The Yellow Wallpaper Diction

Steve Ling
Mr. Lander
American Lit/ Comp
18 December 2022
The Perspective of the Patient
The issue of mental health wasn’t always treated with the amount of expertise as it is today. It was only until 1908, when the mental health movement started to gain traction with Clifford Beers and his book "a mind that found itself". Before 1908, "care for the mentally ill was almost non-existent"(Toledo), where confinement was a popular way to "treat" mental issues and healthcare professionals still conflicted on whether mental health issues were somatic or psychological. In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins taking place in the late 19th century, the husband is a physician that believes in confining mentally ill patients to

When describing her surroundings and her negative perception of it, the protagonist says, "I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin" (Gilman 2). This description shows the protagonist's growing frustration and dissatisfaction with her surroundings and prolonged isolation, which reflects her deteriorating mental state. Gilman uses diction to show the characters deteriorating mental state by an extreme description of something that normally wouldn’t be bothersome. The affect the wallpaper has on the protagonist shows that a part of her illness is caused by the negative perception of her surroundings, and not somatic. Another example of diction that highlights the characters deteriorating mental state is when she describes her husband as, "careful and loving", but "hardly lets [her] stir without special direction"(Gilman 2). This helps the reader understand the controlling nature of her husband and treatment, which contributes to her deteriorating mental state. Gilman uses diction here to describe the wife's perspective on the treatment and her husband's methods, and how they aren't helping to improve her mental state. Both pieces of evidence direct to the fact that mental illness isn't something that is caused by

When the narrator starts pealing of the wallpaper on the last day of her confinement, she says that the wallpaper, "shrieks with derision"(Gilman 10). This description of the wallpaper as the wife is pealing it off shows that the confining treatment not only didn’t help her mental state, but that it served to make it even worse. With the word derision partially meaning mockery, the act of the wallpaper shrieking with derision is symbolism that the room that was meant to improve her mental state was the thing that was deteriorating it. This use of personification and symbolism helps show the nature of mental illness, as it shows how a mentally ill person would react to long periods of confinement and isolation. It also alludes to the fact that patients of mental illness need outside help, and usually won't get better if left alone to their thoughts, which were all new ideas among physicians during Gilman's time. Another use of personification in the story that shows her reaction to isolation is when the narrator personifies the wallpaper’s pattern as a person inside a prison, and how that person is constantly trying to escape. This can be seen when the narrator says that the person behind the pattern, "is all the time trying to climb through"(Gilman 8) the front pattern.