MeredithHarber

Yes! Yes, she does sound like some mind-washed battered woman. It is almost like she can't see or comprehend what her husband is doing to her. While on the outside he treats her well, calling her "honey" and making sure she rests, he is in fact controlling her. Perhaps there was nothing wrong with the narrator originally but her husband, with some desire to keep his wife docile and in his command, persuaded her to think she is sick. The narrator has no choice but to believe him and his "treatment" because he is, after all, a doctor.

Basically, the views of the day did instruct bed rest as a cure for such illnesses. However, the narrator was not thought to be sick mentally- more physically with her extreme tiredness. Because they could not detect a mental problem, doctors of that time just assumed it was a physical ailment, one that cannot be cured with medicine. We've come a long way.

In this case, the woman isn't speaking on TV. Where does she find her voice, and how does her husband respond to that?

I agree with this idea. There seems to be something more to the story. I really think that the way he treats her tells something about the story. He talks about how much she needs to get better, but he says it is for his sake, not her's.

Funny blog Meredith. There actually is a gender issue though. Women in that time period had to be very discrete about anything they said. They were "better seen, not heard" and they were imprisoned in their own society. I think that too much character analysis is being done, and not enough symbolic and representative thought is being done.

I discussed this more own my own blog, and on Vanessa's and Lauren's blog too.

blogs.setonhill.edu/JasonPugh
blogs.setonhill.edu/LaurenEtling
blogs.setonhill.edu/VanessaKolberg

I love how, at the end, she says "He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind. As if I couldn't see through him!" It seems the longer she stays in that room, the more...out there...she gets. And yet, statements like that seem to pull her closer to reality. I found that odd.

And I never thought about postpartum depression! That would explain some things for sure. *gets out the child psyche book*

"Women are more likely to experience postpartum depression when they were depressed before pregnancy, are coping with other life stresses (e.g., death of a loved one or moving to a new residence), did not plan to become pregnant, and lack other adults to support their adjustment to motherhood."

Wow. You rock, Mer. You're so going to be in my reflection.

i agreee with you. throughout the story she never once badmouths her husband. i think its because subconsciously, she is too afraid to even think bad thoughts about him. but it does sound like a woman on the maury show....hehe.