What Is The Moral Of The Yellow Wallpaper

Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character’s restrictions in life are represented by the yellow wallpaper. This story, first published in 1892, shares the difficulties in a woman’s life during this time period, and how they could ultimately lead to insanity. Perkins introduces the main character, a woman, vaguely at first. This woman’s name isn’t mentioned until it can be inferred as “Jane” by the end. Jane begins her first entry in her diary styled narrative by explaining her frustrations about her so-called “sickness.” Due to Jane’s sickness she is prohibited from writing so this entire short story is written without her husband or her husband’s sister knowing. She describes how her husband

She is immediately drawn to the wallpaper surrounding the nursery and believes that she has “never [seen] a worse paper in my life” (3). As Jane’s mental state declines and restrictions increase, her hatred for this yellow wallpaper turns into obsession. During this time period mental health wasn’t taken seriously, specifically women’s mental health. As Jane becomes more and more discomforted her husband dismisses her mental state by telling her that she “is gaining flesh and color” (9) and that mental health is a “false and foolish fancy” (9). She is given further instructions on how to live due to John starting “the habit by making [her] lie down for an hour after every meal” (10). As her time in this room increases so does her fascination with the wallpaper. She describes the wallpaper with humanlike words such as “grotesque” and “infuriating.” She begins to suspect that a woman sneaks out from behind the wallpaper and “creeps” around at night. One night, Jane sees the woman trying to get through the wallpaper and helps her by peeling yards of the wallpaper off of the wall. Jane is ultimately setting this woman free from her restricted state behind this