In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator is on bed rest for three months due to her “temporary nervous depression” or postpartum depression. The narrator's husband, John, and sister-in-law, Jennie, advise her to lie down all day. Due to this, she spirals and becomes insane. She also has a sense of guilt towards her husband throughout the story, but it slowly dies as she becomes crazier. The narrator feels trapped and is suppressed from doing what she desires. The narrator has a sense of guilt when it comes to her husband, John. The narrator describes this feeling when she says “he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.” Since she is in bed all day and is unable to take care of her child, she feels useless to him and …show more content…
The narrator's feelings toward her husband change as she becomes more ill. After countless hours, she cannot contain her emotions any longer. She rips off the wallpaper in an act of craziness and tells her husband she did it “in spite of you and Jane!” By the end of the story, the narrator had already spiraled and now opposes her husband for keeping her in a room for so long. Dominguez 2 The narrator enjoys writing but is not allowed to do so. She believes that being able to write will help satisfy her needs. Writing is her source of venting and it getting taken away from her adds to the resentment she feels toward her husband and sister-in-law. She expresses her feelings by saying “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.” John restricts the narrator so much that she begins to hide her writing. “There comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word. She feels as though she must hide the fact that she is writing but this is the only thing that she thinks will truly help her feel better. Her desire to write is suppressed against her will and she