Yellow Wallpaper Gender Inequality

How must it have felt to live in a male dominated society? Well, gender inequality exists still today. In fact, many feminists believe after reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” that John is a domineering husband who wants to have absolute control over his wife. Gilman’s short story was written in a time period where many women were treated inhumanely. Even while knowing the time period, the previous statement is an accurate interpretation of the relationship between John and his wife. John has absolute control over everything involving his wife’s treatment and desires. Therefore, John controls his wife in order to show his superior role in a male dominated society. “Jane Doe” is what the narrator of the story should
She attempts to tell John multiple times throughout the short story about her issues and/or ideas to fix her mental health. John continuously finds ways to ignore or push away any thought that she has towards her sanity. One interaction between the two was when the narrator notices something “strange about the house” (687). When she tells John, he dismisses her worry and insists it's the draught, so he instead shuts her window. The narrator feels anger towards him; yet, she believes it's an unreasonable emotion towards him, and that she’s too sensitive. The feelings that the narrator has, such as being too sensitive, are common reductions of emotion noted by women in a male dominated society. Another moment in time the narrator complained of her room. This was also another problem the narrator associated deeply with, until this was changed by John. For multiple pages before and after, the narrator expresses strange feeling towards her room. If she had changed her room, possibly, the wallpaper would have never been an issue. Instead, John refers to the narrator in a belittling tone and pet name. He laughs at her about the wallpaper, and then hugs her saying she is “a blessed little goose” (689). John does not take her seriously, once again, and treats his wife like a play toy. Right after, the narrator seems to forget all about her worries with the room, she begins to agree that the room
He even uses his job as a physician as leverage against her. After the fourth of July, John finally decided that the narrator was ready to see company. Strangely, this was only decided in regards to his own family members coming over. All this made her feel was exhausted, once again. John exemplifies control over his wife using a threat that “if [she does not] pick up faster he shall send [her] to Weir Mitchell in the fall” (690). She, in return, becomes dreadfully fretful and querulous” (690), because she does not want to go at all! John more or less knows that he has this form of control over his wife. He knows because he would never use this as a way to motivate her to try and become healthier faster. The fact John has this leverage over her, shows the complete control he has on where her life can end up. Later on, John carries her upstairs and reads to her until she was once again tired. John states that nobody but she can help herself and “[She] must use [her] will and self-control” (691); however, he never agrees with any of her ideas to fix her mental health. The following section, John again reverts to pet names to demean the narrator’s adulthood when he asks, “What is it, little girl?” (692). He commands her saying “Don’t go walking about like that” followed by a sweet reason that “[she’ll] get cold” (692). The narrator says once again that she is not