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Lyric Wilson
Francine Kalogerou
6 November 2014
English Composition 1
The Descent Into Madness
Imagine having to stay in a room for a couple months. In addition to that, picture
having little to none human contact. The room is locked from the outside and has barred
windows. It is extremely bare, except for the bed. The only thing to keep you company is
this horrid, yellow wallpaper. Hours feel like days and days feel like weeks, and the only
thing there is that yellow wallpaper. You would go crazy! Well, this is what happened to the
nameless narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. The Yellow Wallpaper was written by Charlotte
Gilman. The story illustrates the descent into madness many women faced during the 19th
century. In The Yellow Wallpaper, author Charlotte Gilman used the yellow wallpaper to
symbolize the inability to be expressive and creative, a sense of entrapment, and a
distraction that becomes an infatuation.
Throughout the short story, the unnamed women was forbidden to delve in her
imagination, or fancy. The narrator was diagnosed by her physician, who is also her
husband, John. John would be considered an oppressive, rationalistic husband who devours
anything that constitutes as fun, or is outside the realm of logic and reason. As said by the
narrator, John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith (Gilman 6). John
does not believe in miracles and/or coincidences, but rather that everything can be
explained logically.

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Due to being deprived of intellectual incentive, the narrators imagination created a

world behind the paper, where a captive woman awaits to be free. In the beginning, the
narrator constantly complained about the wallpaper looking sickly and dull. In the
beginning of the story, John constantly commented about her imagination: He says that
with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure
to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to
check the tendency (Gilman 6). Unknowingly, she allowed herself to be completely drawn
into her fantasies and not fear what was happening to her. Johns quote could be an
example of foreshadowing, due to the fact the she became nearly obsessed with a figment
of her imagination. All of the narrators time and energy was now being focused into the
wallpaper.
Soon, she began to constantly spend time studying the patterns and swirls in the
wallpaper. Under the circumstances that she did not have anything that appealed to her
creative mind, she reverted to finding patterns, swirls, and textures in the yellow wallpaper.
She did this because they are the only things that are not plain and dull in her prison. When
the swirls and whirls were not enough, the narrator conjured up something else to feed her
imaginative mind. This action goes back to the wallpaper immobilizing her ability to be
creative.
As a result of lack of human contact, the narrator created a woman to give her
company. Eventually, as the story developed, one would realize that the woman trapped in
the wall could represent the narrator. The situation could be seen as an alternate universe.
In this universe, the narrator is trapped in the room with barred windows and the only thing
to hold her attention and feed her imaginative mind is the yellow wallpaper. Then, she

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imagines the woman in the wallpaper as bored and deprived as she is. On the other hand,
the woman she imagines in the yellow wallpaper is going through the same thing as the
narrator. Her yellow wallpaper physician husband, diagnosed her and left her in the yellow
room feeling entrapped. Being deprived of her fancy, the yellow wallpaper woman sees the
narrator as herself going through the same situation. Not only did the wallpaper represent
the inability to be expressive and creative, but it represented a sense of entrapment as well.
The narrator was stuck in the bedroom everyday by herself for months. The narrator
continuously expressed her sadness from John working long hours: John is away all day and
ever some nights when his cases are serious (Gilman 7). Her husband, John, would go on
long leaves for work and would not be back for long periods of time, which contributed to
the narrators sense of entrapment. She was locked up in the room with little to no human
contact: There are hedges and walls and gates that lock (Gilman 4). This quotes
intensifies her confinement, because not only was the room locked with a barred window,
the entire house resembled a prison on lock down. As a result of this, the wallpaper
symbolized a sense of entrapment.
Coincidentally, the time period of the story takes place during the late 19th century,
or the late 1800s. Traditionally, at this time, women were solely in charge of household
duties and the children (Teen Ink). Similar to a person plastering wallpaper to a wall, her
husband, along with society, forced his wife to be accustomed to what they thought was
common. The wallpapers pattern represents the societal norms that are metaphorically
restricting her movements.
Next, the narrator was put in an extremely bare room, which only contained a bed
and, of course, the yellow wallpaper. Wallpaper is an inanimate object that cannot move on

