“Her environment is basically like a prison” (Ahmad 1). As the protagonist begs her husband to change the yellow wallpaper, John refuses, stating "That after the wallpaper was changed, it would be the heavy bed base and the barred windows" (958). Although the protagonist feels blocked by the gates and bars, John refuses to change them for her, he wants to keep her "imprisoned". It is perhaps the clearest use of setting to add to the feminist perspective. "At night, in any kind of light, at dusk, in the light of lamps, candles and, even worse, in the moonlight, it becomes a bar!" (965). The yellow wallpaper does not physically restrain her like the bars and gates do. Wallpaper represents psychological imprisonment. All his opinions are aimed completely at the background. She is fascinated by them and is unable to detach her mental presence from the strange patterns. This all ties into the image of the woman who is trapped behind the wallpaper, the protagonist's mind is not freed until the end of the story, when she removes most of the wallpaper and refuses to let them put it up..