The Power Struggle in the Yellow Wallpaper The story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about control. In the late 1800s, women were believed to have no effect on society other than having children and taking care of the home. It was difficult for women to express themselves in a world dominated by men. Men held the work, men held the knowledge, men held the key to the lock known as society - or so they thought. The narrator of "The Wallpaper" is under this kind of control by her husband, John. Although most readers believe this story is about a woman going crazy, it is actually about a woman's quest for control of her own life. The narrator is completely controlled by her husband. The narrator's husband has told her over and over that she is sick. She sees it as control because she can't tell him otherwise. He's a doctor so he knows these things. He also has a brother who is a doctor and says the same thing. At the beginning of the story she is like a child taking orders from a parent. Whatever these male doctors say must be true. The narrator says, “I personally do not agree with their ideas” (480), and it is clear that he does not want to accept their theories but has no other choice. She is controlled by her husband. Control is exemplified later in the story in the choice of rooms in which he must stay. You have no say in this decision. She is forced to stay in a room where she feels uncomfortable. This is the bedroom where John trapped her; this room is not the room she wants to be in. The windows are barred and the bed is boarded up. This is a subliminal cue of control. And there's the horrible yellow wallpaper. "I n... in the middle of the paper... the wallpaper no longer oppresses her. As time passes, she gains confidence and control over both and eventually dominates them. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Paper from yellow wallpaper." Rediscoveries: American Short Stories by Women, 1832 - 1916. Ed. Barbara H. Solomon. New York: Mentor, 1994. 480-496. Delamotte, Eugenia C. reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Vol. 37. Ed. Paula Kepos. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. Works consulted Treichler, Paula. “Too Terribly Good to Be.” printed: 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Gilman."., 1991. 194-198.