The Yellow Wallpaper Syntax

Critical Statement: In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman employs exclamatory functions within her syntax to display the symbolism of the woman within the wallpaper to illustrate her own constricted freedom due the influence of the masculine dominance.

In the beginning of the story, Gilman illustrates the wallpaper as a catalyst for exhibiting the intensity of the narrator’s psychological disorder. After the narrator and her husband settle into their new house, the narrator inspects her room, and begins discerning ominous relations and elements within the wallpaper. “This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had! There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside

Moreover, the author admits her visualizations to be eerie and uncanny, when she exclaims, “I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing”, which shows that she recognizes the absurdity of the situation. The use of an exclamatory sentence displays feelings of desperation since the narrator illustrates the desire to justify her actions.The visualization of the wallpaper as an animated objects creates a connection between the narrator and the wallpaper, as she desperately yearns for help for her problems. The use of a nervous tone through figurative diction shows the narrator’s deterioration of a cognitive abilities as she analyzes the wallpaper through a negative and gruesome lens. The description of the patterns as lifeless also contributes as evidence for her transition from rationality to insanity. Similarly, the desire to justify herself displays the denial created due to the constant pressure from

The connection between the narrator and delusion is established with the delusion being the reflection of the narrator, herself. The women behind the patterns are illustrated as a symbol for the generally oppressed women in our world, as she states, “The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one”. The “crawling” of the women illustrates the stereotypical fragility and insignificance, since “crawling”is associated with a child and a bug’s efforts to secure itself safety within a corner. In the phrase, “ the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!”, the “pattern” is characterized as a restrictive entity that prevents the women from attaining their freedom, therefore the “pattern” symbolizes the male hierarchy since the masculine gender is portrayed as a controlling power for the narrator. Moreover, a despairing tone is employed through words that connote the end of life and hope such as “strangles”, “crawling”,and “white”. The desperation displays the effect of the intense pressure of expectations surrounding an individual, which leads to a growing desire of escape. Such collected pressure, slowly contributes to the worsening of the