Write an objective summary of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," and then

use images to illustrate the theme of the story.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins describes in first person the struggle of a woman
who is forced to spend her days in confinement because of a disease diagnosed by her
husband, an eminent doctor. In the beginning of the story, she describes the house where she and
her husband moved for her recovery. She says that the house is beautiful, but there is a minor
detail that constantly torments her: the yellow wallpaper on her room. As the story continues, she
becomes obsessed with the wallpaper, trying to find patterns on it. At the same time, she says
that she believes her reclusion from the external world has only perpetuated her disease. She
needs to write to liberate her mind, yet her husband does not allow her to do so. Her obsession
with the wallpaper is such that she believes there is a woman trapped behind it. In the end, she
becomes the woman behind the wallpaper. Through the womans reactions to the wallpaper at
different points in the story and the pleas of the woman to let her write, Charlotte Perkins
effectively communicates that people who are deprived of intellectual stimulation can become
psychological unstable.
In the beginning, the narrator talks about the wallpaper as an object and describes it as a horrible
thing, which shows that she still had the mental capability to make a good judgment.
Furthermore, she is able to recognize that writing is her real necessity as much as her husband
opposes it. Every time the narrator refers to the wallpaper she makes use of it, showing that the
wallpaper is simply other object of the house. Also, she does not use any verb that might give it
the characteristics of a living being: It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur
tint in others. Her description not only reveals her sanity; it also reveals an intense hatred for the
wallpaper that is shown through the words lurid and sickly. The reason behind her dislike is
her own dissatisfaction with the oppressed lifestyle that she is forced to have. Her husband
opposes her writing and orders her to rest. Although she does not oppose her husbands wishes, it
is clear that she believes otherwise: I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a
little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. For the narrator, it is very discouraging not
to have any advice and companionship when it comes to her writing. Since she does not have
any way to express her feelings to her husband, she chooses to discharge all her negative
emotions on the wallpaper: This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it
had! At this point, she no longer describes the wallpaper as an object; the wallpaper now has
life of its own.
After being in confinement for weeks, deprived of the activity she loves, the woman starts to
observe a woman behind the wallpaper, thus proving that her psychological health has being
damaged. The woman, after observing the wallpaper hours for several days, starts to describe a
strange figure that seems to skulk behind the design of the wallpaper. This image reveals that
her capacity to perceive reality has been distorted by her confinement. Further proof of this is the
fact that she describes this figure as a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that
pattern. This vision of a woman is crucial to the theme of the story. The image of a woman
imprisoned in the pattern is a metaphor of the womans own imprisonment in her house, and the
consequence that the severe restriction on her writing has caused her. Although in her first sight
of the woman the narrator felt afraid, she later feels empathic because the situation of the
imprisoned woman is similar to her present experience. This can be seen when the narrator
describes the woman as a poor thing that only tries to escape from the pattern. The response of
the narrator to the womans attempt to escape confirms that the psychological health of the
woman has been severely damaged: she peels off part of the wallpaper to help her escape.
The woman shows that the deprivation of her writing leads her to insanity as she believes that
she is the woman behind the wallpaper. After several sleepless nights, the woman attempts again
to help the woman behind the wallpaper to escape with the help of a rope. In the process, she
loses her sense of reality and starts describing creeping women who are outside the windows
of her room. This shows that the woman lost her judgment and started to hallucinate. However,
the final proof that fully demonstrates the damage to her mental abilities comes when she asks
herself I wonder if they all [the creeping women] come out of that wall-paper as I did? She has
become the woman behind the wallpaper, and she finally recovered her liberty when she left her
paper-prison. Since the narrator had no way of escaping her reality, she decided to become
someone else to attain the liberty that she hoped for to write and exercise her mind. The narrator,
deprived of her passion, became insane trying to recover her liberty. Her last line to her husband
reveals her desperation: I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"
Perkins story shows how a person who is denied his/her passions can become mentally unstable.
By showing in first person the experience of a woman who has been deprived of the joy of
writing, Perkin illustrates that everyone, even a woman in her period of time, deserved the
opportunity to exercise her mind freely. A mind that is prohibited mental exercise, is a mind that
suffers.