Happiness In William Faulkner's The Yellow Wallpaper

The narrator’s husband is controlling and insensitive, purposefully confining his wife in order to force her to be dependent on him. In this story, it shows how he is being highly insensitive on the serious issue of his wife’s depression. John has her locked in a room, not letting her go out and see anybody until “she gets better”, “-and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn’t able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there;” and “-and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head. He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself-” (pg.7) This is describing how John had her confined, the only company other
To recover from depression, one needs to be in a beautiful setting where one feels happy. One needs to let all out and be understood. One needs to be with people, to be outside, creating new memories even though one is not happy at first. Even though one has to fake smile because soon that smile will turn real. Although in this story, the polar opposite happened to her. She was deprived from all the “treatments” that she needed. She was reduced to be confined in a small space that she despised. “I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!” She is deprived from the treatment she needs most, pouring all the thoughts and feelings that she has trapped inside. How would she get better if she can not even write about it and expressing her feelings so she can be understood and heard. Expressing the feelings means you are accepting that the evil thoughts are wrong and confronting them so you can manage to overcome it. Yet this, makes her bottle up her emotions which can lead to insanity. Also, she can’t even go outside to distract herself, “I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to the fancy in least.”, This is wrong on numerous levels, and the worst of all, she follows it, “But he is right about the beds and windows and things. It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim.” (pg.4) He is not the one depressed! She is. She needs the help. John needs to stop reducing her to an infantile state that later drives her to madness. As more and more of these treatments she needs are getting taken away from her, the more obsessed she is becoming with the wallpaper. She even sees a woman in it, “And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t