Yellow Wallpaper Woman

After securing herself in the room the narrator says, “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard”! She has began to believe that the women behind the wallpaper is herself and that she must return to her rightful place come night fall, proving that she has gone completely mad. The character’s illness develops form her paranoia and curiosity about the ‘trapped women’ within the wallpaper to

The wallpaper is beginning to take on the role of controlling her life. As the days proceed on and she continues to sit in this isolated room, she begins to notice objects incorporated throughout the patterns. Every day the shapes become significantly clearer to her until one moment it appears to be a figure trapped within the walls (734). This aversion to the color completely shifts at this point toward hallucination. The wallpaper now has complete control of the narrator’s mind and sanity.

As the reader is introduced to the main character in the story, she is heard talking about strange things happening around her. She secretly wrote her thought in a journal but her husband was against it and never wanted her to do anything. The nameless narrator in her madness sees a woman in the pattern of the wallpaper. In addition, she sees the woman struggling against the bars of the paper and this is a symbol for the struggle of women who attempt to break out from the infringing rules of the society. The woman the narrator sees caught in the wallpapers also parallels her virtual imprisonment in an isolated estate away from her child by her mean husband.

She has to tear off all of the wallpaper to free the woman, which in turn will free her. “I wasn’t along a bit! As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. I pulled and she shook. I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of the paper” (416). She is becoming obsessed with the wallpaper, and it is now beginning to consume her. She moves slowly into her insanity, and separates herself from the observation of others. In the end, “I’ve got out at last . . . And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (417).

After these actions she starts to imagine the wallpaper as having eyes that are watching her unceasingly and a woman that surfaces at night. It was the under the scrutiny of the "two bulbous eyes" in the yellow wallpaper, the narrator passes through stages from concern to paranoia and, finally, to madness. Despite committing for her "every artistic sin," the paper does not begin disrupt the narrator's psychological balance until the repression by

The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is told she needs to rest constantly to overcome her sickness, so she is forced to stay in the old nursery where there is yellow-orange wallpaper with a busy, obnoxious pattern that she hates. She tries to study the wallpaper to distinguish the pattern, and as time goes on she believes she sees a woman moving around in the background of the pattern. Also, during this period of time the character’s condition is worsening, because her husband is causing her mind to weaken by not allowing her to exert herself at all; he says she is not to think about her condition, walk through the garden or visit family. All she can do is sleep and trace the wallpaper, and being cooped up in the room causes her to begin hallucinating. The narrator sees the woman trying to escape from the wallpaper throughout the night, and she ultimately completely breaks down and believes that she is the woman.

Due to their behavior, both men lead their wives to rebel. John’s controlling behavior causes the narrator to abandon him by going completely mad. First, she questions John’s pronouncements. The narrator believes that congenial work, with excitement and change would do her good (p.297). Next, she focuses on the wallpaper. She describes its negative features noting that patches are gone as if school boys wore it out (p.298). Upset by her husband’s actions, the narrator decides to begin writing in secret. . It reaches the point where the narrator has to hide her writings from him, because he gets upset if she even writes a word (p.298). -After time passes, we see her obsession grow. John seems to be oblivious to the narrator’s conditions, telling her “you know the place is doing you good” (p.299). She notices that the pattern is torturing (p.303). Finally, she begins to see a woman hiding behind the pattern (p.304). Looking for the woman in the pattern gives her something to look forward to (p.305). Ultimately she comes to believe that she is the woman in the wallpaper and wants to free herself. She begins peeling off the paper through the night, and by morning removes all the paper she could while standing (p.307). The narrator even begins to contemplate jumping out of the window, but does not

Instructed to abandon her intellectual life and avoid stimulating company, she sinks into a still-deeper depression invisible to her husband, which is also her doctor, who believes he knows what is best for her. Alone in the yellow-wallpapered nursery of a rented house, she descends into madness. Everyday she keeps looking at the torn yellow wallpaper. While there, she is forbidden to write in her journal, as it indulges her imagination, which is not in accordance with her husband's wishes. Despite this, the narrator makes entries in the journal whenever she has the opportunity. Through these entries we learn of her obsession with the wallpaper in her bedroom. She is enthralled with it and studies the paper for hours. She thinks she sees a woman trapped behind the pattern in the paper. The story reaches its climax when her husband must force his way into the bedroom, only to find that his wife has pulled the paper off the wall and is crawling around the perimeter of the room.

