Self-Expression In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Dale Carnegie, an American writer who focused on the art of self-improvement, stated, “Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.” It reveals personality and proves what one feels about reality. Illustrated through thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and beliefs, it controls one’s state of mind. Most people have negative states of mind; they limit themselves from freedom and true happiness. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman proves that self-expression is essential to one’s freedom because restrictions can distort a person’s perception of reality. When people express their feelings and desires, they experience more happiness. Since the narrator does not communicate these feelings and desires, she becomes ashamed

Exigently, the narrator needs to heal from her mental state. She “wish[es she] could get well faster” (3), but tries not to think about it. Subsequently, she grows “positively angry[,]...dreadfully fretful[,]...and cr[ies] at nothing…most of the time” (3-4). When she writes, the mental restrictions do not apply, but it “exhaust[s her] a good deal--having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (1). If she could merely express her needs, she would not be experiencing perpetual exhaustion. She feels that “if [she] had less opposition and more society and stimulus”, she would feel better (1). However, John prevents her solutions. She is the only one able to control her thoughts, which proves her self-awareness. After recognizing this, the narrator “let[s] it alone and talk[s] about the house” (1). Instead of focusing on her desperate wants and needs, she digresses into a useless topic that does nothing to help her mental condition. According to John, the narrator “neglect[s] proper self-control[,] so [she] take[s] pains to control [her]self…[it] makes [her] very tired” (1). She realizes that even though her husband cares about her health, the constant need to behave a certain way becomes exhausting. If she were free in her mind, her reality would be much different, and not grueling for no reason. Even when she thinks freely, her “imaginative power and habit of