Commentary on The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

The Yellow Wallpaper Comp 1302

In The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the story begins with John and his wife temporarily moving into a new home. The reason why they moved was so that Johns wife could recuperate properly from her illness. In their new room, she begins to see a woman behind the yellow wallpaper pattern. John belittles his wife and her illness, which leads to her worsening mental health. In the end, Johns wife loses her sanity as she desperately peels the wallpaper so she may set the woman free. John discovers this and faints in horror! Womans suppression ultimately leads to a tragedy.

The central character in the story is the Narrator, Johns wife. She is quite rebellious which is proven when continues to write in her secret diary opposed to Johns wishes There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word (489). She is also very paranoid; the yellow wallpaper causes so much paranoia she begins to see a woman in the wall paper.I didnt realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman(493). The Narrator is related to the central idea because she is suppressed from her husband which finally leads to her lost of sanity.

The central conflict in the story is external the narrators sickness and Johns treatment for her.

Johns attempts to cure his wife from her illness continuously fail. In the end, she becomes much sicker. This is evident in the end of the story when John enters the room to find his wife peeling off the wallpaper so she could free the woman out. This clearly shows she is now completely insane. The narrators insanity is a direct result from her husbands repression of her. If John had tried to understand his wife instead of treating her like an unequal this tragedy would have been avoided. One internal conflict in the story is the narrator is sick but her husband does not believe her. You see, he does not believe I am Sick! And what can one do? (487)

This story is in first person point of view. The choice of first person influences this story in the way it was told by giving us a first account sensation of how the narrator is feeling.I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-having to be so sly about it (488). By reading this, the readers know the narrator is feelings tension with her husband but is also in great pain. Anger is also detected I get unreasonable angry with John sometimes (488). Since the story is in first person point of view, the readers now see how womans suppression is presented. Only the narrators mind is enter so all her problems because of John her eye witnessed accounts.

There is a definite emphasis of the setting in this story. In the beginning of the story when John and his wife move to the mansion, she is ecstatic.Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it (487) is what the narrator says. This story takes place in the late 1800s, roughly 1885-1886. Gilman went through a similar situation as the narrator did shortly after 1884. This story for the most part takes place inside the mansion, but there is a time when she goes outside to the garden. Overall, this story takes place in the room where the yellow wallpaper is. The one object most empathized is the yellow wall paper the center of the narrators obsession. The narrators obsession carries out the story to the very end. The setting is directly related to the central idea because the

mansion in where she is staying is a form of womans suppression. She is forced to stay here until she becomes cure.

The extent of language used in this story is exceptionally a lot. One Simile about the pattern of the yellow wallpaper is they connect diagonally, and the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror, like a lot of wallowing sea-weeds in full chase (491). A metaphor discovered is I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy-store (490). The one object with greatest symbolic meaning is the yellow wallpaper, representing the suffrage of woman in the 1880s society. A woman appears to be trapped trying to escape her entrapment just like the women of that era. The narrator indentifies herself with the woman behind the yellow wallpaper. In a desperate attempt to free the woman, essentially freeing herself she loses her sanity when she begins to peel of the wallpaper. She loses herself in the process in order to find her true self is the greatest irony. The language in this story, such as the irony relates to the idea that womans suppression did cause a tragedy. The narrator losing her sanity was the tragedy of the story.