In the short stories "Shiloh" by Ann Mason, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the couples have marital disharmony. In both stories one of the characters has a medical problem that has caused problems in the relationship. The problems include those of not knowing the partner very well and not wanting to deal with the issues of the problems. The relationships are suffering severely and might have some affairs involved that the reader has to guess on.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper" Gilman had the narrator's husband, John, is a cause of her increasing madness. While she claims that "He loves [her] very dearly" (Gilman 436), John treats his wife as a child than an adult in the need of medical attention. He has childish nick names for her such as "blessed little goose" (Gilman 433) and "little girl" (436). John thinks of his wife as a possession...