The mood of the story shifted from nervous, anxious, hesitant even, to tense and secretive, and shifts again to paranoid and determination. Her anxiousness is evident whenever she talks to John. She always seems to think for lengthy time when attempting to express her concerns about her condition to him. The mood shift from anxious to secretive is clear when she writes “I had no intention of telling him it was BECAUSE of the wall-paper.” (9). She wants no one to figure out the affect the wallpaper has on her and she wants to be the only one to figure out its pattern. The final mood shift to determination is obvious when she writes “But I am here, and no person must touch this paper but me – not ALIVE!” (11). She is steadfast in attempting to free the woman from the wallpaper. She even goes as far as to lock herself in the room to make sure that she is not interrupted. The major conflicts of this story are the narrator versus John over the nature of her illness and its treatment and the narrator’s internal struggle to express herself and claim independence. During the entire story her and John’s views about her treatment conflict with each other, especially when it comes to her writing. He even makes her stay in the room upstairs instead of in a prettier room downstairs that she would prefer. She often keeps her views to herself or writes them down in

Third, by looking at the narrative as a Gothic Horror Story, the final theme that isolation produces irrational fear which can drive one insane is seen in the narrative. The use of historical and cultural poetics lens the narrative can further be looked at support the theme. For example, the Narrator has an odd feeling about the house. The narrative states,” A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity… That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don’t care-- there is something strange about the house-- I can feel it” (1,2). The house has a ancient haunted feeling to it which drives the Narrator insane trying to figure out what is off about it.

And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once.” Jane has become so occupied by the wallpaper that she has started becoming protective of it, determined to be the first person to find out the secret behind the wallpaper. Unfortunately, Jane started losing sleep over what she concludes as “the woman behind the wall” and ultimately

As the narrator spends more time in the room she keeps noticing more things about the wallpaper. She believes that she sees a woman in the paper she describes the figure by saying, “And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder-- I begin to think-- I wish John would take me away from here” (Brooks and Woodlief, n.d.). The woman in the wallpaper’s pattern comes into view and the narrator could see that the woman was desperate to escape the main pattern.

Forced to lie in bed all day and take it easy, the narrator becomes obsessed by the wallpaper and is drawn into trying to interpret it. She imagines a woman trapped within the paper. The narrator decides to strip off all of the wallpaper in her room, this is the moment of ultimate rebellion for the protagonist, and she is taking action towards independence. When John comes home to find the door locked, he begins freaking out. When he finally gets into the bedroom the narrator’s actions are so extraordinary and shocking that her husband faints. Through everything that is going on the narrator keeps creeping around the room in circles stripping all of the wallpaper off to free the woman that is trapped within.

Her descriptions and obsessions with the wallpaper as viewed from her perspective, truly draw readers into her downward spiral to ultimate insanity. Readers follow her in her mind from a nervous condition through her mild subsequent pleadings for alternative treatment to eventually "creeping" through the wallpaper with her--experiences which readers grasp within a powerful narration indeed. Through her, and only her is precisely how readers clearly knew how she felt at the end when she says, "I've got out at last in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" (330). Husband John fainted, he had no idea she had gone that far, but readers did.

Therefore, her condition becomes worse, now she is more passive, more reserved, however the husband takes her passiveness as the effect of treatment. The previously child nursery, where his wife spends her time, turns into a jail cell for her. The Yellow wallpaper and bars on windows irritate the situation. Its the wallpaper that becomes the part of her insanity, yellow wallpaper that encloses the character and becomes a part of her life. The reader sees how the woman in time goes crazy; it creates a heavy feeling. When the narrator starts to observe another lady in the wallpaper, readers no see that the character is completely mad. “There are things in that paper which nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.” Eventually the narrator starts to become more and more attached to the pattern of the wallpaper, she sleeps less and can only think about the woman in the wallpaper. Then the author of the story shows the worst of the entire women's life by a sour paradox that is spoken in the narrator’s words: “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be.” The fact that now, being insane, poor the woman feels happier, shocked, and