Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Throughout history, women have been painted as obedient and fragile. They were to tend to the house and their children because they were not strong or smart enough to take care of themselves. Locked up and hidden away was how many of them spent their days, apparently, their spouses could not see the effects that their pretty prisons sometimes had on them. The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is about a woman who goes with her husband, who also happens to be her doctor, out to an estate so that she could heal from a “temporary nervous depression”. The narrator and her husband stay in the nursery on the top floor, which happens to be in poor condition. The only furniture that came with the room was a

They have been controlled by their fathers, brothers, and husbands because they have been deemed as the fairer sex that has to be looked after. In the beginning, the narrator writes of how marriage is “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (par. 5). John does not respect her opinion and laughs at her when she expresses her opinion. When he does, she is not fazed because that is what she is used to and expects from the men in her life. She was not allowed to work so that she could heal, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas… But what is one to do?” (par.12-14). The narrator has been taught to follow instructions and let men control her life. When she disagrees with the treatment, she does not say anything because she thinks lesser of herself just like the men do. The narrator describes him as, “very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (par. 28). The narrator feels as if she is a burden on John but she is also growing tired of his constant dictation. She feels this especially since she knows what she needs but he does not allow it. She wrote that she, “meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort,” but she feels like a “comparative burden” (par. 44). John makes her feel that it is her fault for not getting well faster. The narrator feels that she can not talk to John about her case because, “he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (par.