The Yellow Paper is a short story published in 1892 and written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlotte tells the discouraging story of a woman struggling to break free from postpartum depression. The Yellow Book tells the story of an emotionally and intellectually deteriorated woman who struggles to free herself from the mental prison in which her husband has confined her, in order to find peace. The woman lived in a male-dominated society and wanted to be charged because she had gone mad due to the Victorian “rest cure” (Gilman 45). Her husband decided to force her into strict bed rest by separating her from her only child. He took her to recuperate alone at a secluded country estate. Forced bed rest by her husband caused her mental state to change from bad to worse. The Yellow Book is a story that warns readers about the consequences of fixed gender roles in a male-dominated world. In The Yellow Book, a woman's role was to be a respectful wife and she was not to question her husband's authority or even his whereabouts. Whereas the role of a man was to be a husband, a primary decision maker, a rational thinker and his authority should not be questioned by the wife. The narrator of The Yellow Book was a mother and wife trying to break free from prison. her husband had put her there. She lived in a male-dominated world in which she had to be a wife who never questioned her husband's authority. She suffered from severe postpartum depression, but her marriage was also depressing her. The narrator was in a marriage in which her husband dominated her and treated her like a child. Her husband was the sole decision maker and as she lived in a society in which women were never allowed to question their husband's decision... middle of paper ...... he ceased to be the protector and only rational thinker of the family. In this short story, men had power over women and undermined them. The narrator insisted to her husband that she was sick, but he never took her seriously, he locked her in a secluded place, far from home and her child. Eventually, both husband and wife lose each other because they are trapped in fixed gender roles and cannot oppose them. Works Cited Carnley, Peter. Yellow wallpaper and other sermons. New York: Harper Collins, 2001. Print. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Yellow wallpaper. New York: Dover Publications, 1997. Print. Hume, Beverly A. "Gilman's 'Interminable Grotesque': The Narrator of 'The Yellow Wallpaper,'" Studies in Short Fiction 28 (Fall 1991): 477-484. Hedges, Elaine R. "After" to "The Yellow Wallpaper" . Old Westbury, NY.Feminist Press 1973. Print.