At first, I was unsure what The Yellow Wallpaper was trying to portray, however the reason quickly came to surface. This story was upsetting to me as it displayed almost a sort of toxic masculinity (of the past) as well as the gender dynamic during this time period. Charlotte clearly had some health problems and things that would nowadays would be concerning to most people. However, her husband John, insisted that she was fine and just needed to be alone and recuperate. She constantly tried to tell him how she was feeling and he always patronized her telling her to stop worrying and that she needed to rest, and that she was wrong in whatever she was feeling because he was the educated doctor, not her.
This is upsetting to me because it was as if she had no control over her body, thoughts, or emotions. It was like she belonged to him and he decided if she was okay or not and what she needed. Throughout the writings, she made it clear that she was not allowed to write and if she was caught she would be in big trouble. Although probably not uncommon for the time, this disturbed me, because a wife was afraid of what her husband might do if she was caught writing. While I am not currently married, I hope that in the future I will not be scared to do things I love in fear of my husband. By the end of her time with John in that house, Charlotte wrote about how he actually frightened her and how he would act very odd. This story put in perspective what it would be like to not only be a woman at that time, but also to be a woman with mental health problems. Scary.
I was also saddened by reading this because although I know it is just a story, these were real issues happening so something like this could have easily happened to a woman at that time.
I too agree that the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” has a prominent role in representing male masculinity. It is horrible to see her husband, John, lock her up in a room in which she eventually goes crazy. In addition to that, marriage is a bond between people. It represents those person’s willingness to support and help one another through different things, events, and tasks. The fact that John ignored his wife, thus leading her to storing her thoughts and feelings in her writings is deeply upsetting.
I agree it was very disturbing to see that Charlotte had very little control over herself. It was scary to see that her husband made the decision about whether she was sick or not. Sickness is physical and he knew that she was but was trying to convince himself and her that she was fine.