John compared to Professor von X.

John, the narrator’s husband in “The Yellow Wall Paper” personifies the stereotypical image of Professor von X, in “A Room of One’s Own.” In essence, Virginia Woolf set out a model of the typical masculine perception of a woman by a man through the creation of Professor von X. John clearly fits this description through his daily interaction and treatment of his inferior wife. The connection lies in the self confidence in one’s being through Virginia Woolf’s looking glass portrait. A man boasts his power, by making his counterpart, the women seem inferior. It appears that she is an enemy, which must be kept under control. For, if she were to immerge, the outsized ego of the man would most surely diminish. This could be simply because men are driven by their uncontrollable instincts to be all powerful. These instincts are caused through culture and life experiences.
Thus, in “The Yellow Wall Paper,” John forces upon his wife disguised torture in form of love and tender actions and words. This torture of her is designed is to “protest against some infringement of his power to believe in himself.” He is maintaining his superior self looking glass by controlling her environment and daily life. For example, John always insists that rest in the cure for her “temporary nervous depression.” He also makes her feel like an inconvenience to him, giving her a distorted image of perception. So it appears that John is driven by the historical instincts of the late 1890’s, by having a looking class portrait of his superior being as a man and a physician.