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its own. The wallpaper is attached to the wall without any chance of getting off. This
represents entrapment. The narrator was put into the room by her husband with no say,
similar to how the wallpaper is attached onto a wall, and will only be removed if someone
takes it off. The narrator cannot free herself in the room and stop her treatment just like a
wallpaper cannot just jump off a wall.
Another symbol of entrapment in the wallpaper was the woman. Regularly, at night,
the woman in the wallpaper tries to escape: She just takes hold of the bars and shakes
them hard. (Gilman 17). The yellow woman was trapped in the wallpaper with no means
to escape. For example, the narrator wrote, The faint figure behind seemed to shake the
pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. (Gilman 20). The narrator constantly visualized the
yellow woman attempting to escape the wallpaper, similar to how she wanted to escape
the room. The yellow woman represents the narrator. Both women are entrapped in a
location they do not wish to be.
Soon, the narrator finally becomes fed up with being imprisoned. She felt her soul
and ambition to live being slowly sucked out of her as each day went by. She says that in the
moonlight the pattern becomes bars, this escalates her feeling of extreme confinement. As
a result of this, the narrator locks everyone out of the house and prevent them from
entering the room. She even goes as far as to throw the key into the yard, so it will take a
while to find it. While John was trying to find the key, it gave her all the time she needed to
free herself and the yellow woman. Strips and sheets of yellow wallpaper found their way
to the floor. Finally, when John was able to get in the room, she yelled this at him: 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! Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my

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path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! (Gilman 38). In the epic finale
of the short story, the unnamed character finally freed herself from the yellow wallpaper
and her oppressive life. But who is Jane? Jane is the name of the nameless narrator, who
said that despite the fact that her husband and the wallpaper imprisoned her, she trapped
herself as well.
Immediately from the start, the narrator loathed the wallpaper. She constantly went
on about its atrociousness and its ability to commit artistic sin (Gilman 15). As the story
carried on, the reader observed the narrator dedicating more and more time talking about
the wallpaper, the very thing she hardly wanted to look at some time ago. Eventually, the
narrator succumbs to madness and is practically obsessed with the wallpaper, not letting
anyone near it. The yellow wallpaper symbolizes a distraction that becomes an infatuation.
The narrator spends every day staring at the paper. Originally it served purpose as a
distraction, something to keep her mind off of her lack of freedom. Using the wallpaper as a
distraction gave birth to some obsessive tendencies. She wakes up thinking and writing
about the wallpaper and most likely dreamt about it as well.
Her behavior becomes erratic and possessive. Ive caught him several times looking
at the paper but I know she was studying the pattern, and I am determined that nobody
shall find it out but myself! (Gilman 22). She becomes possessive over the wallpaper and
her demeanor becomes deceptive when she feigns sanity to stray her husband and his sister
off her trail. The narrator began to watch the paper every night reveling in its beauty. I
dont sleep much at night, for it is interesting to watch developments Soon her thoughts
take a wide psychotic turn: I thought seriously of burning the house- to reach the smell
the only thing I can think of is the color of the paper! A yellow smell. (Gilman 27). She

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pondered burning the house down and more just to experience the smell of the wallpaper.
Next, lives were threatened. But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me, - not
alive! She believed that nothing was more precious than the wallpaper and the life of the
woman inside it.
The final stage of her descent into madness was complete when she freed the
woman in the wallpaper: As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl
and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. (Gilman 32). After locking everyone
out, her and the yellow woman were all alone with no one to interrupt and get in their
way. Finally, when John was able to enter the room, he was not prepared for the sight that
met his eyes. His wife bloodied, hair rattled, and crawling around like the Exorcist, along
the wooden floor. He fainted. I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it
comes night, and that is hard! (Gilman 38). She believes that she is the woman behind the
wallpaper finally freed. The narrator finally succumbed to the final stage of her madness;
she became the crazed woman in the wallpaper.
In conclusion, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman was an excellent work of
fictional literature. The short story beautifully expressed the feelings of the nameless
narrator and made the audience feel her emotions during her descent into madness. The
yellow wallpaper in the short story symbolized the inability to be creative and expressive, a
sense of entrapment, and a distraction that soon became a sick infatuation.

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Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892.
"Literary Analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper"" Teen Ink. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/311704/Literary-Analysis-of-The-YellowWallpaper/>.