The Yellow Wallpaper Ending Analysis

Was the ending of the “Yellow Wallpaper” a victory or loss? For the narrator it was a loss. She is defeated because she is driven to madness by the enforced inactivity of the rest treatments. She believes that she has freed herself from the wallpaper and that no one can trap her again. The story begins with a loss for the narrator, as she wants the bedroom downstairs. “I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it.”(Kennedy and Gioia 469). Instead she was put in the nursery in the top of the house with the yellow wallpaper. John wanted her secluded and away from everything so the rest treatment could work. After they have

Johns sister Jennie takes care of everything. I feel Jennie represents how a woman is expected to act and behave. I feel Jane is a little jealous of Jennie, she gets to be with her family and has everything together. Jane is showing no signs of improvement and John threatens to send her to Weir Mitchell. When the author mentioned Weir Mitchell she was directly criticizing a well know physician Silas Weir Mitchell, M.D. He developed the rest treatment that the narrator was on. “The treatment guidelines were to remain in bed from six weeks to two months, there would be no reading, writing, or sewing, the only action allowed is to clean the teeth.” (Poirier 6) He believed that women belonged in the home and that being a wife and a mother were there greatest achievements. Another loss for Jane occurs when she asks John to take down the wallpaper, at first he agrees he then changes his mind saying if he gives in to this demand others will follow. His unwillingness to negotiate with Jane means that she will always suffer defeat in her arguments with him because his dominant role as husband will always trump her submissive female

After a bit more time in the house, she confesses that she spends much of her time alone crying and that the wallpaper is always on her mind. She tries to tell John how she feels but he quickly dismisses her claims stating that she is eating and sleeping better. John believes that just because she is looking better and sleeping more that the rest treatment is working. John treats Jane in a childlike manner making statements such as “ Bless her little heart” and “What is it little girl” (Kennedy and Gioia 473). As the Jane’s mind continues its descent into insanity certain clues recorded in her journal reveal the alarming state of her mind. She states that there are things in the paper that “nobody knows about but me, or ever will.” (Kennedy and Gioia 469). Further, the moonlight shines into the room at night and reveals the women creeping in the wallpaper. As she begins to feel imprisoned she projects her feelings onto the wallpaper, but the idea of the room being her prison goes from figurative to more literal as the isolation deepens her need for an escape. During this time period the colored wallpaper has become a living thing it begins to affect not just her sense of sight but also smell. She comes to suspect both her husband and Jennie of interest in the wallpaper and her