Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” reveals the controlled and limited societal gender roles dispensed by the narrator’s husband, John, whose intentions are positive for his wife. Throughout the story, he is very caring of his wife and gives her all of his love. John feels obligated to take care of his wife both emotionally and financially, thus depriving Jane of her freedom and leading to the ruin of the narrator’s mental health. The narrator’s husband, John, in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a caring and loving husband who possesses affirmative intentions for his wife. In the story, however, John’s love and care suffocated and disturbs his wife because he conforms to the controlling method of society, where he feels he is in control of his wife’s life, and he needs to decide what is best for her.
John is a physician, and he realizes his wife’s derailing state; however, he fails to realize how severe Jane’s condition is. Also, he does not have an effective method of treating it. He is trying his best to help her and treat her depression. Jane is also aware of her husband’s intentions of curing her but sometimes she does not appreciate it enough. She admits that he is trying to end her depression, but she is not thankful for it by saying that she has a scheduled prescription for each day, and John takes such good care of her all the time that she feels ungrateful that she does not value him enough. (Gilman 1892). John does not realize how badly she is suffering; he is trying to cure her of her depression with the things he learned from society, and his work. Jane utters this by saying that John does not know how she actually suffers. She thinks he believes she has no reason to suffer, and this is enough to satisfy him (Gilman 1892). Furthermore, John shows his care for her by leaving his sister Jennie with his wife, so that she can take care of her well, and Jane likes being with her as well. John works for long hours, and he feels bad about leaving Jane alone. John makes sure that she is in good hands by leaving his sister with her, and Jane enjoys his sister’s company. She also mentions this several times in the story by telling that John is busy with his work in town because of serious work and in the meantime Jennie is good with her and lets her stay by herself when she wants. (Gilman 1892). It is very obvious that Jane is aware that her husband needs to work, and she likes to be with Jennie. Also, she mentions that she is very caring and good for her by mentioning that she sees John’s sister coming over to her, and she is such a dear girl who takes good care of her needs. (Gilman 1892).
Moreover, throughout the story, it is very clear that John loves his wife very much, and cares for her, this is very obvious in the story because the only reason he brings her to that house, is that country air will do good to her, and isolation from others will give her a room to breathe and think clearly. The narrator is also aware that her husband loves her, and she mentions it several times in the story. She mentions how careful and loving he is and how he does not move from her place without giving appropriate directions. (Gilman 1892). She again mentions how dearly John loves her and hates to see her suffering and unwell. (Gilman 1892); he hates to have her sick because he is saddened by her sickness, and cares for her. It is obvious the reason why they moved to that isolated country house, and Jane realizes it as well, where she mentions it by saying they had moved to the country house only because of her health so she could get good rest and all the air she needed. (Gilman 1892). He wants her to get well, not only for himself but also, for their child and herself, so that she could be able to enjoy the world again. John mentions this by saying that he begged of her to get well for his sake and their child’s and also for her own self and that she must not forget that (Gilman 1892). He doesn’t want her to give up on herself; because he needs her and more importantly, their child needs her love and attention.
However, because John is bound by traditional roles of the society, he does not believe that she has an illness in her mind; he treats it as a “nervous condition”, and his intentions are not to take away her freedom. Also the society, and her brother, where her brother also works as a physician, thinks that her illness is just a “nervous depression” which is affecting John. This is the only reason why he is treating her in an inappropriate way. He is not able to recognize her condition, because of the society. The society is assigning him the role of taking her to some isolated place and treating her there. She mentions this by saying that is a high standing physician, as well as a woman's own husband, believe that there is nothing wrong with mental depression, and it is only a passing phase of hysteria, then there is little someone can do. (Gilman 1892). She is not able to do anything about it because John is sure that he is treating her in a right way. Her brother is affecting John’s behavior in a way of treating Jane wrongly. She mentions this by saying her brother is a physician as well, and he has a high standing, and he says the same thing as John. (Gilman 1892). Remarkably, there is nothing she can do, because everyone around her thinks that she is just having a “temporary nervous condition,” where John is doing all he could, however, he only knows how to treat her from the society.
Work Cited
Gilman, Perkin, Charlotte. (1892). ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’ Retrieved from
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/literatureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf
