The Yellow Wallpaper Gaslighting Analysis

“Gaslighting” is a term to describe the gradual manipulation and abuse used to make another person feel as though they are going crazy. While it is inherently manipulative, it still can often go unnoticed to both parties, and the vicious cycle causes the victim to actually go crazy. The term originally applied this to a husband and wife relationship, which is the main relationship seen within “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The narrator in this is seen to be going crazy throughout the story, and the husband is seen as another victim trying his best to help her. Gilman uses their relationship and dialogue throughout the plot to showcase the consequences of gaslighting, and warn women of this “hidden” form of abuse. Gaslighting literally describes a movie in which the husband slowly dims the gaslight more and more, and convinces the wife that it is all in her imagination when she starts to notice. The wife’s spiraling into insanity happens slowly, much like it does in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. In the beginning, the woman and her husband John are portrayed to be a decently average couple with

Through the dialogue between the narrator and her husband, and by keeping the story through the woman’s perspective, it shows the warning signals in what he is saying, and the warning signals of how she is reacting to it. Gilman showed the importance of validation, and to trust in one’s own instincts. The narrator is seen doubting her instincts, standing up for her husband, and feeling like she has nowhere to turn. The metaphorical gaslight is much like the yellow wallpaper in the story. What starts as something so small, builds and builds into an infatuation. The narrator clung to this wall to displace whatever feeling she held back from John, and the abuse finally led to the tipping point for