This paper analyzes Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, about a woman who suffers from a nervous breakdown and goes insane.
This paper explains that, even though this story is a fiction, Gilman and the narrator of the story are the same person, and this story is a commentary about the treatment of many women at this time. The author points out that the common ideas that connect Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the narrator are the post-partum depression, the rest cure treatment, and feelings of being trapped. The author believes that Gilman and the narrator of the story share the idea of freedom for women from these oppressive situations; the wallpaper in the story represents society and escape from these restrictions.
In the story, we can see a level of distrust forming in the narrator’s mind. She describes not trusting John. She is thinking about the rest cure that John has prescribed for her and writes, It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don’t sleep. And that cultivates deceit, for I don’t tell them I am awake. Oh no! The fact is I’m getting a little bit afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes` (p.1359). Later in the story, Gilman mentions this distrust again she writes, `And John is so queer now, that I don’t want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room (p.1361).