
Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her individual fight with postpartum depression, also known as nervous depression, to produce an influential fictional narrative which has broad suggestions for the female gender. When Gilman discovers there is more than one woman trapped inside the wall, she also figures out the deeper meaning of the isolated situation. Gilman’s main intent on writing The Yellow Wallpaper was to point out the horror and ugliness of a specific medical treatment and also to condemn the strongly prejudiced against women principles and resolving sexually corrupt policies that could make such a treatment possible back in that day in age.

The unsatisfactory relationship between the narrator and John, her husband, is a representation of the larger gender inequality in most cultures. Gilman makes it clear that much of John’s patronizing and authoritarian behavior toward his wife has little to do with her illness. He takes little into account from her broad opinions and ideas and accepts little of her intellect. He voices of her as he would a kid, referring to her as his “little girl” and always makes sure to say to her, “Bless her little heart.” He overrules her decisions on the best path of treatment for herself as he would on any subject, making her live in a house she is not fond of at all, in a room she hates, and in a secluded environment which makes her hopeless and lonesome. John’s considerate form of care shows that he believes the dominant scientific philosophies which claim that women’s distinctive subordination leaves them, childlike, in a state of juvenile necessity.

John is the symbol in this story of the window through which the negative images of the treatment of women in this society can be seen. In Gilman’s generation, women’s right to become full citizens along with suffrage became one of the key issues debated in the media, in the home, and mostly in politics. Eventually, women reform movements gained enough strength and popularity to actually get enough majority to win the vote. This caused attacks against women to become even more spiteful and hazardous. Psychologists started to detail theories and philosophies that demonstrated women’s developmental lack of maturity, emotional unsteadiness, and low thinking skills. Doctors began to philosophize women’s inner womb was essentially the cause of women’s inferiority, when really they had little knowledge of this information and study at the time. Priests advised women to find their calling from God and their husbands with the same devotion as they would put forth for any responsibility they cared a great deal about. In accusing John’s demeaning handling of his wife, Gilman prosecutes the system as a whole, in which many women were trapped behind harmful social characterizations of the female. 

It can easily be seen that the effects of society’s treatment of the narrator or possibly Gilman are almost completely all negative effects. At first, she tries to fight against the growing exhaustion that controls her. She even tests John’s treatment of her. Even though she almost knows for certain that her husband is completely inaccurate in his treatments, she almost wants to consider him to be right anyway just because he is a man and is considered superior at this time. Because they hold inadequate power positions in the relationship and in society, she lacks the bravery and confidence to declare her drive to end his harmful treatment against her. Deprived of any meaningful action, persistence, and self-esteem, the narrator’s concentration becomes quite confused and naive in its captivation with the allusions she sees in the yellow wallpaper. 

After research of postpartum depression at this time, it can be inferred that the narrator was not in a house, but however was in an insane asylum getting a popular treatment at this time called Rest Cure. This is an accurate assumption because she is imprisoned in a room that has rings on the walls, bars on the windows, a pinned down bed, and scraped up a floor, and also a scratched-up wallpaper. It can also be determined that John’s sister is actually a nurse in the asylum because she takes care of her and does not want her to write, which was forbidden during the treatment. The women she sees out her window are just other nurses or other patients that are doing better than her and can actually move around and indulge themselves in activities, Her husband is actually her doctor because he doesn't let her leave the room makes sure she follows the guidelines of the treatment.

In the 19th century United States, women were suppressed, judged, and controlled by a male-controlled system of social order. The same responsibilities and rights that men possessed at a luxury, were automatically excluded from women almost treating them as if they were property or objects. The narrator is completely dominated by her husband, John, which is not an uncommon case when taking the background and historical context of the situation. The narrator says, "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage. 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". John is so rational and chastened by his gender dominance that he doesn't even care for his wife's true emotional anxiety and just believes that she is suffering from nothing more than a slight agitated tendency. As a physician, he recommends the treatment limiting the narrator to her own little room and keeping her from using her imagination. Throughout the story, John refuses to view his wife as a person but more as his line of responsibility. Though it can obviously be seen that he loves and cares for his wife, the way he goes about doing so does not show his true feelings at all. He does not pay attention or even attempt to fake interest of her personal desires and respect her identity or existence at all. The narrator is then forced to become an obedient wife to her highly sexist husband.

The narrator is also obligated to live life accordingly as a devoted mother like Jennie, John's younger sister. While the narrator repetitively forgets her duties as mother in the house, Jennie warmly accepts all the motherly responsibilities that the 19th century views about the role of women typically suggests like finishing all the household chores, nurturing the family, refuting her own desire for the sake of a stable marriage. Jennie represents the thankfully domesticated woman, while the narrator is symbolized as being a part of an irregular class for protecting a dangerous desire to break out of her immoral treatment. Literature is the only way for the narrator to express herself, but Jennie agrees with John's assessment and also prevents her from enjoying such simple activities that require no effort on the narrator's part. Jennie understands the narrator’s struggles as a woman, however she still cooperates with John to possibly keep the peace. This influential expectancy endangers the narrator and progressively discourages her from discovering her own true self-worth.

The treatment that is prescribed to the narrator when she is suffering from depression is also a symbol of patriarchy that destroys her human identity. The treatment orders her to remain in the confines of a nursery, participate in complete rest, avoid mental or social activities, and also involves a complete isolation from family and friends. Even though John wants to cure his mentally troubled wife, he eventually worsens her health by separating her from the outside world. The treatment focuses solely on the physical condition of the patient and not the emotional or mental, which later proves to be unsuccessful in curing her illness. John only considers her as an unreceptive subject of treatment and, in some cases, as a powerless, overgrown infant. The patriarchal social system that forces a woman to submit to the power of the man in the domestic setting and her obedience in the relationship between doctor and patient is influential in this particular treatment and is ideally the main aspect of this crucial social and cultural issue that impacted women so greatly at this time.
