As was common at the time this story was written, the narrator's husband, John, uses his role as the husband to assert control over his wife, as she is trapped by the confines of being a woman. Because of this, John can be seen as the antagonist in "The Yellow Wallpaper." Although he, as a physician, claims his treatment of rest and confinement will cure her, it is he who stands most in the way of the narrator's recovery. The narrator senses this herself, "...perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!" and eventually must find ways to deceive him so that she can carry on with her writing, as she is "...absolutely forbidden to 'work' until I am wel

By the end of this disturbing tale, the narrator has locked herself into the upstairs bedroom and thrown down the key. Throughout her life, she had been imprisoned by the society in which she lived and the man she married. The "treatment" she received in the old country home was the last step towards giving in and placing the final restrictions on herself, locking her mind away so that it could no longer be reached. She both helps with this final imprisonment - she has found a rope that she plans on using "if that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her!" - and fights against it - shouting to her husband as he comes upon the final scene, "I've got out at last...and I've pulled off most of the paper so you can't put me back!"

l again" But, if John does not believe that his wife is actually sick, can he really be trying very hard to cure her? Instead, he is using his "cure" to placate his wife, treating her like a child who is unable to understand her own emotions. By prescribing a retreat at a quiet country mansion, John also succeeds in cutting his wife off from the rest of the world where her strange behavior might raise questions about her husband's competence as a physician.

Not entirely innocent of her troubles, the narrator creates some problems for herself. Though she doesn't believe the treatment her husband prescribes is working, she continues to cooperate without fuss because she has been trapped in the mindset that she cannot take care of herself and her husband will know what is best for her. John treats his wife like a child, calling her his little girl and speaking of her in the third person. Because of his constant condescension, she feels helpless and can only doubt herself. "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that

Some common words found in the essay are:
Yellow Wallpaper, Yellow Wall-paper, Perkins Gilman's, forms imprisonment, women wallpaper, narrator feels, else narrator, upstairs bedroom, husband john, yellow wallpaper,
Approximate Word count = 1231
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)