The main character of The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has no name. This character greatly suffers because she is restricted from the outside world and she is prohibited from expressing her thoughts about her depression with people. She ends her suffering through the act of suicide. It was the only way she knew how to get out from behind the bars which John had created.
             John is her husband. "He does not believe (that she) is sick." He has convinced himself that she is not ill and he makes her do whatever he thinks is right in order for her to become well again. If he does not believe she is ill, then why is he attempting to make her well? He thinks that this illness is all in her mind. John believes that she is not physically or mentally sick but that she has convinced herself otherwise. He does not support or comfort her, besides, "he knows there is no reason (for her) to suffer, and that satisfies him." John is a physician. He keeps her isolated from the outside world and isolation is the treatment that he thinks will make her well. It is "absolutely forbidden (for her) to 'work' until (she) is well again." She is confined in a house all day, with the exception of her access to the yard. This is not her house; in fact, it is very new to her. John rented it in order for her to have "perfect rest and all of the air that (she) could get." The problem is that she did not need to be alone in a strange house, what she really needed was attention and companionship.
             Instead of being there and helping her cope with her condition, John "is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious." She is left all day with only a nanny to talk to. Her communication with the nanny, Mary, is minimal because Mary takes care of the baby and "(she) can not be with (the baby), (the baby) makes (her) so nervous." John is fully aware that ...