The story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is Charlotte Gilman’s interpretation of how women were treated and were thought that they were only useful in the home. The story follows the first person point of view of a woman who is struggling to break free from the irrational labels of being a woman that her husband is attempting to force upon her. The narrator dreams of being able to write freely and leave her home to be in the world she sees outside her window. However, John, the husband, convinces her that she has nervous depression, and that she is unable to leave the house until she is better. John, being a physician, believes that he knows exactly how her nervousness affects her and convinces himself and his wife that it is better for her to stay in the home until she is not “sick” any longer. …show more content…
The narrator even goes so far as to blame her sporadic and sometimes angry nature on her condition rather than her husband. Instead of lashing out against her husband, the narrator finds other ways to keep herself occupied, like examining their bedroom walls. The narrator finds the walls and wallpaper in the room to be very unflattering and suggests to her husband that she wants to repaper the walls and take down the yellow wallpaper. He refuses because he believes that giving her the freedom to change something in the house will allow her to gain enough freedom to change many more things about the house. The climax in the story comes as the narrator breaks free from all of the doubt her husband has filled her mind with and rips the wallpaper off of the walls. The husband comes home, finds the bedroom door locked, and then passes out as he soon realizes what the narrator is doing. The story is left with an unclear conclusion as the narrator uses her new found free will in order to continue tearing down the rest of the