Personal Reaction to "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The relationship between John and the narrator is very unhealthy, although it was probably quite normal for the time period. He treats her like a child, like she has no mind at all. She even has to live in a room with bars on the windows, as though she could not be trusted with regular windows. Whenever she attempts to communicate her concerns to him, he shoots her down but in the most loving way. It is clear that he truly cares about her, but he just does not seem to respect her as an individual and equal human being. They both, however, see this as being normal and probably the right way to do things, and nothing is ever done to fix (or even acknowledge in a conscious way) this issue in their relationship. Unconsciously, though, the narrator seemed to know that her relationship with John was unhealthy. She stated how she would get unreasonably angry with John for no apparent reason. She would wish that John would just leave her alone. It is likely that she had an unconscious desire for relationship in which she was viewed as equal.
The women behind the wallpaper could be viewed as being symbolic. They might have represented women in society back then. The wallpaper left the women unable to do anything other than creep around behind it. They were stuck there, unable to leave without the help of the narrator. This also shows how women were seen as being incapable of doing anything on their own. They were there to help the man and take care of the house. The man did all of the important work, like how the women could not get out of the wallpaper on their own. The wallpaper could have been a repressive force in society. It held the women back. It also kept the narrator's mind from wandering to anything worthwhile, which is just how society wanted her. She has to "creep around" in order to do anything she really wants to. This shows how repressed she is as a person. When she started creeping around in front of John, her unconscious desire could no longer lay dormant and she could not help but show others now what she truly wants.