Two-part reading response: " The Yellow Wallpaper" (Charlotte Perkins Stetson).

Two-part reading response:  The Yellow Wallpaper

In the Yellow Wallpaper the narrator is a woman who suffers from depression following the birth of her child. Her husband John, who is a physician prescribes her rest and takes her to a house in the countryside as her treatment requires, living in peace and fresh air. John thinks that this is the best thing for her. He prohibits her from writing because this leads her to increase her imagination. She is not allowed to go out and she cannot stand to visit her baby, her husband has decided a nurse to take care baby. So, the narrator initially heads her husband’s advice. Now she spends all day in a room and there is Jane, John’s sister who takes care after narrator because John is all day out dealing with his cases. She stands alone in the ugly room, staring at the room’s yellow wallpaper which leads her condition deteriorates. She does not like that house , it is too big, especially the room, he wants to leave the house but John makes her believe that this was the perfect place for her treatment and he cannot leave because he has rent the house now and because there is the place where he works. The narrator is forced by her husband to believe she is really sick and cannot stand around people, she is isolated from the society, but she really want to enjoy fresh air or going to visit her cousins. She is really disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom because she identifies the woman in the wallpaper with herself, feeling like in the prison, trying to escape to find themselves. Finally in an effort to release the woman, the narrator locked the door, tears down the wallpaper. When John comes to take her home, he finds her creeping around the room and faints.

Reading the first lines makes me think about a woman who falls in depression as much woman suffers following the birth of their child, and her husband who fortunately is a physician takes care after his woman. He is doing the best for his wife but in fact he is doing better for his benefits. I do not think that living a life where I am told what to wear, what to eat, what to think and how to act is for my best or just because the person who is forced me really loves me. Here we are talking about a couple who are married and the husband, John, acts like a mother or father with their children rather than with his wife. She is forced to do what her husband wants just because he knows what the best is for her and because he loves her. In the first line to the first page the narrator state “John laughs at me, of course, one expects that in a marriage”. Of course not, everyone’s expectations in a marriage are quite different, you expect a person not to judge you, let you do things that makes you happy without preventing your dreams and imaginations as John is doing , and makes you feel comfort, protected and staying with you when you need. John as a husband expect a just to have a housewife but this is like being a slave for a man and there is mentioned John’s sister, Jane as a perfect housekeeper and nurse and hoped for no better profession . This is the best profession according man, but this is not right to expect women just to be good in house chores and taking care after children.  At some point the narrator claims “He is very careful and loving and hardly lets me stir without a special direction” but this is not a sign of love or caring, unfortunately, this is just a way to say that women cannot do anything without the approval of their husbands. Love is just a justification to let women to think that this is done for the sake of love. None has the right to state that women are not as smart and powerful as man to act how they want. John is doing that because he uses her critic health condition to force his wife to stay in bed and to be quiet to become better and return home; by doing this he is controlling her life even more. Fortunately, in the end she realized who she was. Looking the woman in the wallpaper she gained her identity and her self-confidence. This comes to the conclusion that just because you are a woman didn’t mean that you have to act a certain way.