The Yellow Wallpaper Setting

In this short story, a wife by the name of Jane is suffering from “nervous depression” and is treated by her husband’s beliefs. The two are on a summer vacation in a colonial mansion that the narrator, Jane, believes is similar to a “haunted house”. She has these suspicions of the house being haunted because the rental price was cheap and the mansion had been unattained. Her husband, John, is a doctor and recommends her to stay in her room throughout the vacation and breathe the air. Although, her husband wants her to stay in one place and not involve herself in any physical activity she still manages to write in her journal without him knowing. The narrator describes her room in the journal, she tells us that the walls have rings in them and the windows have bars covering them up. She also, tells us that the faded and scratched up yellow wallpaper bothers her the most. In the meantime, family comes and go’s stopping by to see the married couple while on their vacation. Johns sister, Jennie, acts as a housekeeper and nurse for Jane. During the entire vacation the narrator is trying to reveal the pattern behind the yellow wallpaper, her obsession grows deeper deeper each day they’re in the house. The narrator tries to convince …show more content…
In the late 1800’s, where the story takes place, women had just started to fight for their rights. However, Jane didn’t demand things to go her way as much as she should’ve because no women really had rights during this time period. Since women didn’t have rights they weren’t dominant in marriage, everything wasn’t a mutual agreement between spouses it was more of a males say so. Gilman gives the readers examples of Jane’s impact on John and how she didn’t exactly impact his decision making skills at