For this Literature activity, me and Mara Ripoll were supposed to write an essay about the Yellow Wallpaper, but the difference is that we got to create the essay question ourselves. Here is the essay we did together:
«John is the Villain of the story» How much do you agree with this statement?
In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, John, the husband of the narrator, is known to be the villain. As a ‘physician of high standing’, he assures his wife is going through a nervous depression, locks her up and vetoes her wish to write and relate to other people; because he is sure this will help her recover. He trapps his wife and leaves her alone, but only for her to get better. So up to what point is he the villain? He, by definition, is not the villain, but several times throughout the story, has villany behaviours.
To begin with, we know for certain, that John, through his knowledge as a physician, does what he thinks is best for his wife’s health. As the narrator says at the beginning of the story, he is “practical in the extreme”, he believes isolating her wife is the solution so no matter what she says or what she does, he will not let her out of the land. He thinks what he is doing is right, and she would eventually get better, but she does not in the slightest. He uses science to try and help his wife; he is not acting as a villain, but one may think so because his actions aggravate his wife.
Furthermore, he cares deeply for the health of his wife and does what he believes is right for her. Despite this, he can not help her at all simply because he does not think he needs the opinion of his wife, which is his first mistake. He ignores her when she wants to express herself, when she tries to tell him what she really needs, what she really is going through “…John would not hear of it”. Without the point of view of the diseased, it is very difficult to know exactly what goes through that person’s mind and spirit. So we realize that although John has good intentions, he acts upon what he believes is right, not upon what his wife, the one who is suffering, tells him. What he does ends up harming his wife, but that is not his objective, since he is not trying to be a villain.
Despite this, we must hand it to him, he shines at some moments, and helps his wife, which he does not know mean so much for her. For example when she tried her best to express her needs but failed when she started crying uncontrollably, and then he “…gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till he tired my head”, he, without the use of medicine, did what was best for his wife. It is in this moments that we come to respect John, and we understand that everything he does, he does for his love. Therefore, he is not the villain, because he has good and caring intentions.
In contrast, the woman obeys what her husband tells her to do, and realizes he is wrong, but decides not to act upon it. She trusts him, and so she fights with herself to get better under the conditions her husband gives her, “he takes all care for me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.”, she puts up with everything John says because she knows he wants only the best for her, and so she accepts everything, not being able to go out of the land, not being able to talk to anyone, not being able to write. She loves him, so she sticks to him, even though he is hurting her. He makes his wife suffer like hell, but she realizes, as we readers do, that he only wants what is best for her, so he must not be considered a villain.
John makes an error by using science and medicine to cure his wife, and is stubborn enough as to ignore the negative responses of his wife to his methods to cure her. He does help her at times, and that is when she realizes he, despite what he`s actions show, has good intentions, because he loves her. She loves him too, and so she obeys him and stays by his side because she knows her husband is not a villain, but a man who lacks perspective and who believes science, medicine and reason is the answer to all the struggles in life.
