The Yellow Wallpaper

As far back as many years women were seen as not up to par with the men. The men were always seen as the more powerful of the two. He knew what was best for the both of them. He was the bread winner he knew what to do and he could do it better than a women. So for many years women were perceived as insecure and submissive creatures. Even in mythology women were suppose to be submissive to their husbands and just take care of the children, keep the house neat and tidy, and have the food ready when her husband came home from work. Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived a life like this herself. In the passage it is classified as “conventional values” that were called “masculinist ideals” (1658). Through her stories she expresses the idea that “women’s dependency on men stunts not only the growth of women but that of the whole human species.” (1659). She mainly argues that their “dependency of women on men for food and shelter the sexual and detriment of their other productive capacities” (1659). This idea is very apparent in her story, as she experienced this first hand in her life. Gilman uses a different kind of pathos, psychological. She showed evidence of psychological abuse and turmoil.
Throughout her story Gilman was a character that was very submissive to her husband. He ran her life. He was the working spouse. He made the money and supported her, she felt obligated, by tradition and values, to obey what he said. “You can see he does not believe I am sick!” (Gillman 1). No matter how much she complained and asked for sympathy he refused to believe or even make her think that maybe she was right. Because he was a high standing physician he would not give in to her. “So I take pains to control myself—before him” (Gillman 2). She even must take her medication in front of him. Does he not trust that she would not do it by herself? Is she not a grown woman who can take care of herself? Even with the timing of the prescriptions? She was required to take medication every hour.
Gillman uses writing to ease her pain. “Write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (Gillman 4). It is her only listener who would and could not judge her. It can not criticize what she thinks. “It is so discouraging not to have to have any advice and companionship about my work” (Gilliam 4). Her husband does not want her to write, he claims it would make her sick, he and his sister even think that is what made her sick to begin with. “It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (Gilliam 8). It is things like this that the husband does that isn’t very blunt but is implied that he is in control and he thinks she is really loosing her mind.
This is what drives Gilliam to come to terms, but in a way that plays out better in her mind. The yellow wallpaper. She is an artist and she sees the beauty in things. She originally doesn’t see what the wall is trying to tell her. But after awhile as her life plays out she is forced to spend more time with this wallpaper and form what it is that is psychologically bothering her. She sees faces, distorted images, and many colors. And one day she sees a woman. A woman who she figures out is trying to escapes from her captivities. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out” (Gilliam 8). She turned out to be the woman, who was ultimately freed from the bars of silence and submission at the end of the story. She had a mental break through and realized what she needs to do to free herself.