In ‘’The Yellow Wallpaper’’, Charlotte Perkins Gilman rightfully portrays the position of women within a male dominated society during the late 19th century. Gilman positions John as a villain in order to show society the negative aspect of male superiority, oppression, and corrupted gender expectations. As her doctor, John provides a rest cure for the deteriorating mental condition of his wife, the narrator, and confines her into a peculiar nursery while forbidding her to expand her imagination into writing. Commencing her treatment, the narrator nonetheless saw his altruism and did not see him as a product of their conflicted society. However, as she begins to take comfort with the wallpaper she sees a female figure trapped; her view of him
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She does this effectively by implying to the readers that John’s cruel treatment towards his wife and society were the primary cause for the narrator’s ultimate insanity. John becomes the large-scale authority as a husband and physician to his wife and neglects her own opinions and concerns about her illness. The narrator writes, ‘’Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good’’ (648). John’s wife has no say in her own treatment, as he provides a ‘’rest cure’’ and forbids her to leave the house. Throughout the story, he treats her in childish way by sending her up to a ‘’nursery’’ and referring her as a ‘’blessed little goose’’ and ‘’little girl’’ instead of respecting her as a grown up woman. John completely disregards her feelings about the house as she is forced to stay in a room she feels anxious about, where there is appalling wallpaper, windows have bars, the bed is bolted to the floor. The narrator attempts to discuss her unhappiness about the situation, but he neglects her opinion and sends her back up to the nursery. John says to her, ‘’I am a doctor, dear, I know’’, as he identifies himself as the intellectually superior one of the two (652). John ultimately does care for her; however, by treating her as a case rather than a person with a will of …show more content…
She further expresses her endless gratefulness towards John by telling the reader, ‘’...he takes care of me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more’’ (648). Although she feels ‘’congenial work, with excitement and change’’ would have a better effect on her health than extensive rest, she believes he knows best and somewhat blames herself for avowing her opinion (648). Moreover, as the story progresses, the narrator begins to have an intimate relationship with the yellow wallpaper. Although her initial reaction was repulsion, as the weeks went by she studied the pattern more closely and noticed ‘’a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design’’ (650). What the narrator sees in the wallpaper becomes something that she can retain from her husband without his controlling influence; she is able to find an escape within the wallpaper. Her assertion that there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper symbolizes her own desire for freedom as she begins to feel more and more stifled under her husband’s patronizing behavior. The narrator’s view of her husband progressed negatively as she now sees herself trapped not only within her marriage but within a male dominated
She does this effectively by implying to the readers that John’s cruel treatment towards his wife and society were the primary cause for the narrator’s ultimate insanity. John becomes the large-scale authority as a husband and physician to his wife and neglects her own opinions and concerns about her illness. The narrator writes, ‘’Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good’’ (648). John’s wife has no say in her own treatment, as he provides a ‘’rest cure’’ and forbids her to leave the house. Throughout the story, he treats her in childish way by sending her up to a ‘’nursery’’ and referring her as a ‘’blessed little goose’’ and ‘’little girl’’ instead of respecting her as a grown up woman. John completely disregards her feelings about the house as she is forced to stay in a room she feels anxious about, where there is appalling wallpaper, windows have bars, the bed is bolted to the floor. The narrator attempts to discuss her unhappiness about the situation, but he neglects her opinion and sends her back up to the nursery. John says to her, ‘’I am a doctor, dear, I know’’, as he identifies himself as the intellectually superior one of the two (652). John ultimately does care for her; however, by treating her as a case rather than a person with a will of …show more content…
She further expresses her endless gratefulness towards John by telling the reader, ‘’...he takes care of me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more’’ (648). Although she feels ‘’congenial work, with excitement and change’’ would have a better effect on her health than extensive rest, she believes he knows best and somewhat blames herself for avowing her opinion (648). Moreover, as the story progresses, the narrator begins to have an intimate relationship with the yellow wallpaper. Although her initial reaction was repulsion, as the weeks went by she studied the pattern more closely and noticed ‘’a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design’’ (650). What the narrator sees in the wallpaper becomes something that she can retain from her husband without his controlling influence; she is able to find an escape within the wallpaper. Her assertion that there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper symbolizes her own desire for freedom as she begins to feel more and more stifled under her husband’s patronizing behavior. The narrator’s view of her husband progressed negatively as she now sees herself trapped not only within her marriage but within a male dominated