The narrator is supposedly suffering from “neurasthenia”. At least this is what her physician husband has labeled her anxieties. The main conflict arises from the narrators struggle as a woman in the 19th century, "women in the 19th century were expected to fulfill their duties as wives and mothers and be content in their existence as nothing more." The narrator exists in a world where she is patronized by her husband. Her individual identity is reduced to being married. Her creativity is belittled by her husband. For a restful vacation the narrator’s husband merely locks his wife in a room with yellow wallpaper. Anyone would go insane with a life like this!