Critical Analytical Essay On 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

Critical Analysis Essay on "The Yellow Wallpaper" Mental degeneration is an actual common thing within the world. There is an estimate of, “more than 45 million people worldwide,” who are affected by degenerative diseases, whether it is genetic or developed after birth (BrainFacts). These diseases include notorious Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator’s confinement results in the degeneration of her mental state. According to Merriam-Webster, confinement is the act of being confined. This could mean a man being incarcerated in prison or even a dog being locked up in a kennel. Confinement comes in many different scenarios and reasons. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is being confined by her husband, in which she is persuaded was good for her own health. She claims she is trying to become healthy again after experiencing, “temporary nervous depression,” ultimately from going through childbirth and having
concern for the newborn’s health. She makes this depression seem like such a small concern to worry about as she quickly continues to discuss her husband’s experience as a physician, which she uses throughout the story to back up her recovery. Throughout her confinement, the narrator loses her train of thought and quickly shifts to a different subject. It can raise questions for the reader, but shows what she is really thinking. Most of the time, when she changes subject, it shifts to the appearance of the house, which the couple is residing at. The story also portrays confinement when the narrator has absolutely no say against her husband in the room she stays in, who she sees, and what she does. Of course, she notes that she tries to tell her husband, John, how unhappy she is, but he assures her that he is a physician, like always, and that it is best for her. As her 3-month stay progresses, the narrator becomes attached to the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom, where she spends most of her time. This wallpaper is the gateway for her mental degeneration to develop and worsen. When first talking about the wallpaper, she notes nothing but negativity about it. She says the pattern is constantly, “committing every artistic sin,” showing her dislike her the wallpaper at once. As she stays bound to her room, she finds herself obsessing over the wallpaper and begins to personify it as if it were a living being. Stephanie Griest is a publisher for The Wilson Quarterly.
She conducted research about isolation in prisons, where confinement and insanity is common. She found that her subject, Joe Loya, had experienced many surreal things that most prisoners around the world are forced to deal with:
First, you sit on the edge of your bunk…find a spot on the wall. OK, now stare…stare at it for five minutes. Then 10. Then 20. That's when things start to happen…that spot on the wall, it will dance. It will become a dog or a horse, and after a while it will become a man, and that man, he will start to walk. If you concentrate hard enough, deep enough, long enough, a little movie will flicker. Eventually, this will happen without you even trying. Faces will appear, but without you concentrating. (Griest)
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” had many similarities to this felon who spent a few years in prison, due to robbing banks. They both chose to acknowledge the appearance of the room and how it made them feel
inside. The narrator’s condition worsens as she stayed locked up in the house and John gives her motivation for getting well again. She says that John tells her the two of them, “will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now,” proving that he was giving her an excuse to strive to become healthier. Luckily, she is allowed to be around John’s sister, but this, too, ends badly. As the narrator secretly writing, she appears to keep drawing back to the appearance of the wallpaper. This portrays her disease developing from a concern to an obsession. This obsession leads her to believe that the wallpaper is conspiring against her. This also makes her believe John and his sister, Jane, are alliances with the wallpaper, as they all want her to suffer. She comes to this conclusion once she sees the two siblings each acknowledging the wallpaper.

"Confinement." Merriam-Webster. Web. 1 May 2017.
"Degenerative Diseases." BrainFacts. Society of Neuroscience, 2017. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.
Griest, Stephanie Elizondo. "The Torture of Solitary." The Wilson Quarterly 36.2 (2012): 22-9. ProQuest. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.