The Yellow Wallpaper Rhetorical Analysis Essay

In this passage, Charlotte Perkins Gilman highlights the theme that women must use their intellect or go mad through the use of literary qualities and writing styles. Gilman also uses the use of capital letters to portray the decline in the narrators’ sanity. This shows the decline in the sanity of a person because the words in all-caps is shown as abrupt, loud remarks. Gilman uses this method multiple times in her short story and this method was used twice in this passage. When the narrator wrote, “LOOKING AT THE PAPER!”, the major decline in her mental health was shown. Before this remark, the narrator only would put one to two words maximum in all capital letters. This remark has the total of four words which if a big jump from one

For example, “just as a scientific hypothesis, -- that perhaps it is the paper!”. Gilman uses this hesitation to emphasize the realization of the narrator when she comes to the conclusion that the yellow wallpaper is the factor why John and Jennie are going crazy. This has some irony because the narrator is fully convinced that John and Jennie is going crazy but, the narrator is the one that is actually going crazy. Another time when Gilman introduced hesitation was when the narrator was convinced that Jennie was going to mess with the wallpaper. The narrator said, “what she was doing with the paper—she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry—asked me why I should frighten her so!”. She added the hesitations and the actions of Jennie to add the tense mood in the room. This also enhances the actions of Jennie too. Another example of Gilman using hesitation to enhance her writing is, “Jennie wanted to sleep with me—the sly thing!”. Gilman added this hesitation to directly characterize Jennie in the opinion of the narrator. The final example of Gilman using hesitation is, “But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me—not ALIVE!”. Gilman added this hesitation to add meaning and emotion to the passage. The narrator adds “not ALIVE” to emphasize her meaning when she says that no one can touch the