The Yellow Wallpaper - A Manifestation of Women Trapped in Domestic Life

Running head: THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
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1THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
How does it feel to be trapped in own feelings and thoughts? The yellow wallpaper,
written by the famous social worker and a leader fighting for women issues manifested the ways
women are trapped within the domestic life in society (Gilman 265). The concept of women
indulged in domestic work has been normalised since decades which is the cause for women all
around suffering agony. The essay argues on the perspective of the people who surround the
narrator and interact with her. The people surrounding them were well aware of her mental
illness, and they perceived the illness through their thought.
According to Peipei and Ni, the narrator’s husband and physician are John who thought
his wife is suffering from a slight hysterical tendency. He is extremely practical, unlike his
imaginative wife. Although he seems like the villain of the story, the man is a loving husband
who fails to understand his wife and his adverse effect of his treatment on his wife. John was
overconfident about his treatment, and he disregarded the narrator’s opinions. According to
(Berenji 225), John did not think it was necessary to concern about the small wishes the narrator
such as switching the wallpaper. He felt it as a way that would overindulge her fancies. John has
seen the narrator as only a patient and a wife however never as a person with free wills and
desires. John wanted to help her wife, however, he could only see the outer pattern and not the
struggle she was having within her. His treatment was helping her and was best for her was
John’s belief which broke down when the narrator’s mental breakdown become complete. In the
end, she begins to creep around the room over him, he is shocked and faints when his wife goes
unrecognised calling him ‘that man’.
According to Qasim et al., Jennie, John’s sister acts as the housekeeper who happily
plays a domestic role. According to her, the domestic role played by her is the ‘normal’ way
women behave which are the duties of a housewife. She is happy to assist the narrator and often