At first glance, it appears that John, the protagonist's husband, keeps her confined for her safety. She is deemed ill by her husband, who also happens to be a physician, and told to remove herself from stimulus, like completing household tasks, caring for her baby, and writing, in order to get better. However, it quickly becomes apparent through the narrator's descriptions of the room that this rest is doing more harm than good. The narrator's grasp on reality begins to slip the longer she is isolated. She begins to see a woman who is trapped in the wallpaper and becomes obsessed with the thought of setting her free.
On a symbolic level, readers can analyze the woman in the wallpaper as the narrator. Although John has not literally locked her away, she is trapped in his rules. He does not listen to her when she expresses her concerns and often laughs off her worries. Readers may also consider that this woman in the wallpaper is the narrator's reflection since by night "she creeps". By freeing the woman in the wallpaper, she is freeing herself and defying her husband.
Our protagonist's husband keeps her locked in her room to prevent the risks and heal the ailments that make up his misguided, and likely disingenuous, assessment of the protagonist's welfare. There is further suggestion that his intentions are less than honorable as enjoys the uplifting company of the female neighbor. He is professing to act in name of helping his wife by sheltering her from overexertion and stress, but his actions are absurd. There is no logical rationale for locking someone in a room to cure them of despondence and exhaustion. Perkins Gilman uses the arrangement to represent the absurdity of gender dynamics at the time. The husband, a medical professional, has created a diagnosis and treatment plan that is disempowering and ineffective, serves only his agenda, and ultimately makes things worse. The husband says he locks her up to cure her, but it seems more like he wants some space and freedom. Symbolically, the husband locking her in represents the efforts of a patriarchal society to oppress and diminish women.
The protagonist's husband doesn't keep her locked in the room, exactly. Rather, he prevents her from working or finding any positive way to spend her time because he believes she is ill with depression. Though he isn't literally locking her in, John locks her in metaphorically by denying her work, stimulation, or even the choice of her own room.
The protagonist explains that sometimes she wants to work, write, or go out, but her husband, John, believes it wouldn't be good for her. As a physician, he makes decisions about what his wife should and should not do. Both he and her brother—also a doctor—decide she needs less stimulation and stress.
As the protagonist spends the summer bored, isolated, and frustrated with her husband, she develops a fixation on the wallpaper of her room. John refuses to replace it, even though it makes her unhappy. She says,
At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies.
The narrator herself locks the door at times so she can creep around the room. John never locks her in physically—but emotionally, he traps her in the house and the room. Even though she wants a different room, he believes that he knows what is right for her more than she does.
No comments:
Post a Comment