arrator questions her husband's response to her success over the wallpaper: "Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so I had to creep over him every time!" (269). This image portrays the man as physically weaker than the woman since he is unconscious on the floor. The wife's actions of creeping over him suggest physical dominance. In this image, Gilman has reversed Dr. Weir Mitchell's theory that females are the weaker sex.After a careful analysis of the textual evidence in "The Yellow Wallpaper" it is apparent that Gilman's purpose was far greater than scribing a supernatural tale. Although some of her reading audience found the mental degeneration of the main character disturbing, her purpose was to reveal the horrific way in which members of the medical profession treated women. The true irony lies in the fact that Gilman avenged the misogynist stereotype of the nineteenth-century woman by engaging in an activity that was forbidden by Dr. Mitchell. By choosing to disregard doctor's orders in order to continue her own intellectual pursuits, Gilman forged the way for other women to question the validity of the medical community's beliefs....
