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In "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the narrator afraid of her husband, John?

The narrator certainly does not feel that her husband understands or believes her when she describes her feelings of illness.  She says, "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage."  He tends to speak down to her, as though she were a child who requires coddling or correcting.  Further, she says, "he does not believe I am sick!"  John doesn't seem to give his wife any credit for knowing her...

The narrator certainly does not feel that her husband understands or believes her when she describes her feelings of illness.  She says, "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage."  He tends to speak down to her, as though she were a child who requires coddling or correcting.  Further, she says, "he does not believe I am sick!"  John doesn't seem to give his wife any credit for knowing her own mind or body, what she can or cannot handle, and he keeps her locked away in her room under the pretense of helping her to avoid too much stimulation.  She is to engage in perfect rest, he says, if she is to improve.


As the story progresses, the narrator says, "The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John" because he looks at her wallpaper as though he were trying to figure it out.  She doesn't fear that he will hurt her or anything like that, but she becomes suspicious of him and his interest in her wallpaper, especially after she begins to believe that there is a woman in the paper who is trapped there.  

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