Yellow Wallpaper Reflection

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is a woman who is experiencing nervousness and mental illness. As a cure for this woman she is not allowed to leave her room. Her Husband, who is her psychologist, has also instructed her not to write or do anything creative. Even though the narrator is not allowed to write she secretly does anyway, that is how the story is told. There are many notions and hints to her controlling and belittling relationship with her husband which may be a reason why she begins to go crazy. As the story progresses the narrator develops a fascination of the Yellow Wallpaper in her room. The more and more she stares or looks at the wallpaper the more she believes its moving. As this …show more content…
She is not allowed to be creative because her husband fears she will fascinate too much and make herself sick. The narrator does not think much of many things that happen to her in this story, she talks of a “great immovable bed” (90) and “bars too strong” (99) but does not explain why the bed is nailed down or why there are bars in her window. Being stuck in a room for that long can not only drive someone insane but can make someone do many crazy things in order to get out. This is precisely what happens to her later in the story, the more time the narrator spends in the room, the crazier she gets. She becomes more fascinated by the pattern in the Wallpaper, she is interested in organizing it and discovering what she thinks may be in the wallpaper. The physical restraints and pressure of being stuck in one room for such an extended period of time can easily cause her to act the way she did in the end of the story. The room is explained, “for the windows barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (87). This is very questionable about the place she is staying; her husband is leaving her in this room that is locked with the bed bolted down. He expects this to make her feel better but instead she goes insane because of the lack of imagination and restraints of the room. One day she writes, “that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman. By daylight she …show more content…
From the very beginning of the story there are hints of the narrator being mistreated, when reading the story one may not think much of it but when the reader looks deeper into the context it is seen. The narrator explains, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (85). This is one of the first lines in the story, the fact that he is laughing at her and she is expecting it suggests this is a normal thing. That he thinks it is okay to belittle and think less of your wife, the narrator explains how he treats her “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (86). On the surface this seems nice and innocent but once read again it is easy to realize how controlling he is being to her. There are also many times when he treats her like a child, “Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose” (88). The narrator is married and so she should be old enough to be treated as an adult and not as a child. This may lead to the narrator to even belittle herself and think she is actually a child. Later in the story her husband, John, even calls her “little girl” which is not a normal way to talk to your wife. This story is a good example of gender roles and domestic marriages. When the husband is looked at as the more important figure in the relationship and it makes the wife seem like an object. This