The Yellow Wallpaper Descent Into Madness

How Does the Structure in The Yellow Wallpaper Contribute to the Theme of ‘Descent Into Madness’?

The structure in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson plays a pivotal role in demonstrating the descent into madness for our main unnamed character. We shall call her Dear, for simplicity. The style that this short story is written in can be described as a journal, or diary entry, and it provides a near personal connection to the main character and the reader as they both feel the sensation of being trapped, of loneliness, and obsessiveness, which are some things that a third-person perspective would fail to do on such a level. From the first time they arrived to the countryside home, to the nursery, to the obsession with the wallpaper,
The feeling loneliness and oppression overwhelms the nervous woman cared for by her husband, a physician, who is supposed to know better than her, as well as her brother, a man of the same profession. Speaking about her life and the new temporary home in a way that makes one think she enjoys it, Dear is rather snarky about the accommodations and goes to feel guilty about it. She wishes for the prettier room, she states that she is unreasonably angry with her husband at times, comments on the beauty yet complains about her room, and she states that “...he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.” after her husband states that they arrived to the home on her account, because of her condition. Consequently, Dear feels almost ungrateful and guilty on not appreciating her husband’s efforts more. After a tour around the main part of their new home, she is introduced to the
At night, Dear swears she can see something moving behind the wallpaper, like a form. During this time, her entries become shorter, choppy, everything fixated on that wallpaper and the mysterious woman that appears from within it. She admits she may not be all right in the head, but her husband denies this. Suddenly, Dear is now fixated on the mysterious wallpaper woman that sneaks about in the gardens. At first, it began with the shapes seeming to form a creeping woman, then an almost formless being seemingly trying to break free from behind the wallpaper, until finally, when she imagines these men and women trapped behind the wallpaper and trying to break free in the night, Dear insists that she has seen a woman, the woman, creeping about outside in the gardens. These elements - the sense of dread, of obsession, of visions - can be connected to the ‘gothic genre’ that this short story is categorized