The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

I believe that The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is ultimately a psychological story with the main character’s mental condition slowly deteriorating, but I also believe there’s evidence to suggest that her mental condition is caused or heightened by the wallpaper emitting toxic fumes and poisoning her, causing her hallucinations and mania. The main character is shown to have psychological problems from the beginning, likely hallucinating even from the onset of childhood, specifically when she noted that she “…used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children in a toy-store” (588). She then goes on to explain how she has always seen the life in inanimate

The main character is almost always inside, in the room with the hideous yellow wallpaper. Nothing in the story suggests that she ever leaves more than briefly to go out into the garden, while her husband is always gone doing work and his sister is usually out because the main character chases her out to do arrands to leave her be. As the main character tries to handle the paper more and touch it, she seems to be descending further into madness. The yellow paint from the paper rubs off onto her, and even her husband’s sister notices how the paper’s color is in her clothes (165). She talks about the paper being fungus-like in appearance (588, 592), but it suggests that the paper is fungus-like in quality- fungus has spores and can be very toxic to the human body, known for causing hallucinations. Additionally, known fact that most wallpaper during this period was lined with toxic chemicals, and her continuously touching the paper and trying to examine it and tear it off was increasing her exposure to the paint. The fact that the paper is also torn suggests that if there was any lining to protect from inhalation of toxins, it was broken and is now in the air