Gender Roles in “The Yellow Wallpaper” In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a lady is married to a man named John, who is a physician. John tells his wife that she has nervous depression and will not let her “live” because of this condition. She becomes trapped inside a room and becomes overly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper. Her husband believes she is getting well, but she is actually growing mad and insane. Gilman uses symbolic imagery, vivid details, and gloomy diction to convey that the woman in the story is trapped with little to no freedom to express gender roles during the time period. The story comes from a secret journal that the narrator writes in when she is alone. While her husband believes she is recovering from her depression, she is actually growing madder or perhaps finding her own freedom. In the beginning of the story, the narrator begins by explaining that John laughs at her when she speaks and she goes on to say, “Of course, but one expects that in marriage.” When the narrator reveals how accustomed she is to the way her husband responds to her, it displays how their marriage is established. Her husband sees her as inferior to him while she is accepting of this behavior, which is the typical way marriages functioned during this time period. She further proves the idea when she clarifies …show more content…
Although she might think she is ill, John believes she is not sick; therefore, there is no way she is ill is