I remember reading this short story back in high school. I remember at the time reading the story and feeling quite disturbed. The slow mental deterioration of the women being trapped in the room was described so vividly it shows the extreme conditions she was subjugated to. To people who read this story when it was published, to them, it was just a psychological horror story. We now know that this story was a critique of the position of women in marriage.
From the beginning of the story, we can see the establishment of gender roles between the man and the woman. The man, a doctor, constantly proscribed treatments to his wife of how to cure her illness. In this case, he prescribed her to stay indoors and do absolutely nothing. The wife is shut down immediately when she voices her concerns about the treatment and argues its ineffectiveness. The belittlement of the man towards his wife forces the woman to journal her independent thoughts into a journal, which she ends up hiding from her husband. The progression of suppressing her independent thoughts and her physical confinments deteriorates her mental health even more and she ends up going insane. Overall, this seems like an exaggerated short story of the institution of marriage. But, abusive relationships in marriage are still prevalent. Divorce rates, although not solely caused by abusive relationships, are higher than that have either been. The lack of respect, historically between the man towards his wife, is a huge factor, not only in this short story but has played a huge impact on the institution of marriage as a whole.
The suppression of thoughts and emotions for anyone in any situation is not healthy, especially over long periods of time. This suppression of feelings can only hurt relationships people are in because the two-way street of a relationship ceases to function properly. I think a growing divorce rate could be attributed to a growing divide of emotional intelligence in the age of social media.
I like how you focused on the journaling aspect of the story. I think the journal was a symbol for sanctity in her otherwise unsettled mind. It was her only outlet for her thoughts and the pages of the journal were the only things she could confide in, as nobody else took her seriously. Even though she is physically a prisoner to the room, her mind is free.
I liked how you discussed the gender roles that were evident throughout the story. I think this really tells you about the time period the story took place in, given the “line” between the gender roles between the author and her husband/doctor were so distinct, since the author/woman was not allowed to speak and even had to journal in secret with her husband/doctor controlling everything. Also knowing the background of this story (when it took place) and thinking out our society today, it really puts it into perspective how long stereotypical gender roles have existed and play a part in our society.
I like how you extrapolated the husband being a doctor into it being an abusive marriage. The story could easily be read as a piece criticizing the mental health treatment of women at the time (which it is), but it is naive to think that is its only purpose. The story points out the hierarchy of the man knowing what is best for the woman, doubly so in this case because the husband is also a doctor.