The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

In the nineteenth century, women were expected to stay home to raise the children and clean the house. Women were supposed to live their lives in the “domestic sphere.” This way of living is the way that John, the narrator's husband, expected her to live. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was not happy or willing to live this way and became ill. The yellow wallpaper used in the narrator's room symbolizes female imprisonment. The narrator uses a horror-themed tale in order to show the position women had in their marriages. Their marriages were very one-sided, the man deciding mostly everything. From the beginning John controls every aspect of the narrator’s life assuring that it is in her best interest. John would continually put down
She decides to sleep during the days, and spend the nights tearing away at the paper. Making sure to stay quite fearing that she will wake her husband, John. She mentions “John knows I don’t sleep very well at night, for all I’m so quiet.” It seems as if she has no identity left because all of her options have been taken away from her. However, when she finally gets all of the wallpaper down she seems to find herself, she becomes her own person, not someone that has to listen to their husband at all times. She is confused and now somewhat insane, but she is finally free of the minority. She no longer spends her time in this “prison,” but will arise and become her own
The rather feminine wallpaper shows the female imprisonment within their stereotype. In the 19th the women's stereotype was to stay home with the kids, stay home and cook, and to stay home and clean. Very few women during this time period had opportunities to do otherwise. The narrator wanted to escape this feeling of being trapped with only one option. She used the yellow wallpaper to chanel her creative thoughts that her husband would not let her use. John thought that shutting down her creativity would help her, but his superior attitude could not see that it was not helping her, only hurting her more. Eventually, the narrator is basically another child of John, doing exactly what he says, not being able to talk back to him or voice her own opinion. The narrator has no say in even the littlest details of her life, driving her to insanity. She becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in order to try to keep some sanity and having control of something in her