The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman's descent into madness as a result of the "the rest cure" that is frequently prescribed to cure hysteria and nervous conditions in women. More importantly, the story is about control and attacks the role of women in society. The narrator of the story is symbolic for all women in the late 1800s, a prisoner of a confining society. Women are expected to bear children, keep house and do only as they are told. Since men are privileged enough to have education, they hold jobs and make all the decisions. Thus, women are cast into the prison of acquiescence because they live in a world dominated by men. Since men suppress women, John, the narrator's husband, is presumed to have control over his wife. Gilman, however, suggests otherwise. She implies that it is a combination of society's control as well as the woman's personal weakness that contribute to the suppression of women. These two factors result in the woman's inability to make her own decisions and voice opposition to men.

John, the narrator's husband, represents society at large. Like society, John controls and determines much of what his wife should or should not do, leaving his wife incapable of making her own decisions. John's domineering nature can be accredited to the fact that John is male and also a "physician of high standing" (1). John is "practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures" (1). He is scientific, factual, logical and rational, everything that characterizes a sane person in society. He tells the protagonist that she is to take "phosphates or phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and [is] absolutely forbidden to 'work' until [she] [is] well again" (1). However, the narrator thinks otherwise: Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do? (2)

Clearly, the narrator thinks that a life void of any work or excitement will not be helpful or aid her on the road to recovery. The question she asks herself at the end of this paragraph, however, exemplifies her oppressed stature in society. She asks herself not once, not twice, but three times what someone in her position is to do: "And what can one do?" (1), "What is one to do?" (1), "But what is one to do?" (1). Repetition of these questions demonstrates that the narrator cannot do anything to change her life because her husband - society - controls what she can and cannot do. The narrator's writing also falls under this category because writing is looked down upon in society as a profession for women. Because of society's oppressive nature, the narrator is unable to write in the presence of other people, especially John and Jennie, his sister, who are great products of society (a "high standing physician" and an "enthusiastic housekeeper"), since she believes that people see her writing as contributing to her illness. The narrator says, "I verily believe [Jenny] thinks it is the writing which made me sick!" (5). Even though the narrator finds relief in writing, she says, "I must say what I feel and think in some way - it is such a relief!" (7), since writing is an improper occupation for women in societal standards, the narrator must not write publicly, but in secret.

Furthermore, John also tries to control how and what his wife should think, exemplifying society's suppression of women. He tells his wife, "...you really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better" (9). Again, he uses the fact that he is a doctor to insinuate his "rightness" and hint that the narrator must be wrong because she is not a doctor. The fact that she is a not a doctor, however, does not mean she does not know how she feels.

It is not until the last scene that the narrator finally gains control of her life and becomes her own decision maker by standing up to her husband and society. In describing the climax of the story, the narrator describes John's frustrations and her calmness: It is no use, young man, you can't open it! How he does call and pound! Now he's