Power in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

I think the theme of power is very present in Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" in a variety of ways. The ugly yellow wallpaper is something that has power over the "nervous" woman. She thinks about it all the time, she looks at it constantly, and touches it. It bothers her to the point that she can't do anything else but be obsessed with it. John also has power over her because he considers her inferior. She does what he thinks is best for her, and talks to her sweetly but condescendingly. No man will listen to her opinion. That is why i associated the yellow wallpaper with men. They both have power over her and she resents that power. Men have women trapped behind them, and she saw the horrible yellow wallpaper as having a woman trapped behind it as well. I think her progressive insanity gives her the courage to make her attempt to break away from the trapping pattern of male dominance. When she rips off the paper, she is happy and she is strong. When she is freeing the trapped woman, who is herself, she reverses the traditional roles between her and John. She calls him, "young man," a term similar to the one he uses for her: "little girl." He is the helpless one, who is locked out of the room, and he is the one who faints at the end as if he were in a nervous state.