Theme Of Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper

In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a physician convinces his wife that she is sick and must rest in her room as much as possible. She eventually becomes stir crazy and starts believing that there are women trapped inside the wallpaper in her room. She tears it off the wall to set them free, and when her husband finds her, she claims that she is now free too. One of the major themes of this story is that isolation can cause madness and insanity. The author chose to tell the story in first person limited. By doing this, the readers only know the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the narrator. The first person limited point of view helps the reader to understand what the narrator is going through while being isolated in her room, and how it affects her mental state. If the story had been told in a different point of view, perhaps third person omniscient, the readers would have an idea of how the narrator looked towards the other characters. Third person omniscient would have allowed the readers to know the thoughts and feelings of every character, including the narrator’s husband. The narrator’s husband would have made the readers think that his wife has gone crazy, and that he knows what is best for her. This point of view could have given the reader’s a negative view towards the

The author used setting to set the atmosphere and mood, by describing how the house was so isolated. It was miles from the village, and a good distance away from the road. The windows of the narrator’s room were also barred up, so she couldn’t try to escape. This created a hostile and prison-like feel of the house. The use of setting also accentuated the qualities of character by allowing the reader to understand what led the narrator to her breaking point. The teeth marks on the bed show that narrator has really lost her mind, which also gives off a creepy vibe of