Yellow Wallpaper Gender Equality

During the Nineteenth Century, women were considered second-class citizens. The rigid distinction amid men and women made the married women subservient to their husbands. Men, with their superiority complex, dominated women. This domination is the main theme Charlotte Gilman illustrates within her story "The Yellow Wallpaper." In this fictional short story, the author attempts to bring attention to gender equality. Another theme she tries to portray in her story is the poor treatment of depressed patients. Charlotte Gilman, herself was depressed after she gave birth to a child. She did not agree with the treatment she received. The "rest cure" was an ineffective way to treat a patient. Too much ideal time makes a sane person go insane. This

rest cure almost destroyed Charlotte Gilman when she was going through her depression.
The story is told in the first person point of view. Everything the reader learns in the story is learned through the thoughts and emotions of the narrator. The protagonist in the story is the narrator. She is the subservient wife of John.
The setting is in "a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate." The narrator marvels at the grandeur of the estate her husband rented. She is surprised that "mere ordinary people" can afford such a place. She wonders what is wrong with the house. Maybe the house is haunted? There has to be some reason the house has been empty for so long. This wonderment takes her thoughts to her illness.
She begins to complain about her husband, who is also her doctor. His prescription of rest becomes the main conflict of the story. She feels she should keep working and not be idle. Her husband feels he knows what is best for her. He dismisses her own sense she has about her illness. He belittles her and does not believe she is sick. A good example of verbal irony is when the narrator writes in her journal her thoughts about her husband, the physician. "John is a physician, and perhaps---( I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)---perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster." By stating, she would not say it to a living soul reflects the subornation she feels she has to follow in her society.
The narrator secretly starts writing in a journal.

She begins by describing the house. Mostly her descriptions of the house are positive until she reaches the room with the yellow wallpaper. "It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for the little children, and there are rings and things in the walls." The irony here, it is abundantly clear that the room was used before to house and insane person. Every thought she has comes back to the wallpaper. The "revolting" color, the strange pattern makes her feel irritated. She tries to convince her husband to sleep in another room, but he becomes a great source of frustration when he belittles her. She cannot say anything about her treatment or her illness without him reprimanding her like a child. An example of this is when husband and wife talk one

night.
"Then do let us go downstairs," I said, "there are such pretty rooms there."
Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he
Would go down the cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into bargain.
She does what she is told.

She secretly stays awake at night and goes to sleep during the day. Giving the image to John she is resting like he has ordered. This is also a great place of irony the author wrote. The more the narrator obsesses about the wallpaper, the deeper and deeper she falls into insanity. But her husband is happy she is getting plenty of rest during the day. He has no idea how insane his wife is becoming. The narrator has begun to see shadows of women in the pattern of the wallpaper. Women sneaking around trying to escape the wallpaper. The pattern resembles bars of a cage to the narrator. She begins to tear down the wallpaper. As she tears at the paper she see many heads. Heads of women being strangled as they try to escape the pattern. The wallpaper becomes a symbol of women trapped in domestic life, of family and tradition. In the end, the narrator reveals how much sacrifice women and herself have done breaking the chains man have placed on them. In her final speech to her husband, the readers get the sense of how much she has sacrificed. She says, "I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" She is free! Free from the constraints of marriage, of society and her own

mind.
The author Charlotte Gilman should be applauded for her short story. The theme of the story, gender equality, was expressed loud and clear. Men have no right to think more highly of themselves. Women should be treated as equals in society and not as second class citizens. It is sad to realize that women went through that type of treatment in the past.