This shows that she does not have many of the resources women in her position have today such as a second opinion. She has to do what her husband tells her to do even though it may be wrong. .
One reason that women during this period often allowed themselves to be oppressed was because they were constantly treated like children and were told that they did not know what was right for them. For the narrator in this case, one way she was treated as a child was by keeping her in a former nursery in the house that John took her to. Describing the room, she says that "It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls," (609). The bars on the windows show that she is being trapped in the room, and the simple fact that she is kept in a nursery symbolizes that she is being treated like a child. Another way she is treated like a child is by her husband talking to her as if she were actually a child. He uses words like "little girl" multiple times in the story. By acting as a father figure, it puts her husband in even more control. Daughters are taught to unconditionally respect, honor and obey their fathers because they, in a sense, own them. In the narrator's case, her husband is using this type of control to further oppress her.
In the story, Jennie represents the perfect model of proper women during the time period. According to the narrator, "She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!" (611). Jennie does not want the narrator to express herself through her writing, which is a way to control her thoughts. Through the example of Jennie, the reader gets a sense of the creative confinement that society puts on women during this time.