 In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman shows how many mentally ill women were treated in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The dynamic between a man and a woman in a relationship during this time period is also evident in Gilman’s short story.  Many women living in this time period had to fight to prove their sanity, and their pleads were many times disregarded.  Women were considered to be weak, and unable to make decisions for themselves.  Because they were presumed to be incapable of doing most things, women many times were not given a chance to fend for themselves. For this reason, many sane women roamed mental institutions with no hope of being released.  Many were locked in their house by their husbands, like the narrator was in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”  Known for her feminist works, Charlotte Perkins Gilman displays the dynamic between a married man and woman, and the injustices mentally insane women in the late nineteenth century had to endure.  

Women in the early 1900s had very few rights in general, and close to no political rights.  They were expected to become domestic servants and do as they were told.  Although society was completely male-dominated, women continuously made strides to better their quality of life and freedom.  According to Trueman in his article on the learning site, women also played a role in preventing the progression of equality.  For example, a quote by Queen Victoria haunted the feminist movement for decades.  She said, “Let women be what God intended, a helpmate for a man, but with totally different duties and vocations.” The oppression of women many times led to unhealthy marriages, much like the narrator and her husband, John, since in most cases a woman could not possibly be financially stable enough to live on her own.  Also, society looked at divorced women in that time period as an outcast, and unfortunately, they were usually shunned. Therefore, many women stayed in unhealthy marriages to prevent their social and financial downfall.  The male-dominated society of the early 1900s made it extremely difficult for women to simply advocate for themselves, and fight for their own equality.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator is clearly oppressed by her husband.  The narrator has been diagnosed as mentally ill by her husband, and he forces her to stay in the house alone without practicing any of her hobbies, like writing.  He acts as her caretaker rather than a husband, and he is condescending in his tone.  He talks down to her, and she convinces herself every day that her husband knows best.  As a result, she does not try to fight or defy her husband, and follows almost everything he says. The narrator’s husband treats her like a father would treat his little girl, and she listens and believes him as if he is her father. The narrator says after she had asked to go downstairs, “then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down to the cellar, if I wished” (302). By calling the narrator a “blessed little goose,” her husband is looking down upon her, and he is demeaning.  In the midst of a patriarchy, their relationship is not abnormal or uncommon.  The narrator describes John’s sister, the ideal wife of this time period, as an enthusiastic housewife (303).  The narrator does not fit the mold of Queen Victoria’s quote, and because she is unable to fit the mold of the time due to her mental illness, she is ostracized by society and by her husband.  A woman’s purpose in the early 1900s was to take care of the house, raise the kids, and to make her husband happy when he came home from work.  By the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator appears to make one social stride.  She stood up to her husband for the first time, possibly symbolizing one step in the progression to equality for women.  

Although the dynamic of a marriage and women’s rights in general were unfair to women in a patriarchal society, women with any kind of mental disorder were ostracized.  The mental institutions in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth had a broken system.  If a woman legitimately had a disease, her mental state would many times be worsened. David Wright, a professor from Oxford, provides insight on the broken systems of mental institutions through the use of one asylum: the Earlswood Asylum during the Victorian England.  In a review on Wright’s book, Gerald N. Grob writes, “Equally paradoxical, the faith in education rested on a belief in the organicist origins of mental disability, namely, that physical defects were hampering individual development. Idiocy, in other words, was being framed as a disease of the mind.”  Something as simple as idiocy during this time period could be considered a mental disease.  The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” has postpartum depression, and being locked in a room for an extraneous amount of time intensified her depression.  She is infatuated with the yellow wallpaper in the room, and her infatuation drives her to insanity.  She says, “And then when the sun came and that awful pattern began to laugh at me, I declared I would finish it today!” (310).   She begins to see things in the wall, and she feels it needs to remain a secret.  She figures out the secrets the wall contains throughout the story until she is completely mad.  As she becomes more infatuated with the wall, her husband, John, believes she is recovering because she does not need as much attention.  

 Grob considers this culture to “devalue mental disability.”  Women could not earn an independent living because they were oppressed by society and men, and Grub discusses how society at the time placed their value on achievement and education, both of which were denied to most women.  The narrator talks about John in a loving light, and like he always knows best.  After John tells his wife, again, that she cannot live downstairs, she says, “he is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (300).  John has made the narrator believe that he knows what is best for her, and that she is not smart or independent enough to make decisions for herself.  John suppressed not only her independence, but her will to write.  Throughout the short story, the narrator consistently mentions her desire to write, and how John does not want her to.  According to Grob the people in this time period made for “a culture that places a premium on educational achievement and self-sufficiency”. Because there was so much value placed in academics and self-sufficiency, the easiest way to repress women’s rights was to restrict their education and self-sufficiency as much as possible. As the narrator is writing in her journal, she says, “There comes John, and I must put this away- he hates to have me write a word” (301).  John is, in his essence, a symbol and an example of late nineteenth century culture suppressing a woman’s right to education, independence, and responsibility. 

Women were restricted in the late 1800s and the early 1900s a great deal in many different ways.  For a culture that placed so much value and importance on education and independence, men almost completely denied women the right to either.  Because this was denied from so many, women had no credibility.  Therefore, they had no means to defend themselves if they were diagnosed as mentally ill, and no say in what their treatment was.  The patriarchal society also made its way into family life, and it was especially evident in marriages. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is striped of her credibility, independence, education, and right to do things and move as she pleases.  She falls victim of this society and of the archetypal marriage of her culture. Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates what society was like in this time period through the eyes of a woman with a cultivating mental illness in a typical late nineteenth century marriage.
