
The roles of women in the 19th century were strictly left to the husband’s discretion in the household. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a writer from Connecticut and wrote a semi-autobiographical short story to describe her encounter with a nervous breakdown. To understand women’s roles in the 1890s we can comprehend why the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” seems to have difficulty expressing herself  to her husband. She avoids speaking to her husband about her illness because as a  wife she has  an inability to express her individuality  in the late 1800s.

In the 19th century, women were still not granted the right to vote, they did not have much work  outside of  tending to their homes, and they were not treated as equals to their male counterparts. Women were expected to do what their husbands or fathers told them to do, and they  were not supposed to offer any type of opinion on what the lead man in their lives said. Men did  not want to treat women equal because they did not believe that women were as smart  as them, and did not want to upset the status quo that had been in place for hundreds of years. Women were so inferior to men that their basic rights were not included in the Constitution. According to  Historical Archeology, men were the  household leaders in 83.9%  of homes in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1834. A household leader in that time was the person who took care of the entire family with whatever they needed. A woman more often than not did not obtain a job, and mostly stayed in the house, while the husband was out making money. The only reason according to this source that women would be  the leader of a  home would be if the woman was a widow (Agnew 65). Women once  they were married gave up most of  their fundamental rights to their husbands during the 19th  century. In an article published by Timothy Crumrin and the Conner Prairie Historians, women were not entitled to a divorce through most of the 1800s because it was against most religious practices. Crumrin goes on to say that until 1843, a wife  could not be  granted a divorce unless the husband  was physically threatening the woman, or the husband  committed adultery. However, the act of divorce was still left up to the courts, which were run by the traditional mindset that a man and woman must be married forever. Women were forever hidden behind what the men  during this time period  thought and that is how they lost a sense of individuality.

In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the protagonist’s mental  disorder to show how little the woman matters in the relationship. Instead of taking her to an actual doctor that could help  his wife, John, the husband, takes her to a remote home outside of their town and makes  her stay there. The  protagonist depends on John for everything because of this situation: food, health, and other luxuries. Whenever John would leave  her for the whole day, the character would be alone, not to  have anyone to talk to except John’s sister, who was the housekeeper. The woman began to hallucinate the  wallpaper moving in light of the fact that her husband neglected to take care of his wife’s needs for proper medical conditions that were suited to her. The  woman is not allowed to even hold her own child, or even see it. Because of this the woman has to turn her back from what she has been taught for generations which is to take care of the children. To be labeled as crazy by her family,  and to be unable to achieve the one occupation of being a mother, that she has been told since she could remember to do, her health begins to deteriorate. The woman has a journal that she keeps but she has to hide it from her  husband and his sister in fear that they would take it. She is not allowed to express herself. She had to suffer in silence to not let John know that she was actually worse off than he believed. She  hid her illness so that John could feel good about himself for taking such precautions with his  wife. Because of John’s neglect, the protagonists has no choice but to become consumed by  the wallpaper and the way the colors ‘move’ on the wall. 

Women in the late 1800s identified themselves through their husbands because they could not have anything for themselves. The protagonist in the story never introduces herself by name, she only refers to herself in first person. She never reveals any details or characteristics about herself, other than the fact that she had a nervous disorder and that she enjoys writing. She put so much importance on John’s mood, instead of her own. She is constantly worried about John being upset with her for being sick saying, “There comes John, I must put this away- he hates for me to have to write a word,” (Gilman 301). John doesn’t want the protagonist to do anything that may hinder her ability to get ‘better’ as quickly as she can, or at least his definition of healed. He does not believe that she is actually sick and has no course of treatment; when she is not acting crazy he will think that she is better. Because a woman is constantly being suppressed by her husband in that period, the protagonist finds herself being concerned with what John is thinking or feeling, instead of herself.  In American Sociological Review, the authors make a claim that women who were divorced or single during the 19th century were much more susceptible to a mental illness. The journal expresses this by saying, “Being without a mate apparently leaves one open to the depressive consequences of life-strains, especially so when one is also lacking alternative supports” (Pearlin, Joplin 710).  A woman needed a man to help her with day to day necessities because during that time she was unable to achieve simple things, such as a job. This is an examples of women being inferior to men due to the fact that they were unsure of how to successfully live their lives without a male counterpart. Because of the lack of support, women build up psychological problems for not being able to support whatever family they did possess  As the wife in the story, the protagonist was unable to express her concerns to John because he ‘knew’ what was best for her. She had no position to speak up and tell him that as her doctor he was actually hindering her ability to get well.

A woman in the 19th century was expected to make children and take care of the home. In the story, that job was taken from the protagonist by John when he relocated her to the abandoned house. The wife had a little baby, however she was not allowed to care for it. Gilman says in very little words that John’s sister is caring for the child by stating from the narrator’s point of view, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.,” (301-302). Because of the way that John made his wife’s illness seem insignificant and imaginary, she believed that she was unfit to care for her child, thus taking away what felt like her sole job as a woman. Being trapped in the room with the wallpaper, the protagonist began to feel alone without anyone on her side. Her husband did not truly believe that there was anything actually wrong with her and her caretaker was essentially taking over her job as a mother and a wife as shown by the quote above. 

In the late 1800s, men were constantly being judged for how they handled their family affairs. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman illustrates how instead of John taking the protagonist to a real doctor, he instead decides to take her to an abandoned home, away from their town. Due to the fact that John is a doctor he believes that he can give care to his wife, that is good enough so he does not have to involve anyone else.  He also tones down the effects of her condition, by telling her that her case is not as serious as the others that he sees at work. He carries on his work routine and leaves the protagonist in the abandoned home all day. John is not convinced that there is something wrong with his wife, it is described by saying,

 John is away all day, and even some nights when his case is serious. I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer and that satisfies him (Gilman 301).

The wife feels strained because she is not able to actually receive help because he as a husband does not want to face the social wrath of not being able to handle his wife. Also included in the American Sociological Review as mentioned before, marriage strains the lives of both the husband and the wife. Pearlin and Joplin try to convey that being a husband in the 19th century was not the only purpose of the male's life, however to be a woman and to be married was everything (713). For a woman to be unstable, and not act appropriately as a wife and mother during that time was a paradox that most people did not understand, so when this occurred to the protagonist John being her husband eliminated that issue of people not being able to grasp what was wrong with his wife. 

The Yellow Wallpaper was published in 1892, right around when the women’s rights movement started to gain momentum. Women in the late 19th century were still widely unaccepted as nothing more than housewives and caretakers. Women lost individuality through their husbands egotistical attitudes of not letting their wives do anything outside of their homes. A woman during that time period, needed a man by her side in order to survive and make it. So if a woman didn’t have a husband she was more likely to be mentally unstable than a woman who was married, this story showing this by the absence of John. Women were constantly being suppressed by the male dominant figures in their lives and this story is an example of how that played out.
