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The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

826 Words4 Pages

The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” was the one that stood out to me the most. Jane the female lead has no control over her life, she can’t speak for herself because of the male dominance of her husband. Women wanted to “establish their humanity without sacrificing their identity as women” (Marston, Rockwell) because they weren’t seen, men thought they were just there to do everything they say. Throughout the story, Jane is diagnosed with depression, and this was a time when women were not allowed to speak for themselves. Jane’s husband tries to control her but says he’s helping her because he’s a physician. John the husband kept her from doing anything that made her use her brain basically, so she was only allowed to do things like eat, sleep, …show more content…

John’s role in providing for Jane and her to be the sick compliant wife who doesn’t give John’s orders a second thought. John’s obsession with control skyrockets towards the end of the story when he can’t get into the room so he says, “It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door” (Gilman). John was barking orders at Jane, making her slowly lose herself, while being misdiagnosed. John is supposed to be pictured as the head of their partnership; she doesn’t get to have a say so with anything to do with her life. Just because John is a doctor, he thinks he knows everything and can control Jane when he told her “I am a doctor, Dear, and I know” (Gilman). John is the man in the relationship, and he believes he needs to be the person to make all the decisions, He tries to make her condition a crutch and therefore assumes he knows more than his …show more content…

John liked the fact that their relationship wasn’t equal in any way and his ignorance distracts him from grasping the full problem of his wife. Not knowing how to think for herself only to be controlled Jane follows everything her husband says to cure herself not knowing his methods would push her to the brink of insanity. “I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was a draught, and shut the window” (Gilman). Jane was dismissed by her husband so easily that it was common back then so she didn't even give it a second thought. Jane is bored a lot because John will not allow her to indulge in any brain-using activities which cause her to obsess about the wallpaper in her

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but she never cries when John is around. But then on another note. If he is a physician then why is he sleeping in her room, in her bed? From what I remember, it never mentions them kissing or anything intimate, but why does he sometimes sleep with her?

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1862 Words | 8 Pages

Jane also includes that she is left alone for extended amounts of time. Even in John’s claims of caring he is constantly gone and away from the person who he needs to watch after most. Jane writes, “John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious” (2). There should be no reason why John would leave her alone in the country in a house she is unnerved by when he I trying to cure her nervous depression. He seems to be contradicting

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2253 Words | 10 Pages

John, a missionary, for the first time she is the little girl lost in the woods. St. John is very passionate about his work as a missionary in India, which is what he is home prepping for. Once the reader gets to know St. John he is a hard and cold man, who focuses on one thing and that is marrying a beautiful woman and taking her with him to be his missionary wife. This makes the reader and Jane ignore the fact that he is handsome, blonde, and blue-eyed. Now to focus on that Jane came into St. John’s life poor, starving and alone.

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703 Words | 3 Pages

In a marriage you have vows and in those vows your bond to each other through sickness and in health. John was a decent spouse that thought profoundly about his significant other 's condition. He is depicted toward the start of the story as being a doctor in high standing. This depiction alone offers profound understanding into what sort of treatment his better half was

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998 Words | 4 Pages

She is not allowed to leave her room, she cannot write or draw let alone function as a human all because her husband is a famous physician, and he tells her that if she rests enough it will go away. Gilman writes, “John is a physician, and perhaps-(I would not say this to a living soul.)-perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (330). The narrator picks up on her husband's reluctance to trust her illness but she is so afraid to speak out against him because the repercussions would be horrifying. He effectively traps the narrator and keeps her held captive in a room-(which would truly turn anyone who set eyes upon it insane)-where she eventually loses herself to her mental illness and destroys the room.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

She was like a child and John was her strict father, he wouldn 't let her do anything besides eat and sleep. Since the beginning of the short story the narrator has been treated as if she were one of John 's patients instead of his wife. For instance, when she wanted John to change the wallpaper he told her she was "letting it get the better of her" and "that

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1007 Words | 5 Pages

Him being a physician, he thinks that he is the only one that can help her and it is his job to do so, but a long with that burden he carries another one. That being the inability to cure his wife, watching her be driven to the point of insanity and fainting carries a heavy burden on his soul that he will have to carry with him for the rest of his life. John also carries a burden that is overlooked, yet this plays the biggest part of his personality and is the root of his control complex, that is the burden of death. John is a physician, so he has had many patients in the past and his work consists of him trying to help those who are struggling with diseases. Also, this being in the late 1800’s the medical technology or understanding of diseases is nowhere near the standards of today.

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616 Words | 3 Pages

She says that “it is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about [her] work,” and that she believes that “congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good.” John however does not realize this because he is still so involved in the patriarchal society. There is no one who is believable around him to explain this new way of thinking. He is very resistant to the change in his wife’s behavior about her place in society because it will also make him seem like less of a man. He has a reputation as a doctor and since he interacts with people who still believe in gender roles he is held down to their standards as well or he would risk losing his practice.

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581 Words | 3 Pages

John is Jane’s husband who is trying to control every aspect of Jane’s life. Jane states, “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word.” (Gilman) This is just one of numerous situations and statements that the narrator shares with the audience. John’s influence also plays a big part in his dysfunctional marriage with Jane.

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2071 Words | 9 Pages

John put Jane on bed rest and had a schedule made for her for the time when she was awake. This can be interpreted in a couple different ways. You could either see this as a husband caring for his ill wife who is concerned for her well being or contrary to that a way of controlling what his wife does. John even took away simple activities that brought Jane happiness. “There comes John’s sister.

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2166 Words | 9 Pages

The trajectory of John throughout the story is that of him being controlling, and not understanding of what Jane is feeling. The story relays that “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself-before him”(Stetson

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571 Words | 3 Pages

Jane suffers from a mental disease and major depression. John wants to oversee Jane’s every move because he seems to think that he knows what is best for her. He chooses where she sleeps, what time she eats, and what she does. He does not allow her to work. He does not allow her to write, which is one of her biggest passions.

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1275 Words | 6 Pages

John was an only person building an invisible barrier between him and his boy. He chose to be irresponsible and distant from his son, which engendered "their distance one from the other was greater than ever"(page 3). Secondly, he prioritized alcohol, which could strongly control his life and made him become irresponsible. For instance, "on the evening of the banquet, he was a little late getting home, having stopped in for a few drinks with a customer"(page 3). Another evidence is the detail when John poured a drink right after his wife asked him to go to the banquet.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the story, Jane completely disagrees with John’s prognosis and form of treatment. This is shown when Jane says, “So I take phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas.” (page ) As the story continues Jane makes suggestions to John about what she thinks would improve her health.

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816 Words | 4 Pages

He decides to make a decision as her husband and physician. Such decision is in his best interests to cure her “temporary nervous depression” with rest cure, isolating her with no contact with anyone but him. She keeps a diary hidden from John because she is "absolutely forbidden to 'work '" (Esposito). In the diary, there are entries describing how she was being treated as a prisoner (Gilman 526). Her diary helps see

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