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Analysis Of Gilman 's The Yellow Wallpaper

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Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper follows a woman’s repressed life and her spiral into insanity. The story follows an unnamed narrator who battles depression but strives to write and be creative. Though her illness can be cured, she struggles against her husband that feels the stimulus is not conducive with the treatment for her illness. Though it can be argued within this modern age that the inability to express ones creativity can propagate insanity, the Victorian gender roles were clear that the man knew best, leaving her no room for opinion.
The breakdown of the woman can be seen within certain aspects of the story, beginning with the husband, John who also takes on the role of her doctor. Although he does show love for his wife, the role John has taken as provider and caretaker has more of a medical base than marital as shown by the neglect to see the error of his course of treatment that a loving husband may have noticed. The continuance of his patronizing also proves to hurt her as it stimulates her illness by making her feel like a child. By referring to her as “blessed little goose” (Gilman 2), and using such terms as “Bless her little heart,” (Gilman 5) he belittles her, giving no room for her own words to have any real meaning to him. He misunderstands his imaginative wife due in part to his uninvolved status in their marriage, as he seems to be away from her for most of the story. Moreover, his disconnect from her daily life only makes matters worse for his wife as

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