions is a kind of oppression which can lead to disastrous results, including, but not limited to, depression and anxiety.

The Yellow Book has many different examples of women positioned in nature, and Greenwood’s text seems to be on the extreme negative end of these representations, where women’s only importance is in relation to men. Women exist to serve men through being wives or mother’s, there is no other function for them according to his view. However, though it may appear that Cameron’s representation of women and nature is at the positive end, just like Greenwood, Cameron looks at women as objects that exist to serve some sort of purpose for men. Women, though as free as butterflies, are to be admired for their beauty and exist for decorative purposes. This is problematic because “Art beautifies life, making woman more beautiful in art than reality” (Ledbetter 148). Representations such as Cameron’s, place unrealistic expectations on women and were the catalyst for feminist works that began to appear in The Yellow Book during the later years of the book's production.

There is a long tradition of women being linked to nature in the 1890s context, which is why there are many varying representations of women and nature found in The Yellow Book. Some representations, such as the title page of Volume 1 where a woman is seen standing in a field playing the piano, are more playful, as there is an artificial element linked to a natural element. Refer to the image to the left of this text. Other representations, such as “Gossips,” celebrate nature, showing that both women and nature have an admiration for one another. Nature provides a safe place for women to discuss their thoughts. Refer to the image to the right of this text. Even though The Yellow Book has numerous representations of women and nature, Cameron and Greenwood are specifically examining physical and biological nature through an essentialist lens.

Examining the numerous representations of women and nature in The Yellow Book allows us to understand the ideologies that existed around beauty during the 1890s. Because there are so many representations of women and nature in The Yellow Book, some that even contradict one another, new information and research surrounding the worldviews of The Yellow Book contributors and those that lived in the Victorian period will continuously be discovered.