Reflective interpretation of The Yellow Wallpaper

A Reflective Interpretation of the Yellow Wallpaper
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Journal Entry of the Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper is a classic representation of male dominance, female submission, and oppression against gender atypical at the beginning of the 20th century. The protagonist is a woman suffering from a nervous disorder and the husband John subjugates her inside an isolated country house. Put to bed due to the mental disorder; the woman is relegated to an isolated room located on the third floor. Here, the husband denies the freedom for intellectual stimulation since she cannot read and write. As readers, it is easy to notice the condensing attitude of John towards her wife particularly when he belittles her chronic mental state and further destroys the woman’s secret diary. Immediately, the readers reckon the woman’s oppression as a result of the domestic abuse. As she remarks, ‘I meant to be of much help to my husband, John. But with this bed rest and comfort, I am already a burden.’ (Gilman, 1998, p.649). As readers, it is easy to identify the irony behind the secretive room. It acts as a prison where the protagonist is restricted, and her social networking kept to a minimum.
The author narrates, enabling the readers to understand the depth of the discrimination projected towards her during bed rest. Indeed, she goes ahead to narrate that, ‘When I get well John says he will ask cousin Julia and Henry to visit me; but he says he will put fireworks below my pillow to experience those stimulating people around.

’ (Gilman, 1998, p.649) During the narration, it is clear that even John’s kin named Jennie does little to help the mentally ill lady. She does not question any form of maltreatment and despotism and is willfully blind to rescue the narrator from the restrictions that confine her to a state of helplessness, solitude, and infantilism. The woman is further tortured by a yellow wallpaper stuck in her third floor. The strange pattern in the wallpaper is a resemblance of key aspects that confine her in a unique form of solitude. She eventually tears away the yellow wallpaper as a sign of liberation from mental slavery.
Reference
Gilman, C. P., & Bauer, D. M. (1998). The yellow wallpaper. Boston: Bedford Books.