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Analysis Of The Story ' The Yellow Wallpaper ' By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Clinical psychologist and writer, Kay Redfield Jamison once said, “I think one thing is that anybody who 's had to contend with mental illness - whether it 's depression, bipolar illness or severe anxiety, whatever - actually has a fair amount of resilience in the sense that they 've had to deal with suffering already, personal suffering.” In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator has severe depression, at the very least, and knows that she can get better if she is given the right treatment. While trying to get better, she can’t help but be fixated on the yellow wallpaper in her room. The yellow wallpaper in this story is a representation of the narrator’s relationship with her disease. The exterior portion of the wallpaper is a portrayal of the narrator’s disease. At night, it “becomes bars” (Gilman 15). The fact that the exterior portion of the wallpaper becomes bars at night is symbolizing the fact that her disease is keeping her at bay and keeping her “locked in,” or unable to get better, whereas during the daytime, the exterior part is normal. This relates to how at times her disease is calm and controlled and other times, it flares up and completely controls her. The pattern is also described as torturing. Once you think that you have the pattern mastered, it comes back to overtake you. Whenever the narrator describes the frustrating the outside of the wallpaper is, she is illustrating how each time she starts to get the upper
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