John acts as if he knows what the main character feels at all times. The main .
character had absolutely no freedom, for her husband would let nothing happen unless he was there to .
supervise. An example of this treatment is when she wanted to get out of the house and visit some cousins, .
but John insisted she really did not want to go. "Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me .
sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would .
let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Juli!.
a. But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there-(511) The main character .
understands her husband loves her, but he insists on her doing what he wants her to do. John says she will .
not stand it after she got there, but how did he know this? John has absolutely no idea how his wife feels, .
he just imposes his ways on her and expects her to abide. John sees no reason why his wife should go so .
therefore he believes she should not. He does not consider her wanting to go a good enough reason for him .
to let her go visit.
Another example of the misery the main character feels is her inability to write freely. The .
woman hides herself while she writes the frustration she feels inside. Writing is this woman's only way of .
expressing her emotions, the anger, sadness, fear, and what little happiness she felt. She cannot express .
these emotions physically in public so she writes them down or else she will suffocate in her incapability to .
express her mind. John strongly disapproves his wife's writing because he knows he will not be able to .
control this factor of her life. "He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a .
nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will .
and good the check the tendency."(509) The husband knows she has the ability to think for herself.
