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How Does Gilman Use Anaphora In The Yellow Wallpaper

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Jay Patel Ms. Murchie AP English 12 Feb 2016 The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays the story of the heavily restricted domestic life of a woman who is suppressed by being trapped in a marriage with no personal growth. She does this through the usage of many different types of literary devices. Throughout this short story, with exception to the ending, the main character is restricted from expressing herself due to her husband and behaves in a subservient manner towards him. She uses an anaphora to describe how the woman “personally” disagreed with “their ideas” and “personally” believed that “congenial work” with “excitement and change” would possibly cure her and do her “good” (Gilman 1). …show more content…

Through foreshadowing, we realize that the “something” that is “strange” is the woman’s mental portrayal of the yellow wallpaper (Gilman 1). Gilman uses distinctio and imagery to describe how the woman begins to think of the “unclean yellow” color of the house as “almost revolting” and “strangely” fading by the sun (Gilman 2). Then, by personification, the woman thinks that even the spots and “pattern” on wallpaper began to move “up and down” as they “crawl” (Gilman 3). Despite her “crying” to merely get some time outside of her house and visit her cousins, John tells her that she isn’t “able to go”. All this isolation creates a build up of emotions swarming with no outlet due to her isolation and causes her to see something like a “woman stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern” (Gilman 5). Along with this hyperbole, the author uses personification to show that the wallpaper has a “smell” and distinctio to portray this smell as one that “creeps all over the house” (Gilman 7). At the end of the story, the woman loses all of her sanity and vigorously begins peeling off the wallpaper to free the women trapped behind the yellow wallpaper even though it “hurt” her “teeth”. The ending also contains situational irony because the woman ends up gaining back all of her freedom by freeing the trapped women, or herself,

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