over form her condition where she is not allowed to do anything but rest and sleep. Furthermore, she cannot do one thing that she loves the most: writing. " I must put this away, -he hates to have me write a word." She spends most of her time in a room with yellow wallpaper and very little to occupy her mind with. She becomes obsessed with discovering what is behind the pattern of the wallpaper and becomes determined that the image is a woman who is struggling to become free. The narrator wants to set this woman free, so she peels off the yellow wallpaper. Then she locks herself in the room and throws the keys out of the window. When her husband gets to the door and wants to break in, she tells him over and over again where the keys are. After he gets in and sees her creeping on the floor, he faints, and the narrator "had to creep over him every time."
             Though The Yellow Wallpaper is a fiction, it was based on Gilman's own experience after being diagnosed as a hysteric and prescribed a rest cure which prohibited her writing. However, The Yellow Wallpaper is more than a case study in mental illness or a horror story, it is a story of a dominant/submissive relationship between husband and wife. John, the narrator's husband, never takes her seriously. At the very beginning of the story she says " John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage." Anytime the narrator would make a suggestion for her recovery, John would give her a " stern reproachful look." Although the narrator feels desperate, John tells her that there is no reason for how she feels. He treats her like a child and makes her doubt herself. John is the man of the house and he expects the narrator to trust him completely, just as small children trust in their parents. The narrator often speaks in a manner that suggests that she cannot disagree with anything her husband says. She is a typical nineteenth century submissive wife and her "What is one to do?" means...