In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, there are many unmistakable forms of imprisonment against which the unnamed narrator must struggle. Some of these forms are intangible, such as the patriarchal society of the time that restricts women's freedom of movement and their creativity. Others, while less broad, are just as hard to overcome: the way she is treated by her caretakers, the home and the bedroom in which she is forced to "rest," and even the restrictions placed on her in the name of healing.
             As was common at the time this story was written, the narrator's husband, John, uses his role as the husband to assert control over his wife, as she is trapped by the confines of being a woman. Because of this, John can be seen as the antagonist in "The Yellow Wallpaper." Although he, as a physician, claims his treatment of rest and confinement will cure her, it is he who stands most in the way of the narrator's recovery. The narrator senses this herself, "...perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!" and eventually must find ways to deceive him so that she can carry on with her writing, as she is "...absolutely forbidden to 'work' until I am well again" But, if John does not believe that his wife is actually sick, can he really be trying very hard to cure her? Instead, he is using his "cure" to placate his wife, treating her like a child who is unable to understand her own emotions. By prescribing a retreat at a quiet country mansion, John also succeeds in cutting his wife off from the rest of the world where her strange behavior might raise questions about her husband's competence as a physician.
             The house itself is set off from the world, so as to minimize contact with anyone from the outside. "It (the house) is quite, alone, standing well back from the ro...