The relationship the narrator has with her husband is fascinating. Her husband, John is incredibly controlling and treats his wife like one would treat a child. She constantly mentions that John loves her dearly, hates to see her sick, and is doing his best to get her well. But from my perspective it seems as if John has locked up his crazy wife with the vain hope that possibly she will improve. He forbids her to write in her journals stating that this will only worsen her condition, but how could he logically expect her depression and hysteria to improve locked in a room with nothing to do but stare at the wallpaper. Her relationship with her husband also gives a great deal of insight to the medical profession at the time. It seems as if John did not know what to do with her and could not foresee the effects of placing her in a room for weeks with no stimulus, no interaction with others, and no creative outlet. This really shows the amount of power a husband had over his wife during the 19th century, the narrator has no say in whether or not she wants to be locked up in this room or if she feels well enough to be let out.

The narrator’s mental condition grows increasingly more unstable as she stays locked up in the room with the yellow wallpaper; it was so interesting to see her rapidly grow more and more mad. It made me wonder how mentally unstable she was before John locked her up in the room. In the beginning of the story she mentions that John doesn’t think she is sick and how her condition is not serious; given the unreliability of the narrator I have no idea whether or not this is true. Her invented relationship with the creeping woman in the wallpaper was the most interesting part of the story for me. She was so incredibly desperate to set this woman free from the wallpaper, I wondered if this woman was somehow a projection of herself locked in the room and how she wished to be set free.