One interesting connection I found between The Yellow Wallpaper and the intro of Beyond the Gibson Girl was in the anxiety that was experienced about the force of the New Woman. When the narrator catches both John and Jennie studying the paper, it is like they are actually aware of the New Woman yet deny it; deny they paid any attention to it and leave it and keep going about their daily lives.
Another thing I found interesting was the point in the story in which the narrator writes, "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper." I think this could be seen as linked to the narrator's grasp of the New Woman and perhaps exemplifies a course that society might take upon it as well. In Beyond the Gibson Girl Patterson writes about the dichotomous reaction to the New Woman; those who saw her as "an unattractive, browbeating usurper of traditionally masculine roles," versus those her saw her as "an independent, college-educated, American girl devoted to suffrage, progressive reform, and sexual freedom." The narrator's sentiment towards the wallpaper starts out like the first vision of the New Woman, and turns into something like a fondness for that described in the second. Her change in sentiment illustrates the ways in which society viewed the New Woman.
This is probably a feeling that many women during this time felt and the narrator exemplifies it in her curiosity towards the "new woman." She slowly becomes fond of the wallpaper, but can't seem to admit it to her superiors. Many women probably felt the same curiosity and fondness, but didn't vocalize it because of the harsh reactions of men against this woman. Going along with social norms and the man's expectations was a much easier route that drew a lot less controversy.
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