Line: “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman 1). 

Throughout the tale the narrator increasingly edges further into psychosis as she is treated by her husband, John. John is a “physician of high standing” and serves as the primary caretaker of his wife’s condition as he attempts to cure her of “temporary nervous depression.” He has also served as the primary caretaker of his wife in their 19th-century marriage, giving him further power over the narrator. He is responsible for her as her husband and as her doctor. For this reason, the narrator is dominated by him as he makes both common and medical decisions for her. John does not consider what his wife might choose for herself because he feels as though he has the medical knowledge to care for her the best. As a “physician of high standing,” he would not be mindful of her preferences because he knows best. This story has since been analyzed by a number of literary critics who take note of the striking gender roles in the story. One of these critics, Jane Thrailkill, claims that “The Yellow Wallpaper” has “become a case study of the psychical consequences of the masculine refusal to listen to a woman’s words” (Thrailkill 526). The narrator recognizes that she is not getting better, but asks, “what is one to do” when her own husband does not believe that there is really anything wrong with her but “temporary nervous depression.” The narrator is in a very difficult spot as John is refusing to take her needs seriously as a patient. Due to his headstrong behavior and lack of observing anything other than physical symptoms, the narrator’s condition worsens. Thrailkill suggests that the story actually “does not document the difference between a feminine and a masculine epistemology. Rather, the text makes an appeal for a sex-neutral medical model” (Thrailkill 529). With a sex-neutral model of medicine being practiced, it is put forward that the narrator would not have experienced the intense nervous breakdown that occurs at the end of the story. This does not mean that men cannot be doctors; rather, Thrailkill simply observes that less masculine behaviors in the medical field and a more gender neutral approach may have positive patient outcomes. Instead of the doctor having complete control, the patient’s voice would be heard and treatment could be adjusted to best suit them. Gilman portrays the adverse effects of strictly masculine medical practice as she concludes her story. The narrator’s declining mental health is a direct result of the masculine treatment that she is receiving from John. The rigid refusal to consider the feminized patient needs of the narrator leads her into a total psychotic break.

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