FREE ESSAY ON YELLOW WALLPAPER

YELLOW WALLPAPER

The Yellow Wallpaper illustrates the narrator's plight in the Victorian era. The main
character, the narrator, is a woman suffering from depression in a time when women were
totally dependent on men, and often dismissed as being nervous and hysterical females.
The inability of women to become active persons in their own lives as well as, society's
decision making processes being dominated by men, contributed to the narrator's malaise.
The story is told from the female perspective, a depressed woman struggling to survive.
The story takes place at a summer vacation home, where the narrator's husband, a
physician treats her depression in a condescending manner. He either placates her, or
dismisses her feelings, typical of the Victorian era: "If a physician of high standing,
and ones 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?" (658). This is an example of her oppressed female status in the existing society,
as well as, in her own life. Other dominant males in her life also hold the same opinion:
"My brother is also a physician, and also of high standings, and he says the same
thing."(658). Again, this demonstrates a sign of the times where males dominated. This
viewpoint causes the narrator to question herself and her feelings, as well as, to
justify the males opinion. "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."(658). She disregards her own feelings. Once her feelings and
needs are dismissed by John she does not pursue the conversation further. This denial of
her feelings along with the isolation only exacerbates the depression. Yet, social
pressures cause the narrator to still value her husband's opinion. With her Victorian
background, she perceives that love is her husband taking care of her and making
decisions for her: "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs.... but John
would not hear of it. He is very careful and loving and hardly lets me stir without
special direction."(659).
As the summer goes by and she is isolated more, and able to write less, her condition
worsens. There is talk of sending her away to a specialist for rest cure in an
institution:
But I don't want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once and she
says he is just like John, and my brother, only more so... I am getting dreadful fretful
and querulous. I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don't when John is
here, or anybody else, but when I am alone, and I am alone a good deal now.(661-662).
Isolation takes its toll and she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in her room. After
disliking the wallpaper intensely, she begins to find it interesting and starts to spend
all of her time studying it. She is a very creative person and without the creative
outlet, she finds other areas for her mind to work: "I am getting really fond of the room
in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper."(662). The narrator has
found a way to keep herself busy in a room with barely anything. She analyzes the wall
paper to keep her mind active: "There are things in that paper that 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. It is like a woman stooping down and creeping
about behind the pattern."(663).
An element of foreshadowing is demonstrated when the narrator discovers something
intriguing about the wallpaper: 
There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. A streak that runs
around the room. It goes behind every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long
straight, even smooch, as if it has been rubbed over and over. I wonder how it was done
and who did it, and what they did it for. Round and round and round - round and round and
round - it makes me dizzy!(666).
Her obsession with the wallpaper intensifies day by day. During the day she is either
studying the wallpaper, or sleeping. At night, there is more activity in the wallpaper,
so she is more alert and aware: "I really have discovered something at last. Through
watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front
pattern does move-and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it."(666).
Her obsession with the woman in the wallpaper becomes her whole focus. The woman in the
wallpaper struggling to get out is the narrator in her own struggle. The obsession gets
more intense as the time for them to leave approaches, because she does not want to
dismiss her needs or feelings any longer. She want's to have control over her life but
the only way she can do that is to listen to herself and her needs and not let her
husband continue to run her life. As time goes by, she feels free to "creep" as the woman
in the wall paper does: It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and
most women do not creep by daylight....I don't blame her a bit. It must be very
humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight! I always lock the door when I creep by
daylight. I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once."(667).
She wants to wait until she feels secure enough in her own mind before she lets John know
she is beginning to take control. She is left to wonder, if they all came out of the
wallpaper as I did?(668). She finally takes control when she tears down all of the
wallpaper and locks the door. In a sense, she has set her inner-self free and locked her
husband out. He is forced to listen to her when she tells him where the key is.
The key, for her, lies outside. She unfortunately cannot creep, or act on her own accord,
there. Her freedom comes within the insanity of the room, and her mind cannot reconcile
her feelings with those of her social surroundings. 
Her depression has forced her to look at herself, to discover the natural woman within
her. What she found was a system that, strangles them off and turns them upside down, and
makes their eyes white.(666). She has discovered that she cannot go back. She has gotten
out, in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me
back!(669).
Unfortunately, her attempt at freedom came in Victorian times where she was not able to
explore her natural being but was forced to creep around the smooch in her room in her
insanity along, ...my path by the wall...(669).