While reading The Yellow Wallpaper, I felt a little disturbed. We are inside the narrator’s journal/diary she keeps hidden from her husband. She is described as having a sort of nervous depression, which her husband, John, who is a doctor, has pretty much diagnosed her with. John controls nearly everything in her life and by the end she said she began to feel scared of him. The extent to which he held power over her, because he was a “superior” because he was a physician and her husband, and simply a man, was just creepy, for lack of a better word. By the end, she became almost completely insane, having imaginations about the wallpaper.
I found this idea about this control that men have over women in this time period to be interesting. This piece seems to be ahead of its time in this idea which it highlights so clearly. The narrator becomes almost insane because she is forced to assume she is like a child, she is patronized and misjudged by her husband, who in this time period was considered to be superior. This separation of roles in the household and society at the time creates a society where men have so much control over women, and the only thing they can control is their mind, as the narrator does. It’s disturbing to think about the extent to which the subordination of women and gender roles in society back then could affect women. It also makes me wonder how much better things really are today, not necessarily with gender, but in any sense of control. People need to be allowed to express themselves, and not be told they are wrong or don’t know, which happens often now, if not more.
I felt the same way that you did. It was a little disturbing because these were her private thoughts that she was very descriptive about. I also thought that the power dynamic coming from her was very weird also. As we are reading, we are getting insight into her train of thought. In instances where she would question him, she would almost immediately go back on it and then question herself instead.
I agree with your comment that the extent of the control John held over his wife was creepy. I really liked the reading, as you also mentioned, because of the first-person narrative we get inside the narrator’s head, as it allows us to see first-hand how John’s control over his wife can quickly go from seemingly well-intentioned to clearly manipulative and harmful.
I felt the same exact way it was extremely disturbing to see how controlling men can be over women. It was interesting to read a diary because it allowed me to understand her emotions at a deeper level. It is scary to see that another person can have so much control over another leading to them becoming insane.
As a man, it is disheartening to see the amount of control that John held over his wife. In today’s world, I find it uncommon to hear about these types of relationships where men dominate women based on gender, but it happens. It is sick that one person believes they hold power over another person based on gender. I appreciated reading a diary to feel her true emotion as well.
I liked your statement about it seeming like the only thing women have control over is their mind. Even then, it seems like the obsessive control of John makes it hard for her to even control her own mind.