y by writing. This is why she includes the statement; “…I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick!”Women were quite noticeably looked down upon in years past. The quote from the woman’s writings states, “I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper did move, and when I came back John was awake. ‘What is it, little girl?’ he said. ‘Don’t go walking about like that—you’ll get cold’”. The inclusion of him saying “little girl” shows that no matter what she does, she will not be considered equal.Soon into the story, the woman begins to see a reflection of herself. Besides the psychological factors of her thinking it is REALLY a woman trapped in the walls, there is a social criticism. This woman is trapped in the walls, which represents the typical woman, and how the narrator feels. The woman does not want to go back into the walls where the other women are. She feels that the other woman wants to free herself from the bondage of the walls. The woman in the walls will claw at the paper trying to free herself. This is a task that, no matter the effort, is almost always useless.The cell becomes more of a jail than a vacation home to the woman by the first few weeks. She writes, “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern, I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be. I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman.” This passage depicts how she is feeling that her “traditional place” is not enough, and it is becoming trapping, instead of freeing.The woman begins to creep at times, but only by the nights. The woman writes, “…she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight....
