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The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman describes the life of an isolated woman in

a house which is apparently haunted. At first, she described the house in an attractive way with

all its features, especially on the outside. Throughout the story, the narrator complained about

John, her husband and doctor, whom she thought ignored all her opinions. For instance, John did

not listen to the narrator’s pleas on her approach to the slight depression she had. Inside her

bedroom, was a yellow wallpaper with a shady image, which disturbed her to the point that she

identified a sub-pattern on it that resembled a creeping woman. Eventually, her medical

condition worsened due to the environment she lived in and lack of support from her husband. In

“ The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, the self-isolation , oppressive husband, and the

old dusty room lead to the narrator’s insanity.

First, the narrator was self-isolated in the stuffy room for three months which contributed

to her insanity. Due to the self-isolation, her mental illness worsened as she was constantly

thinking about the objects around her room, rather than taking part in available treatment

sessions. As the narrator stayed alone in the room, her thinking and behavior was limited to her

own comfort, which did not help to control the depression levels. For instance, she hid her

thoughts from John who could help her cope with the mental condition (Dosani, 2017, 10).

During the isolation period, John’s wife concentrated on details around her room which

magnified the false perceptions, rather than controlling the negative thoughts. Focusing her
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thoughts on the scratched bed, the yellow wallpaper, and the room at large confined the

narrator’s thoughts where she worsened and finally led to insanity. According to Gilman, the

narrator was alone most of the time, except for occasional visits from her maid and John, her

husband (Gilman, 1998, 646). Due to the continuous self-isolation, the victim did not share her

feelings or express emotions to others, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less

opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think

about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So, I will let it alone and talk

about the house” (Gilman, 1998, 648). As a result, she got obsessed with the wallpaper to the

point of restricting anyone else from touching it to avoid destroying the image on it.

Secondly, due to the obsession with the objects around the room, the narrator became

wary of her behavior, which bred paranoia. As a result, the narrator focused on her primitive acts

rather than expressing emotions in an effort to heal from the depression. Later, she concluded

that the woman on the yellow wallpaper resembled herself and the situation she was in (Helan,

2018, 28). According to the narrator, the woman on the wallpaper tried to get out of the main

picture similar to her predicament of attempting escape from bedrest and the house. This notion

in the narrator’s mind worsened her mental condition as she became glued and more isolated to

herself. Eventually, she burst out as she crept around the locked house while attempting to

escape other women around her in the room.

Additionally, although John was the husband and doctor to the narrator, he oppressed and

neglected her, which finally led to the mental breakdown. Although John was aware of his wife’s

condition, he chose to ignore the complains she raised regarding the bedrest and medication. The

narrator complained of how her husband laughed at her which is atypical of marriages, “John

laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman, 1998, 649) Evidently, John
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developed a condescending attitude towards the narrator and the trait worsened the wife’s

depression as he doubled up as her personal doctor. On occasion, John addressed the narrator as

a little girl implying how he treated the wife as a child and not as the spouse he married. Also,

John assumed the condition of her wife terming it as a temporary mental condition and goes

ahead to assure other people about her stable health “If a physician of high standing, and one’s

own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but

temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman,

1998, 648). Due to his negligence, the narrator’s depression worsened at the end where it

escalated to the eventual outburst.

Besides, concerning the narrator’s emotional wellbeing, John was neither available to

understand the narrator’s emotions nor provide care to his wife, instead he assumed that she was

fine around the house. On the contrary, the narrator continued to have emotional breakdown due

to her obsession with the yellow wallpaper “I don’t like to look out of the windows even—there

are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of

that wall-paper as I did?” (Gilman, 1998, 656). As a result, their communication as marriage

partners or as doctor to patient was limited which aggravated the narrator’s mental breakdown.

