Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Written in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a woman expected to act meek, docile, and willing to follow her husband’s every wish. ... The narrator’s changing view of the wallpaper symbolizes her mental state and her deterioration. ... ” Instead her room has bars on the windows, a bed nailed to the floor, and putrid yellow wallpaper, wallpaper that eventually aids in her demise. The yellow wallpaper begins to shift the narrator’s focus from herself to itself. When the narrator first moves into the bedroom, she expresses disappointment, especially about the wallpaper. ... The narrator of the story has a “nervous condition” that worsens because of the wallpaper in her bedroom. When she first moves into the house, she loves it, all except for the bedroom because of the wallpaper. ... Near the end of the story, the narrator begins to see a woman trapped behind the wallpaper constantly shaking the front pattern. ... The narrator connects so well with that lady behind the wallpaper and sympathizes with her, that she starts to tear at the wallpaper to let her out, attempting to free her.