Court Case #2 Defense Lawyers

1st Period
2. She is victorious over the patriarchal society instituted by her husband.
The narrator is confined to her room in the nursery for most of the time that she lives in
the mansion. John constantly reprimands her and hardly lets [her] stir without special direction
(Gilman 2). He also confines the narrator into the limited activities that she can do, persuading
her to use [her] will and good sense to check the tendency (Gilman 3). She has to go behind his
back to do the activities that her husband would otherwise scorn her for, including walk[ing] in
the garden or down that lovely lane, [and] sit[ting] on the porch under the roses (Gilman 4).
These actions are just the beginning of her growing defiance towards her husband. The most
obvious point to bring up is the fact that the narrator writes down all of her thoughts in a
coherent diary. The traditional definition of womens roles clearly denounces the act of
writing, so in journaling often, the narrator blatantly protests the usual womens roles that are
set by the husbands of society (Thomas). The constraints of a patriarchal society fully limit the
ability to write of women, thus showing how the narrators defiance is a significant part of her
victory over the patriarchal society instituted by her husband (Thomas). Furthermore, by
ventur[ing] out of her dictated habitat of the bed in the nursery, the narrator fights on yet
another front against the rule of men that subjected and silenced women (Thomas). Near the
end of the narrators account, she shows that she is in control over her husband by forcing him to
go outside and retrieve the key down by the front steps (Gilman 9). Thus, the narrator proves
her victory over the oppressive institution of patriarchy as well as her triumph against her
original passivity and docility.