Further, John prohibited the narrator to write which was her new hobby that she had developed

that slightly kept her mind off the wallpaper obsession. By banning personal activities such as

writing from his wife, John is portrayed as cold and a chauvinist as he did not place his wife at

an equal position since they were marriage partners who deserved mutual respect from one

another. From the narrator’s perspective, the doctor treated her as one of his possessions which

he could care for emotionally and allow her to live at liberty in the house. The doctor’s manner
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of treatment towards his wife contributed to the ultimate insanity of the narrator, where at that

point he could not save her.

Moreover, the old dusty room created an environment which worsened the narrator’s

condition and lead to her insanity. Starting from the stuffy condition, the yellow wallpaper,

scratched bed which was fixed on the ground, the room bred disturbing thoughts within the

narrator’s mind. To the narrator, the bedroom was a prison to her mind and body where she

could not free herself from the predicament of a mental illness. She constantly looked beyond the

bedroom through the window but unable to move outside symbolically implying that her mind

was also trapped in her depression (Milad, 2016, 14). Although the narrator found the bedroom

to be quiet and offered a sense of calmness, the wallpaper soon became her obsession which

bound her thoughts leading to mental outburst. The narrator states, “And it is like a woman

stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit” (Gilman, 1998, 652).

Also, the outlook of the bedroom resembled as jail since there were hooks in the walls, a fixed

bed, and metallic bars on the windows.

Furthermore, the bedroom was old and dusty in which the narrator spent three months in,

where her movements were limited to the bathroom, still within the walls of the house (Payne,

2017, 9). Such an environment proves to create more harm than good especially to an individual

with depression, as every aspect trigger feelings of inadequacy. To the narrator, these objects and

features prompted deep thoughts about herself, the mental condition, Jennie, and attitude

towards John, the doctor and husband. For instance, upon seeing the scratches on the bed, the

narrator attached nothing good to it, instead, she blamed the children who supposedly resided in

it before them. Subsequently, John left her in the same room for long periods before visiting her

when he was aware of the conditions his wife lived in. By confining the wife in the upper room
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which the narrator described as stuffy, John played part in maintaining the deplorable

environment that led to his spouse’s insanity. As a result, the narrator’s mental condition

worsened with her prolonged stay at the same room for three months which led to her insanity.

In conclusion, several conditions led to the insanity of the narrator in “Yellow

Wallpaper” as her condition worsened with time while staying in the same environment. Self-

isolation by the narrator inhibited her ability to recover from depression since there was no

regular contact with family or the maid. Due to the isolation and spending most of the time

alone, she reflected on objects around the room and developed obsession. Through the behavior,

her mental condition was worsened with time. Also, John failed to attend to her wife regularly

and ignored any pleas from the narrator regarding her own wellbeing. Due to his negligence as a

doctor, the narrator worsened and eventually went insane. Finally, the stuffy bedroom where the

narrator spent most of her time bred negative thoughts, which were detrimental to her health. As

a result, after spending three months in the old and dusty room, the narrator’s conditioned

heightened to insanity.
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Works Cited

Dosani, S. "The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: a gothic story of postnatal

psychosis–psychiatry in literature." The British Journal of Psychiatry 213.1 (2018): 411-

411. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-

psychiatry/article/yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman-a-gothic-story-of-

postnatal-psychosis-psychiatry-inliterature/3E254A6C21E2CACA5F539B658DE26A25.

Ghandeharion, Azra and Milad M. “Women Entrapment and Flight in Gilman’s “The Yellow

Wallpaper”.” (2016).

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0935/44b4efc5a3fe6bb828d3011625a5e7b3e8ac.pdf?_ga

=2.95764949.814701675.1586196337-1841579437.1585638943.

Gilman, C. P. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” (1998).

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/theliteratureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalD

ocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf.

Payne, S. "Monstrous Maladies”: Oppression, Transgression, and Degeneration in The Picture of

Dorian Gray and “The Yellow Wallpaper." (2017). http://hdl.handle.net/10222/72724

Raouf, Chalak G. and Helan S. A. “The Helpless Angel in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The

Yellow Wallpaper.” (2018).

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1099/0588e70b81172225b188b0c22b418130bd1f.pdf?_

ga=2.154290545.814701675.1586196337-1841579437.1585638943.