Line: “He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency” (Gilman 4). 

John is spotlighting what he believes to be the feminine characteristics that contribute to her mental health decline. By pointing out her “imaginative power and habit of story-making” he is claiming that these feminine characteristics are to  blame for her hysteria. His authoritative instruction to withhold this feminine “weakness” is made to make her condition better. He does not want her to think and be creative, but rather to sit and be still. By encouraging her to suppress these tendencies, he is hoping that the feminine issues will then resolve. The masculine-labeled things that he is suggesting she do such as using her “will and good sense,” he believes will do the trick. John thinks that by acting more masculine and less feminine, she will be able to “check” herself and her condition would improve. It is insulting that he thinks that his wife should change who she is and the way that she thinks to get better; instead, suppressing this creative side of hers is just what drives her off the edge. 

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