The Woman Behind The Yellow Wallpaper

The Woman Behind the Wallpaper The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman had a painful childhood, her father left her and her family when she was very young. When she finally settled down, she married Charles Stetson. After finding out she suffered from depression, Stetson put her in the care of a doctor. After divorcing Stetson, she married a guy named George Houghton Gilman. In the book “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman is believed to be expressing how she felt during these times. Gilman uses many literary devices in the book such as setting, characters, and theme. The book “The Yellow Wallpaper” is said to be taking place in a house. Gilman describes the house as “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity” (Gilman 673). Specifically taken place in a bedroom
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the theme is a woman having depression and her husband neglecting her thoughts. By then end of the story the narrator starts to see a woman in the yellow wallpaper and it looks like she is behind bars. Some think this could be Gilman’s way of expressing how she felt during her life. The narrator thinks that when the moonlight enters the room and hits the wall just right, you can see the women behind the bars. The narrator tried to tell her husband, but he was too neglected from her opinion that he did not even care. He would brush what she says off and make it up by calling her a sweet name. Gilman uses setting, character, and theme to describe her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Knowing how all these literary devices are important in the story we can assume that Gilman had wrote this from a personal approach. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is different from any other story she has written. Many see this book as a sort of horror or mystery story due to the narrator seeing things that no one else can see.