Charlotte Gilman was an ingenious woman. On the surface, her most renowned work, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” appears to be a simple journal of a women struggling with mental illness. Throughout the story, her husband, whom is also her physician, coins her state as nothing more than a mere nervous disorder. He treats her with the “rest cure.” To begin her treatment, the couple temporarily moves to an isolated summer home, and as the days pass, the wallpaper surrounding their room becomes the item for which the narrator’s distraught mind becomes fixated. On the surface, this interpretation of the wallpaper seems feasible, due to the fact that Gilman herself suffered from a similar scenario, however, it is completely wrong. The yellow wallpaper holds a much deeper meaning than just that of a fixation. In actuality, the wallpaper is intended to be a representation of the cast that all women are expected to fit. Therefore, the insanity that consumes the narrator cannot be linked to her husband’s diagnosis of a nervous disorder. The cause of narrator’s decent into madness actually lies within her inability to conform to thus cast. Ultimately, through the use of the characters relationships and detailed descriptions off the wallpaper, Gilman reveals the prevalent theme; the restrictions and constraints placed upon women by society. Gilman utilizes the relationship between the narrator and her husband, John, to create a window, a window into which the readers observe the negative world women faced during that era. Within the journal entries, this un-balanced relationship is stated directly and indirectly. The narrator, only because she feels safe doing so, directly writes what cannot be said to her husband. For instance, she believes she is being mistreated for her mental condition; however, her only mention of it is in her writing. The reasoning behind her not speaking out about her health is made apparent when she states that, “John is a physician, and -- perhaps (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”). This is then followed but the repeated phrase, “ But what is one to do?” (Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”). Overall, Gilman’s intent for these phrases is to give the reader some insight into the narrator’s present and past relationship wi