The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that takes place during the Victorian age (late 1800s, early 1900s). The protagonist, who is also the narrator is unnamed throughout the whole story. At the beginning of the story the narrator discusses her husband and herself will be staying at a colonial mansion, which she claims is haunted and does not want to stay there. Her husband implies they are staying in order for her to rest her mind and get better. The narrator is forced to stay in bed with nothing to do, but look at the wallpaper she is so disgusted of in her room. Just looking at it makes her so much more stress, and she insist to her husband the wallpaper has a woman trapped in it. Since he is the type of man that must see something in order to believe it, he does not acknowledge what she is saying and claims it is all in her mind and she needs is more rest. Being in her empty room soon causes the narrator to become insane and her believe she was the woman that was trapped in wallpaper and she is finally out. Throughout the story Gilman gives many examples of how the narrator’s mental changes with every look she takes towards the wallpaper. When the narrator first sees the wallpaper in her story at the beginning she exclaims “I never saw worse wallpaper in my life”, the reader notices the narrator is just stressed doing fine. When the narrator becomes stressed with having to lay in her bed all day with nothing to do, she believes the wallpaper has some kind of power that shows expression over her. At this point is when the reader starts to realize the narrator is not actually getting much better. Instead the wallpaper is not letting her rest and that is making her become more ill. Being locked in the room and having the wallpaper be all the narrator really has makes her start to accept the wallpaper which makes her start going a little insane. This hints the reader she is beginning to slip away from reality