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Theme Of Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper

1017 Words5 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper addresses the importance of coping with everyday life regarding mental illnesses, furthermore advocating the difficulties human beings experience feeling trapped in their thoughts. Charlotte Perkins Gilman delineates the narrator’s emotions, actions, and coping mechanisms while being trapped inside a bedroom. Addressing the lady’s portrayal as she struggles to cope with the limitations enforced alongside her husband, John. Women’s rights in the nineteenth century were influenced by activities, communication, and roles women could contribute to throughout their daily life. Behind the narrator’s eyes, there was grief, and sadness influencing her everyday routine. Her husband continued to brainwash the narrator into believing …show more content…

Her dysfunctioning mindset eventually proceeds to see a mysterious woman behind the wallpaper. “There are bars at the windows, iron rings on the walls and her bed has been nailed to the ground”(Hughes). The isolated room disallowed the narrator from feeling any personal freedom. After intense staring around the bedroom walls the narrator begins to see a woman that looks similar to her features. She visualizes the woman behind the wall stooping and creeping around the walls. The woman, named Jane is a physical representation of the narrator’s nervous depression. The longer the narrator spends in her confinement, the further she pushes herself away from everyday reality. She struggles with not being able to have a mind of her own. Proceeding with intense analysis of the woman behind the wall, she begins to see herself. Throughout the daylight creeps around however during the night time she returns to the wallpaper. Symbolizing the differences in the narrator’s mood and the way she presents herself throughout her daily routine. As the woman behind the wall creeps around the begins to smudge the wallpaper. She struggles to comprehend what she is visually looking at. After the narrator becomes free from the woman creeping behind the wallpaper she says, “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard.” She desires to return to her old habits of life. The narrator enjoyed writing, reading, and being involved in the outside world. Being unable to have the ability to do any of her hobbies build nervous tension inside her. She only dreams about what her life could consist of without the

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