Who Is Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a protagonist who is diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression”. Her husband John orders her to rest and to choose a room in the house to stay in. John is a physician. She is prescribed the rest cure. She doesn’t have an opinion she just accepts her husbands commands. The narrator should be allowed to go outside, or be allowed to do things that she enjoys because these things will help her overcome her depression but; instead, she is imprisoned by John: imprisonment, John controls his wife's actions: authoritarian, she is scared because John threatens her: duress, she spends her time obsessing over the yellow wallpaper: fantasizing. Gilman also suffered from a nervous condition for some time. She went to a specialist who prescribed her the rest cure.

She feels angry so she responds back by saying she doesn’t want to go. The specialist was Weir Mitchell who specializes in nervous diseases. The narrator gets terrified by this because she knows what Weir Mitchell will do and it is worser. In the story Gilman writes “ I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper.”(Gilman 556) this proves that she is terrified of Weir Mitchell that would rather suffer and self treat herself. She is so fearful that she would rather stay in the nursery and tries to cure herself with the wallpaper then see him. A critic analyzes the nursery and states “ Throughout the story, Jane characterized the room as a nursery, but its description better fits a person and/or mental institution.” (Suess 91) Suess gives a perfect analysis of the room. By reading her analysis it proves that John was purposeful not treat the narrator for her nervous depression. The way room is described in the analysis show that it had some motive behind his rest