“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a famous short story which wrote by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman which is narrated by a female protagonist who has psychological depression, being kept in a room by her husband. Her husband wanted to use his personal way to heal his wife. Since then, the protagonist could not see her baby, leave, write, or even do what she wanted to do. The room she stayed was surrounded by yellow wallpaper, she was fantasize about it. She began to hallucinate gradually to the point that she thought there was another woman who was locked beside her room. In order to save the woman in her mind, she tears off all the wallpaper and finally released herself. 

It is obvious that the protagonist became crazy at the end, the chief culprit was not the closed room which is around with the yellow wallpaper, but the male chauvinist which dominated people’s conventional cognition during that period of time. Middle of the 19th century, women did not have any position in society, such as education. John S. C. Abbott did an exhaustive research on the situation of women’s education during early America, which research reflects the inequality between men and women. He found that most people during the time period thought the education of females was solely used to serve males, otherwise, they should not be educated. In other words, they are treated as tools. Connecting back to “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the protagonist’s husband, John asserts control over his wife throughout the story. He put his wife in a small bedroom and locked her there. The window knocked and the protagonist could not go anywhere. He scheduled a detailed timetable for his wife, who had no choice besides obeying. The text is coincident with the background of the society during the 19th century. 

It seems like the protagonist had an intact family that included a husband who really cared about her. However, under the influence of her environment, she was under too much pressure of male chauvinism from both her husband and society, even from females. The narrator mentions, “John’s sister is coming, she really cares about me, I cannot let him find I am writing. She is a perfect housewife, and I swear she will think writing is the reason why I got depression” (P303). Most women already become numb because of the huge pressure from the society, they gradually started discriminating and oppressing the women who looked and acted in an unacceptable way. A female being a writer was not respected at that time. In “Women’s History in America”, the author analyzes the social status of American women and how the gender inequality was prevalent. The article exposes the dark law, culture and prejudice which related to sexism in American society around the 19th century. He especially emphasizes that most women were only able to work in factories or at home. That is the reason why the protagonist of "The Yellow Wallpaper" has to write secretly otherwise, she will be seen as a strange woman if she is against the traditional beliefs. 

On the surface, it seems that the closed bedroom and the yellow wallpaper make the protagonist become crazy. At the beginning, she hates the enclosed environment, then she imagined that the wallpaper is moving. Finally, she feels that there are other women living in addition to herself. These changes are her mind which show how she gradually becomes crazy. However, the perverted consciousness is the real murderer who was driving her losing control. From the fundamental point of view, the narrow bedroom is the feudal society’s epitome. She hates the room and the yellow wallpaper more than she hating the society she lives in. The yellow wallpaper is just like the pressure from others, morbid and twisted. The protagonist finds another woman who is crawling on the other side, a model of the women who lived in America during the 19th century. At that period of time, women only had two choices. One was obeying the male chauvinist and gradually become numb. Another, which she chooses, is fighting and releasing herself. She felt scared when she saw the woman who is cooped beside her. She finally realizes that, the only way she could get freedom is breaking away from the feudal ideas and control. At the end, she tears off the yellow wallpaper to emancipate the woman and also herself. She had to give up living like a normal person, but at least she got freedom from her heart.

In fact, the author wrote herself into this story. To some extent, she is the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper. Not only because of her personal experience, but also her arguments about female society position. She was a feminism supporter as she named herself. She claimed “there is no female mind”, which meant females’ views and ideas were not be listened and they gradually be used to close their month and stand all the inequalities. In order to earn the rights back, Gilman tried her best to advocate gender equality and stop sexism for all the females. She believed that females could only get the real freedom if they achieved economic freedom (Gilman, Women and Economics). Connecting back to The Yellow Paper, it is not hard to figure out the reason why the protagonist still felt huge pressure and got mental issue even her husband John was rich enough. The author mentioned that the protagonist had no reason and right to earn money with her own ability in the family. She could not write and express herself. One of the most important reason of her mental issue was that she never had opportunity to earn money and achieve economic independent and she could survive on her own so that she had to accept all the things from her husband to make a living. She thought females were treated more like a tool or a pet instead of a person. Therefore, she advocated that women should have the right to hold some parts of incomes in their families (Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, in Kolmar and Bartkowski). Also, Gilman argued that “sex and domestic economics went hand in hand; for a woman to survive, she was reliant on her sexual assets to please her husband so that he would financially support his family” (Carl N. Degler). In other words, she thought females had to “serve” their husband in family to earn the right of living. Turning back to the text, it can easily explain why the protagonist had to listen to her husband and she must obey all the commands. 

In conclusion, the gender inequality and male chauvinist were the cause of the tragedy in The Yellow Wallpaper. Under this background, the protagonist’s husband could never understand his wife and give her happiness. A truth is very clear from the beginning of this story is that John can never heal his wife’s depression even if he is trying so hard. The real murderer who drives the protagonist crazy is the morbid moral values which dominated the society during the 19th century of America. Gilman used parts of her personal experience and feeling into this story to fight for females’ right and social status. The gender inequality infuriated Gilman, led her to be a fighter who was against the sexism, and gave birth to this great literary work.
