Did the ending of the story surprise you? How do you understand the narrator’s final statements?

I do find it hard to believe that John fainted as a response to the narrator's behavior. None-the-less, his fainting seems to be the final irony that avenges the narrator's insanity, as John's fainting is a stereotypically feminine show of weakness. The narrator finally achieves an authoritative position in her marriage, with John unconscious and her creative imagination finally free of all restraints. Her continual “creeping” over his prone body serves as a repeated emphasis of this liberation, almost as if the narrator chooses to climb over him to highlight his inferiority over and over again.