It’s very clear that the narrator of this story who husband by the name John is a physician, is facing a lot of difficulties within her institution of marriage. Her husband has decided to confine her in to the upstairs bedroom of the house he has rented for the summer season. she is forbidden from working or any other task for that matter to an extent that she even have to now hide her journal as she is writing. Despite the fact that she feel write when she writes and feel; it may be beneficial, she does not utter a word. She speaks as if her opinion doesn’t count anymore and she even says “what is one to do?” .This clearly shows her lack of self-confidence and feeling of inferiority.
The problem is that the narrator’s husband, the doctor, did not know how to treat his wife. He used to think that rest and sleep would help her feel better. On the other hand, it is not clear how she can become mentally healthy again when she is locked in a room with awful and scaring yellow wallpaper and bars on the windows.
The story reveals that the narrator remained second class citizen, where she is kept in childish state of ignorance and preventing her full development. This is well demonstrated when even her own brother who is also a high standing physician takes sides with her husband and absolutely forbid her to work until she is well again. John used tot hink that he was heping his wife, he was, obviously, smarter, wiser and more experienced than she was. Her wife is reduced to an acting puppet, unable to stand up for herself without offending her husband and appearing to be naïve, disloyal or even unreasonable.
The point is that the main character of the short story deep inside of her knows what she should do and knows how to do that. However, she is constantly stopped by her husband, her brother and personal insecurities. This instead of helping the narrator in recovery is contrary deteriorating her illness to mental health and eventually to insanity, since her husband not only confine but also makes sure that the windows of the room are barred, and there is a gate across the top of the stairs, allowing him to control her access to the rest of the house like a pet. With nothing else to stimulate her in the room she starts losing her mind gradually and become obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper. The narrator describes that the longer one stays in bed, in the room, the more the wallpaper tends to change. Especially it is noticeable at night when the moon is shining. She realizes that the yellow color of the wallpaper no longer reminds her of the beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. This clearly shows that she has started not only to develop anger against her husband but also a lot of hate let instead of love required between the two.
It is very clear that the narrator’s husband method, of aiding her wife to quick recovery is not doing her any good since at the end her mental condition deteriorate to an extent that she imagines there are women creeping around behind the patterns of the wallpaper, and even comes to believe she is one of them. She even gets worse because now she becomes adapted to the environment such that she even locks herself in the room in order to strip the remains of the wallpaper and also since its now the only place she feels safe, refusing to even leave when the summer rental is up.
The narrator of the story clearly demonstrates how sexism, racism and classism play role in her life as a woman that day. It is immediately apparent in the story that the narrator allows herself to be inferior to men in this case her husband and her brother who being physicians, give her special orders to stay in bed, suppress her imagination, and most importantly to discontinue her writing. It is not difficult to see that the narrator gives the wallpaper some symbolic meaning. The point is that when reading the short story, one may easily contrast the change of illness and wallpaper patterns: they were simultaneous. Besides, the paper is described as being dull enough to confuse the eyes or even cause irritation during study. This is exactly what is happen to the woman as a result of her husband’s therapy; the wallpaper description is alluding to her sense of inferiority and burden. She at one point say no one but herself can help her out of the situation, but the problem remains that her husband does not however let her do what she knows she ought to do which is using her mind and expressing herself without feeling inferior.
It is noted that the woman is in much fear of her husband, since even her husband was never around in the room where she was confined her mind creates imaginary being of a woman in the paper stooping down and creeping about, and this makes her feel so scared. It is symbolic of fear that the woman has derived from her husband; it also symbolizes the narrator’s fear of presenting herself and her opinions without provoking her husband. Eventually the woman stops to give concern of her husband opinion not because she is finally able to free herself from her husband dominancy but due to fate that has led her to mental depression that is slowly turning to insanity. At the end of the story the narrator tells the readers that the woman is happy when she looks at the wallpaper and plays with the woman inside of it. Moreover, she became indifferent to everyone around her and does not care what people think. She allows her feelings to be expressed.
It’s for sure that the wife has gone insane and subsequently furthered her illness. She believe that since she has torn most of the wall paper she cannot be taken back and even says that at last she has gotten out, and since at the when her husband saw this fainted, she stepped over his inert body each time she passes. This clearly shows how badly she needed the freedom and so she finally felt so happy when she thought that she is finally in control.
The husband thought that he will always monitor the wife movement since he has confined her not knowing that he is even causing more damage than cure. The narrator message is that of individual expression and one to realize that authority is not a simple thing and sometimes people who have power, be it a husband or a doctor, and may harm the beloved ones. For example, John’s course of treatment backfires and even worsens when the depression he was trying to cure and actually drive his wife insane all because he never considered that his wife pinion matters despite her not being a physician.
Work cited
GILMAN, C. P., & GOLDEN, C. J. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The yellow wall-paper: a sourcebook and critical edition. 2004 New York, NY [u.a.], Routledge.
Gilman, Charlotte P. "the Yellow Wallpaper" and Other Stories. , 1997. Internet resource.
