Society's Oppression of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper"The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a creative woman whose talents are suppressed by her husband dominant. His efforts to oppress her in order to keep her within the social norms of how a wife should behave only lead to her mental destruction. He is more concerned with social norms than his wife's mental health. In an attempt to become independent and overcome her own repressed thoughts and her husband's false diagnosis of her; loses his sanity. One way the story illustrates his dominance is how he, a well-known and established doctor who should know better than to diagnose a family member, diagnoses her with a temporary nervous condition and what he prescribes for her illness, which is bed rest. Without asking her, he takes her to their summer home to recover from an illness he doesn't believe she has. He tells her there's "no reason" why he feels that way; should get rid of those "silly fantasies". By telling her this, he treats her like a child who doesn't really know how she feels, thus making her doubt herself. When she tries to tell him what she needs, she is completely shut out and ignored. "Sometimes I imagine that in my condition I would have less opposition and more society and stimulation, but John says the worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad." This statement has a double meaning, in the first part of the sentence he reveals part of his insecurity problem. He is not interested in receiving her help because of not... middle of paper... the environment she was placed in, and not looking for outside influences to help strengthen her, which was an indication of her insecurity. He accepted the environment he was in but slowly began to transform it into what he wanted. Even though her husband truly believed he was helping her, he was actually hurting her. He was stuck in society's belief that woman wanted to be looked after and he thought this was what he was doing. He couldn't understand why he began to react violently and angrily to his environment. Only by facing her fears about what society and her husband would think of her did she allow herself to become free. Once she achieved her independence, she realized that she did not need to rely on anyone else but herself for her survival. Refusing to be subservient, she traded her sanity for independence.