All About The Yellow Wallpaper

The plot revolves around a woman who is descended but ultimately goes insane. The writer is the lady who went insane. Her husband was helpful but misunderstood. The husband was a doctor who did everything he could to see that she was normal, but he failed to recognize that she had a voice of reason in her poor mental condition. Since the husband is worried about her emotional state, he decides to spend the summer in a commercial mansion. He proceeds to choose a space that was more likely used as a nursery due to the way the windows were placed, most likely to discourage children from climbing. Because of loneliness, she adapts to the environment and even refuses to move out of the house after the summer (Gilman, Charlotte Perkins 20). She had clear thoughts given that she wrote a book that she hid from those in her surroundings. She also had her husband’s sister who was a housekeeper following her bad mental state. The house, which she spends most of her time, makes her lose touch with what happens in the environment. She says,

“I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. 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. So I try. I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.” (2.22 – 2.23)

The narrator’s husband being psychologist, he knew her mental state. He knew she was suffering from mental depression, a condition that most women were suffering at that time. Since John knew her mental state and never took her seriously, he did not show up in the house sometimes. The narrator says:

“John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious.” (2.3)

The narrator was confined in the bedroom most of the time while her husband could even not return at home sometimes.

Work Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “ The Yellow Wallpaper” and Other Stories. Courier Corporation, 1997.