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Theme Of Marriage In The Yellow Wallpaper

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----------------Another symbol in The Yellow Wallpaper is marriage. Marriage, in the eyes of the narrator represent a kind of imprisonment and suffocation by men. Because of her marriage, the narrator is held captive in the bonds of marriage and is unable to control her own mental stability. Her husband is often portrayed as a domineering man who treats the narrator as a child. He refers to his wife by; “a blessed little goose” and “Bless her little heart”. And at one point in the story he even says; “What is it little girl.” Though John is carful and loving, he is also domineering and condescending. In the marriage he, the husband, is the provider and caregiver and therefor will not allow the narrator to work. …show more content…

But what is one to do? I did write for a while inspite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal – having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition”. (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, 1898). Here one can see that the narrator wished to work and have a change in her domestic life, but the struggle to keep it a secret from her husband was too great because she knew he would not approve. Marriage, which is supposed to represent unity, love and the coming together of two equal partners was anything but that for the narrator. In the 19th century women were at the mercy of men, even though they marched forward for equality they were still very much dependent on their male counterparts. They were not allowed to have control over their assets and therefor marriage was the best solution to live a comfortable life seeing as their parents could not provide for their daughters forever. In The Yellow Wallpaper the prisonlike feeling that marriage causes the narrator, eventually leads to her insanity. Which for some was probably an actual occurrence in that era. More

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