Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper

The protagonist, who is unnamed, struggles with postpartum depression, which is causing her to become mentally unstable. In her temporary three-month bedroom, the yellow wallpaper becomes more than just a sheet of paper on the wall. She envisions this imaginary woman (her shadow) on the paper struggling to escape some part of her life, but she struggles to become free from the lines within the pattern of the wallpaper. This character she is seeing is symbolic as it represents her oppressive life she is living under the supervision of her husband, John who happens to be a “high-standing” doctor (21). This projection of an imaginary woman eventually leads to the breakdown of the protagonists’ individual personality. Ironically, the narrator is
At the beginning of the story the protagonist despises the wallpaper and wants it removed, but as the story progresses it is the wallpaper that allows her a canvas of opportunity to imagine on. As her creativity flows and her insanity starts to develop, her perceptions are thought to be figurative and she just imagines this character who wants to escape the wallpaper of her bedroom. All of the windows are “barred” representing a prison like facility illuminating her physical confinement (23). Not only that, but when she is lying in bed at night she sees the light from “twilight, candle light, lamplight and worst of all by moonlight,” cause the wallpapers pattern to become bars (29). This imagery brings out her true feelings towards the room. She acts imprisoned as if the confinement is increasing the desire she has to escape. As the night becomes clearer, the protagonist notices, “the outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.” (29). The moonlit night is revealing her shadow more precisely and the pattern of the bars are preventing her from any further advancement. As the story goes on her fascination with this character grow and she feels the need to escape from the segregation of her room as
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is clearly identifiable that men are often the superiors in a marriage and life in general. It was had for this protagonist to be respected by her husband causing her insanity to increase. She seems to represent the life women lived when this short story was written; women had a difficult time being heard and admired. It becomes a huge accomplishment when the protagonist seemingly defeats her dominating husband; she broke through the wall of superiority. At this point in time, women have come a long way from where they once stood. Now women have gained rights that men have had for multiple decades, but yet with large advancements there is still controversy over women’s rights in the world we live