The Yellow Wallpaper Rhetorical Analysis

“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 is a short story that explores the effects of challenging patriarchal and social oppression on a woman’s mental health. The story’s protagonist is an unnamed woman who is prescribed a rest cure by her physician husband, John, to help her recover from what he describes to be a “nervous depression”. The woman is confined to a room in their summer home decorated with yellow wallpaper. As the days pass, she becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper and begins to lose touch with reality. In the final moments of the story, the woman descends into madness, and her husband passes out after discovering the states she is in. In the end, she triumphs over the oppressors that have led

This is the last day, but it is enough." expresses the narrator's excitement. She reveals that her husband, John, is staying in town overnight and won't be back until the evening. Her sister-in-law Jennie wanted to sleep with her, but she refused and said that she would rest better alone. The narrator's refusal to let Jennie, sleep in the room with her, and her declaration that she wants to stay in the room alone, shows her growing sense of independence and control. This sense of control is also emphasized by her success in tearing off a significant portion of the yellow wallpaper that has been tormenting

She wants to surprise him. The narrator's desire to "astonish" her husband when he returns shows her increasing desire for power and control in her relationship with him. She reveals having a rope hidden in the room that even Jennie didn't find, and if the woman in the wallpaper tries to get away, she can tie her up. The introduction of the rope as a means of tying up the woman in the wallpaper shows the narrator's increasing sense of desperation and potential for