Women in the 19th century were expected to fulfill their duties as wives and mothers. They had to be content with their lifestyle and not ask for anything more. Women were condemned to live in a world dominated by men. Women who dared to enter this male world were associated with prostitutes, the lowest level of society. In the story The Yellow Wallpaper, John seems to be seen as the evil doctor with a sick wife who he dominates. In truth, he is simply the product of society. The narrator wishes she had more in her life than her husband and child, but that was not the social norm. Additionally, the love she had for writing and creativity did not make her the ideal wife for that era. The major theme of this story is the domestic trap that women faced from their husbands in the 19th century. The narrator and her doctor husband, John, were renting a stately colonial mansion for the summer. The narrator is in love with the house and can't wait to spend her summer there. Her husband John is very hopeful that a change of scenery will help him recover from a recent bout of depression. It resulted in a treatment called “Rest Cure”, a treatment discovered by S. Weir Mitchell. The narrator finds the house strange, but gives it a chance. She becomes angry with John over his choice of a room for her. After touring the house, she wanted the ground floor bedroom with a window overlooking the gardens. However, John claims the room is too small and places it in the baby's room. It is a large room with barred windows that let in plenty of sunlight. The narrator finds the room dreadful because of the yellow, chaotic wallpaper on the walls. The narrator is imprisoned, unable to control her own mind. "...t...... middle of paper ......rld. Throughout the story, wallpaper becomes an outlet for the narrator to exercise her literary imagination. She soon discovers that the wallpaper holds a female figure, or so she thinks Using her initial feeling of being observed, the narrator decodes the chaotic pattern and locates the figure of a woman struggling to free herself from the. bars of the diagram. The narrator completely identifies with this woman. She then begins to believe that she too is trapped in the wallpaper. When she tears the wallpaper, she believes that she has finally escaped from the paper. painted that she believes John has imprisoned. By tearing it down, the narrator asserts her own, unfortunately now confused, identity. By crawling into the room, she initiates the first stage of a feminist uprising...