yellow wallpaper essay Essays - Mental Illness In Fiction

The yellow wallpaper reflects the character changes and the mental destruction of the main character, the narrator, in ?The Yellow Wallpaper? by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The narrator suffers from a nervous condition that onlyworsens when she and her husband, John, stay the summer at a ?colonial Mansion?(para.2) with ?something queer about it?(3). The wallpaper in the bedroom becomes very drab and lifeless when the narrator falls into a deeper depression. She then begins to stay up all night, and the yellow wallpaper comes to life. The wallpaper only becomes active at night representing the nocturnal state of the narrator. The wallpaper has ?something strange about [it that she] can feel?(22) imprisoning the narrator; captivating her every thought and action. This represents the way her husband keeps her imprisoned in the room with the yellow wallpaper. These overbearing restrictions finally push the narrator over the edge of insanity, and she and the yellow wallpaper become as one. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman?s ?The Yellow Wallpaper,? the wallpaper symbolizes the main character?s depression, nocturnal state, imprisonment, and insanity. The narrator?s depression in the story is portrayed by the yellow wallpaper. When she is stuck in a room with wallpaper that is ?dull enough to confuse the eye?(33), she believes herself to be a ?comparative burden?(44) to her husband. Feeling that she is a burden causes her to become deeply depressed, and she sees the wallpaper as having a color that is ?repellent, almost revolting?(34). The narrator?s nervous troubles become ?dreadfully depressing?(41), and she is discouraged that she does not ?have any advice or companionship about [her] work?(61). The wallpaper imitates her frustration by becoming ?pronounced enough to constantly irritate?(33), and provoking the narrator to become ?positively angry with it?(65). The narrator starts to ?cry at nothing?(87) when she is alone, and she is ?alone a good deal?(89). When she gets angry enough to ?do something desperate. To jump out of the window?(240), the ?lame uncertain curves?(33) of the wallpaper?s lines ?suddenly commit suicide?(33 ) and ?destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions?(33) to reflect her grave desperation. The yellow wallpaper represents the narrators worsening depression throughout the story. The way the yellow wallpaper changes in the story emphasizes the main character?s nocturnal state. The yellow wallpaper ?changes as the light changes?(145) so much that the narrator ?wouldn?t know it was the same paper?(148), and it progressively becomes more active at night. The narrator also starts to ?sleep all [she] can?(152) during the daytime, and she doesn?t ?sleep much at night?(168). This ?lack of sequence?(140) disturbs the narrator and becomes a ?constant irritant to a normal mind?(140). Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the lack of sequence to bring to life a woman that lives behind the wallpaper?s pattern. As ?the moon shines in all night?(148), the woman behind the pattern becomes ?as plain as can be?(149) to the narrator. This woman and the narrator begin sharing many qualities including their nocturnal activities. When the narrator?s condition in the daylight becomes ?tiresome and perplexing?(169) the woman behind the yellow wallpaper is ?subdued?(151). But ?as soon as it was moonlight [the woman behind the paper] began to crawl?(216) and the narrator ?got up and ran to help her?(216). The narrator?s nocturnal state is symbolized by the way the yellow wallpaper changes in the night. The living characteristics that Charlotte Perkins Gilman gives the yellow wallpaper portray the imprisonment the main character feels in the story. The narrator?s husband ?hardly lets [her] stir without special direction?(28), and she ?wished he would take [her] away?(130). Gilman mimics the narrator?s feelings in the story when she creates the ?faint figure behind [the wallpaper] seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out?(127). This faint figure, a woman, is trapped by the pattern when ?by moonlight it becomes bars?(149), and ?she is all the time trying to climb through?(189). The wallpaper?s ?pattern is torturing?(141) to the narrator. She states that ?It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream?(142). Even the ?peculiar odor?(177) of the yellow wallpaper imprisons the narrator by ?hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, [and] lying in wait . . . on the stairs?(176).