Yellow Wallpaper Downfall

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane is a mentally ill woman whose surroundings are only worsening her condition. Jane’s husband, a physician, thinks that a change of scenery will benefit her condition and takes it upon himself to relocate to a summer home, not knowing that this new environment will be Jane’s downfall. The entire story is written as a journal, inscribed by Jane whenever she can stealthily disobey her husband to write. Gilman writes the story from Jane’s point of view to coax the reader into a deeper understanding of Jane’s mental battles and the overall theme of oppression. Gilman’s choice of style for this short story exponentially enhances the effectiveness of the text because the reader is opened

She begins to find the wallpaper therapeutic and feels as if it might be helping her illness. Jane later exclaims, “…I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself” (317)! She continues to write that the pattern in the wallpaper “…becomes bars! The outside pattern, I mean, and the woman behind is as plain as can be… I am quite sure it is a woman” (316). Although she believes the wallpaper is helping her win her mental battle, keeping what she sees in the wallpaper to herself is causing her condition to spiral out of control. She writes, "The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern--it strangles so: I think that is why is has so many heads. They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!"

She is oppressed by not only her husband, but her illness as well and she wishes to break free just as the woman in the wallpaper does. Jane feels as though this oppression is inescapable and the battle of breaking free is impossible. Shortly thereafter, the reader can see that Jane’s oppression turns to distrust. When she first began to unravel the wallpaper, she didn’t share what she saw because she wanted to be the first to figure it out, but now she proclaims “I have found out another funny thing, but I shan’t tell it this time! It does not do to trust people too much” (319). This illustrates how the little human interaction she has combined with her husband’s ignorance has turned her cold to the notion of even yearning for a close bond with a human. At long last, Jane breaks free from her own mind and illness. Jane exclaims “I’ve got out at last…in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (320)! However, the reader can assume that Jane commits suicide in order to finally break free (320). Jane’s suicide shows how extreme the oppression truly was and how a combination of the illness and her husband’s negligence for sentiments completely took control of Jane’s thoughts. Some could say Jane’s mind loses the battle, but others could argue that it wins because she finally found the freedom she had been longing