About The Yellow Wallpaper Book

We learn in the novel that the narrator is a woman whose husband’s name is John, but this information is kept anonymous as the story continues. The main thing to remember is that the plot takes place in 1890, and the couple is from the middle class. On the other side, the writer becomes ill, and her husband, John, is a surgeon. Psyche is fracturing while John takes all important choices about the writer, which does not sit well with her. “One’s own husband tells friends and family that there is actually nothing wrong with one except temporary nervous depression, what’s one to do?” she claims. (3rd). When the narrator looks at Jennie, her husband’s sister, she asserts that “I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick.” (8). Therefore, it becomes clear that she has lost grip of the reality as other characters in the story believe that writing is another symptom of her disease. However, she goes ahead to stare at a yellow wallpaper in her room and notices a disturbing pattern. Thus, it exhibits she is losing her mind.

One of the characters aware of the mental state of the narrator is the woman in the yellow wallpaper. The story begins by giving human traits to the wallpaper which excellently confines the narrator’s thinking. For this matter, the narrator believes that John limits her physically. At some point, the connection between the narrator and the wallpaper makes her comment “there comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word.” (5). Hence, whenever the narrator comes into a conflict with John, she opts to look at the wallpaper as she thinks it is the only character that notices.

Work Cited

Schilb, John, and John Clifford. Arguing About Literature. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014,