The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Oh, what a contorted story indeed. Not only does the narrator expresses her lack of free will, she shows in several ways the oppression and captivity her husband John bestowed onto her. Now was it a necessary course of action to take away some free will so that Jane could heal from postpartum depression? Anthropomorphism, that vile yellow wallpaper soon began to morph into what I found out to be Jane. “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman, pg550). John, a physician and the husband of the narrator. Also known as the antagonist. He dismisses the feelings and his wife’s sickness, yet he gives orders that his wife must follow so that she can get better. The wife is not allowed to write and so she hides her writing from him. As if a captive, her having to hide such a right that is given to all. “He started the habit by making me lie down for an hour each meal” (Gilman, pg555).
“It is like a woman stooping down and creeping” (Gilman, pg553), the narrator’s description of the wallpaper. From this form it is personified into jane. The narrator gives descriptions of the yellow wallpaper, for what I see to be the narrator’s true self being hidden under oppression, lack of free will, and postpartum depression. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as she wanted to get out” (Gilman, pg554). The figure behind the pattern is a woman trying to escape. “There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows, but me” (Gilman, pg553). The narrator kept a lot of things hidden from her husband and Jennie. No one truly knew what was going on or the things the narrator knew and kept to herself. “I’ve got out at last, said I, in spite of you and jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman, pg559). The narrator, Jane, which we found out, freed herself from the